(This past illustration describes something that I performed in my career, either for a Bredemarket client, for an employer, or as a volunteer. The entity for which I performed the work, or proposed to perform the work, is not listed for confidentiality reasons.)
PROBLEM
After a merger of two companies, the combined company needed to know which customers used solutions from the combined company, which customers used competitor solutions, and which used both.
For example, a customer may use the combined company’s solution for one product line, but a competitor solution for another product line.
As the combined company introduced new products and entered new markets, this information was also required for the new product lines and markets.
SOLUTION
While others worked on front-end presentations of public portions of the data, I gathered the underlying data.
- For multiple product lines, I recorded (when known/applicable) the type of customer (for example, a statewide government agency), current vendor, previous vendor, initial and extended contract value, product version, relevant statistics about the customer, and a designated reviewer for future quarterly updates.
- The data was both stored separately for each product line and was also summarized.
- Information was color-coded to highlight the combined company’s market position.
- Data could be filtered as necessary (for example, only showing statewide government agencies).
- The complete collection of highly sensitive data was tightly held.
- Portions of the data were passed to selected subject matter experts on a quarterly basis for updating, allowing front-end presentations to be updated quarterly.
- Additional information was gathered as new markets were entered and new products were launched.
RESULTS
The combined company had a better view of its positions in its various markets.
The resulting actionable information could be used to target specific customers and replace competitor products with the combined company’s products.
Bredemarket 