Tag Archives: SAP

Solution Marketing @ The Boston Startup School

Solution Marketing for Startups

A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to teach a one-day solution marketing class at the Boston Startup School, located in the Harvard Innovation Lab.

Learn to Do

If you have the opportunity to teach, learn, network or otherwise participate with Boston Startup School, jump on it! Run by startup incubator TechStars, the new program helps “young professionals to learn the skills needed to have an immediate and positive impact on the startup they join.” Wondering what’s on their minds? Check out the new blog by the sales and marketing classes, www.GrowthNinja.com, which states that…

You don’t have to start a company to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is a mindset. It’s a healthy discontent with the status quo that brings together teams dedicated to making the world a better place. Entrepreneurs include all members of a startup team, from the CEO to the summer intern.

…and I couldn’t agree more. Continue reading →

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Filed under Case Studies, Classes, Overviews, Presentations, SEVA - Elements of Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing, Solutions, The Solution Marketing Blog

Tagged as Amazon, Assaad, Bentzi, Boston Startup School, ChuckE.Cheese's, Dan MacLeod, Erik Grueter, Gordon Alemao, HP TouchPad, Kelly McDonald, Kerrie McCarthy, Kindle Fire, LinkedIn, Luis Duco, Matt DiStefano, Max Ade, Microsoft Surface, Nicki Haylon, Rhan, SAP, Sara Sigel, Solution Marketing, Steve Robins, TechStars

The Solution Marketing Blog: One Year Later

– By Steve Robins

Celebrating a year of blogging on solution marketing

First, thank you to everyone that reads this blog day-in and day-out – it’s been a great ride since February 2009. Thanks also to everyone who expressed interest in solution marketing at Product Camp Boston #1 and #2, and on the LinkedIn group and elsewhere. And thanks to those who’ve helped to make this a great blog. As they say, the best is yet to come.

In celebration of this milestone, following is a solution marketing recap from the last twelve months.

Continue reading →

No Value, No Job

– By Steve Robins

SAP Sacks CEO For Failing to Deliver Customer Value

Sometimes the best solution marketing is about value.

It’s been one of the most interesting solution value stories of the last 18 months: ERP vendors’ exhorbitant support prices (at Oracle’s 90% margins) and SAP’s botched attempt to raise prices even further. It’s pretty obvious that ERP vendor greed has further weakened customer relationships while opening the door to a new cadre of support vendors.

ERP vendors charge high maintenance and support prices that are essentially insurance policies that enable their clients to receive upgrades and support. Problem is, many companies don’t need – and can’t afford – the broad and expensive maintenance and support provided by ERP vendors, so they’ve moved to competitive support firms like Rimini Street.

Yesterday’s sacking of SAP’s CEO is only the latest chapter in this tale. Continue reading →

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Filed under Solution Marketing, Value

Tagged as InformationWeek, Maintenance, Maintenance & Support, NY Times, Oracle, SAP, Support, Value

Solution Marketing Best Practices – Presentation at ProductCamp Boston

Learn from Leaders Including Intuit, PowerAdvocate, HubSpot, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce.com, Among Others

Continue reading →

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Filed under Case Studies, Presentations, ProductCamp, Resources (additional), SIVA - Elements of Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing

Tagged as Access, Amazon, Education, Hubspot, Intuit, Links to external sites, Microsoft, Oracle, PCamp Boston, PowerAdvocate, ProductCamp Boston, Salesforce.com, SAP, SEVA, SIVA, Solution, Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing Best Practices, Steve Robins, Value

Join Me At ProductCamp Boston

Solution Marketing at ProductCamp Boston!

I’m psyched to be attending the second ProductCamp Boston tomorrow. If you’re already planning to attend, I hope you’ll attend the two sessions I’m planning to present/facilitate. And please make sure to vote for these sessions during morning voting!

Solution Marketing Best Practices (Presentation and Discussion)
Today, customers want more than software products alone – they want comprehensive solutions that solve their business problems. During this presentation, we’ll look at how leading software companies are using solution marketing. You’ll learn best practices and gain new ideas that you can use in your organization. Companies included: Intuit, PowerAdvocate, HubSpot, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Comcast, Salesforce.com and Amazon. Watch the preview on Brainshark.

The Impact of Social Media on Your Product Organization (Discussion)
How is social media affecting your organization? Share your experience and best practices in the use of customer/market-facing social media in your product management/product marketing organization. Watch the preview on Brainshark.

Thanks to the ProductCamp team for organizing what looks to be another great unconference.

Look for a future blog post on ProductCamp.

Continue reading →

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Filed under Presentations, SIVA - Elements of Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing

Tagged as Amazon, Comcast, Hubspot, IBM, Marketing, Microsoft, ntuit, Oracle, PowerAdvocate, ProductCamp, ProductCamp Boston, Salesforce.com, SAP, Social Media, Solution Marketing, Solutions, Speaking