The IT and Telecoms supply chain is undergoing significant change, with massive consolidation through mergers and acquisitions activity, as well as technological change and adoption of new business models, such as cloud. IT suppliers are therefore prone to risk of change, and frequently businesses do not hear about these changes until it is too late.
As a parallel activity, technology procurement is changing at a rapid pace. With changes in buying behaviour, different commercial and financial models for products and services, and the aforementioned supply chain turmoil, buying IT services can be a complex and time consuming task. Without appropriate domain expertise, the risk of buying the wrong thing from the wrong supplier is high, with unquantifiable commercial and operational impact.
Embedded IT have significant experience in managing procurement activities for clients of all sizes and sectors. Leveraging our experience of working on both sides of the procurement fence (Client / Supplier), we understand the key drivers for client and suppliers and navigate the best path between these agendas to secure the best result for both. This can take the form of a managed Request For Proposal (RFP) process, or more commonly, a process of simple dialogue to ascertain the best approach to a specific business requirement. Embedded can provide:
- Initial requirements gathering
- Supplier long and short list selection
- Evaluation Criteria development, in conjunction with business requirements
- Contract negotiation support (in conjunction with professional legal advice)
Embedded can provide support for Procurement processes, from initial strategy definition to supplier recommendation, to ensure all parties achieve the optimum outcome, with minimal effort.
IT and Telecoms are not short of opportunity to create interesting propositions. With new technologies being developed each day, and new business problems being identified even faster, aligning technology to business benefits can be a time consuming but high volume business.
Many IT and Telecoms suppliers however struggle with developing appropriate propositions to their target markets. With too much onus on technical speeds and feeds, and less understanding of core and tangible business benefits, IT and Telecoms Proposition Marketing can be more “byte” than “bite”, to the detriment of marketing conversion and performance metrics.
Embedded IT advise clients on their IT procurement processes, and as a result understand the language by which clients buy technology. The key to proposition marketing in this context is to create a number of different messages that match buyer persona, and industry, aligning non-technical messaging to specific job role or business based benefit. We take your core propositions and create content that supports messaging for your typical target market, delivering copy and suggested media to deliver the message to your prospects and clients in the most consumable form.
Embedded can:
- Review existing collateral to identify appropriateness to the stated target audience
- Develop new business level propositions to support sales and marketing objectives
- Create content, copy, sales training materials, and other supporting detail to enable propositions to be delivered to internal and external audiences
Dependent on the complexity of proposition and the volume of work to support each one, this engagement can be a short or longer term project, tailored to work hand in hand with in-house marketing teams to meet budgetary expectations.