Redefining Market Strategy: Insightful Analysis of Global ERP Players

Helping a Leading ERP Software Vendor in Reworking their Product and Pricing Strategy by investigating the Product Capabilities, Pricing and Post-Sales Support offered by other key ERP Vendors

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Our Client’s Problem
Our client, a leading ERP software vendor, was facing issues in gaining market share in the global ERP market, especially in various key areas that were focussed on including financial management, risk management, supply chain management and enterprise performance management, among others. With rapid technological advancements and varying customer demands, they needed to reassess their market strategy. The key challenge was understanding how they stacked up against five key players in terms of product capabilities such as project management, risk management, compliance, etc; pricing structures and post-sales support.
 

Our Brief
The client's main objective was to gain a comprehensive analysis of the solution capabilities, pricing strategies, and post-sales support of the major global ERP market players. This in-depth understanding would enable them to realign their own offerings to maintain an edge. Key areas of interest included:
·        Solution capabilities and technological innovations
·        Pricing models and flexibility
·        Quality and structure of post-sales support
·        Customer satisfaction and feedback on other vendors’ products
 

Our Method
At 4D, our approach is rooted in Depth, Transparency, Verifiability, and Innovation. To address the client's needs, we embarked on an extensive due diligence process, analyzing each target company’s product offerings. Our team engaged with multiple former executives and industry experts from these companies to gain insider perspectives.
We developed a comprehensive "Market Analysis Framework" that dissected each leading  player’s strengths and weaknesses in product capabilities, pricing, and support. Confidentiality was paramount throughout this process, ensuring unbiased and genuine insights.
 
Client Outcomes
Our analysis revealed significant insights:

Diverse Solution Capabilities: We found considerable variation in the technological capabilities of the ERP solutions. While some vendors offered highly customizable platforms, others excelled in user-friendly interfaces and out-of-the-box solutions. What also came to light is that two of the players covered in the study with higher focus on OOTB functionality and user friendliness were finding more traction in the market. 
 

Pricing Strategies: Companies covered in this study employed a range of pricing models. Some favored a subscription-based model, offering flexibility and scalability, were witnessing higher sales growth, while others used a more traditional one-time purchase model with annual maintenance fees.
Post-Sales Support Structure: The quality of post-sales support varied drastically. Some players had robust, 24/7 global support systems, whereas others provided more basic support, impacting long-term customer satisfaction.
 

Customer Feedback: Direct feedback from customers of these ERP systems highlighted key areas for improvement, such as integration challenges and the need for more adaptive features like simplification of the data model that would enable timeliness of data, Data delivery within a short response time, etc., to meet industry-specific requirements.
 

Equipped with these insights, our client was able to strategically reevaluate and adjust their product development, pricing, and support strategies. They enhanced their product capabilities, focusing on areas where others were lacking, and restructured their pricing model to subscription based in order to offer more flexibility and value to customers. Additionally, they revamped their post-sales support to ensure long-term client satisfaction.
 

The result was a more targeted and dynamic market approach, aligning our client's offerings more closely with market demands and customer expectations. This strategic realignment not only reinforced their market position but also opened up new growth opportunities for them, with our client witnessing significantly higher growth compared to their earlier forecasts.