PRECISE SOFTWARE

SOLUTIONS
GROUP 4
ARIJIT CHAKRAVORTY (14PGP006)
AMIT CHOUDHURY (14PGP012)
DIVYA JAIN (14PGP016)
RINI TIRKEY (14PGP039)
SUDHANSU GUPTA (14PGP046)
AKSHAY MEHRA (14PGP063)
HIMANSHU JAIN (14PGP081)
PRASHANTH D P (14PGP090)

CASE FACTS
Precise is developing performance management and availability
software serving firms.
PRODUCT PORTFOLIO
Precise/SQL: Software product managing the performance of
applications utilizing Oracle database: targeted at users of proprietary
applications
Inter point: Software product monitoring the database efficiency of
large Enterprise Resource Planning applications
Precise/Pulse: Software product continuously monitoring the underlying
database.
Precise/Presto: For monitoring the performance of EMC storage
products: Sold on an OEM basis by EMC

PRODUCT TYPES
The market is fragmented and the products were differentiated in two
ways:
Based on the underlying resources and platforms with which they were
associated.
Based on the functionality they offered.
o Monitoring
o Detection
o Improvement
o Analysis

CHANNEL STRATEGY
Direct Sales.
Indirect Sales (Value-added resellers, System integrators
and Original equipment manufacturing agreements)
SALES CYCLE :- ( 6 to 12 months)

THE INSIGHT OPPORTUNITY

PRODUCT :- End-to-end performance management product.
Important indicator of systems effectiveness: end-to-end
response time
POSITIONING :- Precise should be positioned as a provider
of enterprise performance solutions, not just products.
This enables them to become an end-to-end infrastructure
company not a database company

PRICING
Pricing structure: one-time license fee + recurring revenue
from annual maintenance and service contracts and
additional revenues from product upgrade ( 15% to 20% of
one time licensing fee)
Additional revenue from existing customers was also
available via product upgrades and cross selling other
products

MARKET DYNAMICS
Large Market
No Current Direct Competitor
Substantial Value Proposition (also it would allow precise to
diversify its customer base )
First mover advantage

EXISTING PAINPOINTS
No products including Precises products focused on the
overall performance and the reasons for underperformance
specific source of problem was not possible to be identified
Resulted in the phenomenon BLAMESTORMING
Slow end to end response times were often undetected and
when detected went unaddressed

Q1) SHOULD ALON PLAN ON INTRODUCING

INSIGHT AT OPEN WORLD 2000? WHY OR
WHY NOT?

POINTS IN FAVOUR
First mover advantage : As of 1999, none of the companies offered end to end solutions , so by
moving quickly and being first to market , precise could establish itself as
the market leader.
Easy to sell It was thought that it would be very easy to sell it since it was easier to
make the benefits of product tangible and understandable
As,
Investment in ERP was high so no scope of errors and fall backs expected
Applications were data intensive

POINTS IN FAVOUR
RIGHT PLACE , RIGHT TIME
annual conference gathered together thousands of
interested and motivated prospects, who could hear about
and see demonstrations of new product.
This meant a good marketing platform for the new product
with least expense in terms of cost and time and maximum
impact.

POINTS AGAINST
REPUTATION AT RISK
Going to market too early with a product with not enough
functionality will damage the reputation of the product and
might not be attractive in terms of value to the customers.
THREAT OF COMPETITORS
Also, going too early with an immature product will allow
competitors to come up with better alternative solutions
and snatch the chances from Precise to be a leader in the
industry.

POINTS AGAINST
LIMITED FUNCTIONALITY
The product if developed targeting Open World could only
have the monitor functionality in the best case scenario,
however the complete analyze functionality would be
missing and will be seen as a gap.
LACK OF PREPARATION
The company is still not sure on how they will market the
product and how they will price this product

FINAL VERDICT
Introduction in OpenWorld2000 is recommended.
We can prepare the demo and start with the client
acquisition process.
Also, we will be able to include the clients input in the
developing process.
Since the sales cycle is very long, we will be having a lot of
time to develop the product to its final state.

Q2) WHAT SHOULD PRECISE STRATEGY BE

FOR INSIGHT?
Should they launch a separate sale force for the
new product or sell it through their existing sales
force? How good is their current sales force?

 The buying process is quite different. DBAs bought SQL because it

helped to win blamestorming session. But the sales of INSIGHT is
based on an understanding of CIOs pain points.
There can be problem of cross-product effect. Sales team might not
be able to allocate the right amount of effort to sell INSIGHT and SQL
simultaneously.
A direct selling approach should be used for this product.
Insight being a premium and complex product a well trained and
dedicated sales force will achieve better results.
Difficult to sell through system integrators and VARs.
It should be promoted and sold aggressively.
Sales force should be trained to provide
performance management solutions.

effective

They are recruited only to bring in clients for Insight.

end-to-end

Q3) HOW SHOULD INSIGHT BE PRICED?

DEVELOP AN ROI MODEL FOR PRECISE/SQL
PRODUCT.
DBA Saving:
Assuming they work for 40 hours per week
No. of hours saved/DBA/Year = 9.4*52 = 489 hours
Salary of DBA = $60000/52 weeks/ 40 hours per week
= $28.85/hour
Annual saving per DBA per year = 489*28.85 = $14105/DBA
Annual saving = 14105*10 = $141050

Q3) HOW SHOULD INSIGHT BE PRICED?

DEVELOP AN ROI MODEL FOR PRECISE/SQL
PRODUCT.
Hardware saving:
Average annual hardware saving = $1,430,000
Hardware cost savings if postpone purchase by one
year = 30%
Probability of postponing hardware purchase by 3
months = 60%
Total saving = 1430000*.3*.6*3/12 = $64350

Q3) HOW SHOULD INSIGHT BE PRICED?

DEVELOP AN ROI MODEL FOR PRECISE/SQL
PRODUCT.
User saving:
No. of daily transaction per user = 194000/215 = 903 trans/user
Daily end-user response time per user = 903*15 =13545 sec/user
= 3.76 hours/user/day
Improvement in end user response time = .25*3.76 = 0.94 hours
% of response time saved per user = .94/8 = 11.75% of time
Saving per user = 30000*.1175*1.33 = 4688/user/year
Total user saving = 4688*215 = $1007920/year

Q3) HOW SHOULD INSIGHT BE PRICED?

DEVELOP AN ROI MODEL FOR PRECISE/SQL
PRODUCT.
Total saving = 141050 +64350 + 1007920 =
$1213320/year
Average price that firm is charging = $ 25000
Number of DBAs = 10
Total Cost = 25000*10=$250000

ROI = 1213320/250000 = 485 %

THANK YOU