Summary
The cloud division at a ubiquitous multinational technology company was navigating a fiercely competitive landscape while striving to maintain its position as a market leader amidst rapidly evolving cloud technologies. The client wanted to deepen its understanding of market dynamics, competitors’ strategies, and the landscape of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). The client turned to Evalueserve for tailored support. Evalueserve responded with a multifaceted approach, delivering comprehensive market and competitive intelligence (M&CI) and ISV intelligence solutions tailored to the client’s needs. Through exhaustive analysis and strategic insights, Evalueserve empowered the client to make informed decisions, refine its product offerings, and enhance its market positioning.
With Evalueserve's support, the client restructured its sales organization, launched new sales verticals, and continuously refined its approach to ISV partnerships. Evalueserve continues to drive innovation and success for the technology company's cloud division, ensuring it remains agile and competitive in a dynamic market landscape.
The Challenge
In the fast-changing and competitive world of cloud technology, a leading tech company's cloud division was facing significant challenges to keep its top position in the market. The rapid development of new technologies and changing customer needs were putting pressure on them to stay ahead. They decided to work with Evalueserve to find innovative, tailored solutions to these problems. Evalueserve's deep knowledge in the field was crucial in helping them stay competitive, meet customer expectations, and even predict future customer demands.
One major issue was understanding the complex market and what their competitors were doing. The company needed better insights into current market trends, what customers wanted, and how other companies were approaching the market. This information was vital for making smart decisions about how to go to market and position themselves for success.
The company also wanted to get a better grasp of the competitive landscape among independent software vendors, known as ISVs, including their strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge would help the company figure out where it stood in comparison and how it could stand out as a software vendor itself.
Furthermore, forming the right partnerships with other software vendors was seen as a critical step in expanding their offerings and strengthening their market position. However, finding and choosing the right partners was a complex task, as they needed detailed information on hundreds of different vendors, including what each one brought to the table and their position in the market, to make informed partnership decisions.
Evalueserve's role was to provide this detailed competitive and ISV intelligence, using our expertise to provide insights that would guide the tech company's strategic decisions, helping them maintain their market leadership and continue innovating in the cloud technology space.
Our Solution
After meeting with the tech company to gain a thorough understanding of their end goals and needs, Evalueserve developed and implemented a multifaceted approach:
1. Tailored Market & Competitive Intelligence (M&CI):
Evalueserve delivered M&CI support and expert analysis to the client. This support included:
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Market landscape analyses
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Business environment and trend analyses
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Verticalization strategies
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Best practices identification
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Competitive intelligence
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Threat assessments
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Competitive benchmarking
Through a competitive benchmarking project, we provided invaluable insights for the client’s Cloud Certification Program. By comparing it with the training and certification programs offered by other industry learning programs, we highlighted areas of strength and identified opportunities for enhancement. Our analysis supported the cloud learning team’s GTM planning and empowered them to refine the Cloud Certification Program, ensuring it remains competitive and maintains its market-leading position.
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Battlecards
Our team developed a series of battlecards for the cloud division’s marketing team. These cards delineate our client’s strengths in specific areas alongside the competitor’s strengths, providing recommendations on handling objections to the competition’s strong points.
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Verticalization strategy
Our experts compiled a verticalization strategy for the cloud division’s GTM strategy team, detailing how to adapt sales approaches, product offerings, and messaging to resonate with the unique needs and nuances of specific vertical markets, enhancing market penetration and customer engagement.
2. ISV Intelligence:
Evalueserve provided three different programs under the umbrella of ISV Intelligence.
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Comparing ISV Offerings and Market Positioning
Our experts provided intelligence that analyzed the strengths, weaknesses, market positioning, and competitive landscape of various ISVs. Evalueserve’s work helped the client see how they stacked up against ISV competitors and the broader market. This ISV intelligence on market positioning informed strategic decisions and product development for the client.
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Supplier Intelligence
Evalueserve also provided supplier intelligence detailing which ISVs offer the best and most competitive solutions. Our analysts investigated factors including product quality, market presence, pricing, and compatibility with our client’s needs. The supplier intelligence we provided – which intersects with procurement intelligence – helped the client understand the suitability of ISVs for potential partnerships.
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Competitor ISV Partner Program Benchmarking and ISV Sentiment Analysis
ISV partner programs serve as frameworks for collaboration between technology companies and ISVs. They are designed to allow ISVs to integrate their software solutions with the tech company’s ecosystem.
Evalueserve conducted a thorough assessment of competitors’ ISV partner programs, examining key elements including program structure, enablement strategies, and partner sentiment. By analyzing ISV feedback and industry best practices, we provided the cloud division’s ISV team with recommendations on how to improve their own ISV partner program.
Business Impact
The competitive and market insights Evalueserve provides to the tech company’s cloud division are consumed by senior leadership and regularly consumed by about 3,000 engaged internal stakeholders.
The partnership with Evalueserve yielded significant benefits for the technology company:
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Enhanced Understanding
Through in-depth analysis and insights, the client gained a comprehensive understanding of the cloud landscape, competitor ISV partner programs, and ISV sentiment. This enabled the tech company to refine its cloud strategies and offerings and improve the effectiveness of its ISV partner program.
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Improved Decision-Making
Actionable intelligence delivered by Evalueserve supported the client in making informed decisions across various business functions, including sales, marketing, and GTM strategy. The cloud division restructured its sales team based on the verticalization strategy we provided, so now they have a fully vertical sales organization. They also launched a new sales vertical based on our findings.
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Increased Efficiency
By outsourcing competitive intelligence and strategic insights support to Evalueserve, the client's internal teams could focus on more strategic activities, improving efficiency and productivity.
As a trusted partner of over five years, Evalueserve continues to collaborate with the technology company’s cloud division, driving innovation and success in an ever-evolving market landscape.
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Overview & Impact
The five-year partnership with Evalueserve has significantly benefited the technology company, driving innovation in its cloud division amid a dynamic market.
- Improved Decision-Making
- Increased Efficiency