Download - MARKETSOFT CORPORATION
MARKETSOFTCORPORATION
Emlyn Jacoby
HISTORY MarketSoft was founded by Greg Erman in
May 1998. Previous founder of Waypoint Software Corp.
(marketing catalogs on the net) Sold Waypoint in 4 months. Resigned from Waypoint in Dec 1997. Two business ideas came to mind:
Web Based Training or Lead Management Software (leads to prospective buyers)
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Management Team The desire was to build customer driven
products meeting existing customers needs.
Marketsoft’s first employee was Nancy Benovich-Gilby.
John Mandel (engineering director) Charlie Everett (lead architect) David Tiu (principal engineer) Bob Hiss (vice president)
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
MarketSoft’s Products eLeads - manage leads across
extended enterprises and increase revenue from marketing leads
eOffers – allows marketers to target specific customer groups in automated fashion applying analysis with artificial intelligence to management of marketing campaigns
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
MarketSoft’s Products eLocator – makes it easier for
company customers, partners and sales force to quickly locate trusted business partners.
eCampaign – provides users with functions for operational planning and campaign execution through an alliance as it is more cost effective.
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Initial Strategy Very methodical process, eLeads whose development
process involved discovering the real needs of sales and marketing professionals were.
6 employees (98) Interviewed 60 companies over 2 month period for 1.5 hours each in the greater Boston area.
Interviewees were generally marketing vice presidents and reps
Had to be 300 million revenue companies with laptops and internet access
No leading questions were asked so that the findings would not be biased an were all in the customers own words
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Initial Strategy After interviews, team had half hour de-briefing
sessions concerning customer needs then put into HTML format
5-10 quotes would be taken, highlighting the main points of the interview.
Concluded that companies came up with 3 “pain points” in common
Poor lead assignment, poor lead qualification and poor effectiveness tracking
Marketsoft’s mission was to solve these “pain points” using their software, eLeads
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Problems Specialty software applications become
very complicated as many different departments have a say in the sales and decision outcome.Included:
Marketing and sales departments, Finance and IT departments as well as approval of Head management
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Solutions Became an ASP (application service provider) as
well as being a software solution provider Becoming a ASP they were able to “rent”
software to clients on a hosted basis This made things easier to market because:
Less involvement from IT department, lesser capital/licensing department, quicker commitment of the hosted model, easier to utilize and run the new software on your own
Other dimensions include, price, level of service, ease of use, scalability etc…
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
MarketSoft Progress As a result by March 99, won numerous
awards and expanded from 5 to 100 employees
Raised more then $45 million considering the tough market conditions
Clients include, IBM, Cisco, American Express and Fidelity
Claimed many industry awards from Top Private Company to computerworld’s “Top Company in 2001”
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Rise of E-Marketing Customers start seeing the increased need of
Marketsoft’s Software 4 trends driving E-Marketing include:
- increased need for differentiation- rising demand for marketing the measurement of return on investment- internet created rising volume of leads- increased adoption of internet to solve problems
Marketsoft’s 3 components of e-marketing included: create demand, measure and fulfill demand
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Cyclic marketing process Sales force automation is
left out in the cold Marketsoft should take
the upper hand an create a product that would close the gap or loop that they currently have.
Would allow Marketsoft to cross -sell new products and provide a complete market solution.
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Growth Strategies Growth through lateral penetration in customer
companies:- target B2B an B2C, maintain an build on current customer relationships by offering them other products
Growth through Indirect Channels:- pursue an indirect channel with new additional products, allowing (OEM) original equipment manufactures to sell their products
Growth through Global Expansion:- become internationally known company
Growth through Alternative Technology Platforms:- working on their software to adapt its products to new platforms
• Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Decision Process Proactive vs. Reactive
Strategy Marketsoft has been
known to use the Proactive Strategy
To close the loop of the Sales Force automation, and to gain a desired IPO, combining Proactive with Reactive Strategy could solve the problem
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Recommendations MarketSoft is aware of the gap in the cycle that deals with Sales Force
Automation (SFA) and should immediately develop a new software product to bridge that gap.
If Marketsofts decides to bridge the gap, MarketSoft should go ahead very tentatively however if they follow what they did with eCampaign, and form a partnership which will make the process easier and work out to be much more efficient.
If MarketSoft enhances its new software, and continuously keeps on developing and improving their existing software, sales should be on the rise.
MarketSoft is a company known to use a proactive strategy. If Marketsoft wants to target the gap in the market where other competitors are already, using reactive strategy methods with their proactive strategy could counteract that problem.
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Recommendations If they were to take up the reactive approach , research on
existing products would be easier and combining it with their proactive approach they would still be able to locate different customer needs, as well as differentiating their products from others
MarketSoft’s main long term objective is to gain an IPO. There short term objective however is to become internationally recognised or affiliated. Going global is expensive and with sales already on the decline they might want to reach their IPO status first.
When MarketSoft goes public, shares will be become readily available and by them selling their stocks could help them with going global
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008
Conclusion A Waltham, Massachusetts based company Unica
bought out Marketsoft in 2005, for $7,250,000. Bob Hiss who was previously the vice president had then become the CEO. MarketSoft ended up by never going global, and fell short of qualifying for their initial public offering (IPO).
Emlyn Jacoby, UMFK, Fall 2008