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Our take on it all.
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As this is the season of football play-offs, we decided to borrow a football analogy to offer our take on the broad strategies you should consider for 2008. Simply put, the team that ultimately wins the Super Bowl does so because of excellence on offense, defense and special teams. So, too, for the IT services winners in 2008, to wit:
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| 1. Offense |
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The question is how do you go to market in a tepid economy? With gusto is our recommendation. There is enough empirical evidence across many industries and over many years that prove that companies that take an aggressive approach to the market in slowing environments (and in recessionary climates, when it's called recession marketing) come out ahead in the long term. The normal reaction when things get slow is to take a 'batten down the hatches, boys', 'Let’s ride this baby out,' and we'll get back on track when the economy brightens up again approach. The fact that there is caution in the air among corporate CIOs and budgets are tighter simply means that IT investments will need to be sold rather than bought. Go on the offensive, invest in strategies that others will be too timid to undertake and come out ahead of the pack. |
| 2. Defense |
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Look for competitors to be more aggressive in coming after your customers. In a flattened economy, companies look for share gains versus market growth and your competitors will be targeting your customers.
Your strategy ought to be to out-service your customers to the point that they rebuff these onslaughts.
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3. Special Teams |
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Invest in those areas of the industry and those strategies that will give you a competitive edge. For example:
- SaaS: The new mantra is virtualization and those in the know say that if you're not here already you're behind the curve. Right now it appears the SaaS market is capacity constrained, the market is there, so this is the time to jump ahead of this trend.
- M&A: Be careful here. You can be easily swayed to jump prematurely in the M&A market because it's hot. The key with any M&A is to avoid the temptation for a quick tactical hit. It's certainly the time to be considering strategic M&A as companies are looking to prop up their offerings for the battles ahead.
- Security: Maybe it's time the security industry pooled its resources to make its case directly to the consuming public to get done what has to get done with regard to security. Right now, there is no unified, coordinated effort that either galvanizes that extent of the problem or offers a viable solution. It's simply too easy for companies to put IT security on the back burner when they have tough decisions to make about limited IT resources. Security players will have to make their case more forcefully, collectively, to get their message heard and their solutions implemented.
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New Partners
We're pleased to introduce two new partners.
Dave Stahlman
Dave joins us as Executive Vice President and Partner, following careers at Inetium and General Mills, both in Minneapolis. At Inetium, Dave was responsible for leading the company's marketing and sales departments focusing most of the company’s efforts on Microsoft CRM and SharePoint. He also led Inetium's vertical and geographic market expansion plans, including partner development, acquisitions, customer development, and staff hiring.
At General Mills Dave was the company's Strategic Internet Initiatives Manager responsible for sales e-commerce, internet retailers and internet promotions. He also was responsible for developing and implementing multiple software applications and Business Intelligence tools for the Sales Division.
email Dave
Hugh Voigt
Hugh, who joins us as Executive Vice President and Partner, started his IT career with IBM serving in a variety of sales and marketing roles including branch, regional and area management, as well as national offering and product strategy in IBM’s software division.
Following his stint at IBM, Hugh became CEO of a local security technology and systems integration company that he transformed into a leading regional security-consulting firm. Through a series of venture financing, strategic acquisitions and new innovations the company continued to evolve beyond its core consultancy practice and into a managed security and ‘software-as-service’ (SaaS) business. The success of his company attracted a number of suitors and eventually the sale of the company to a nationally recognized managed security service (MSSP) company.
email Hugh
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