If Tom Collins was smart enough to handle Arms sales................
To market successfully to the both the government and the commercial world you will need more than a " PRODUCT that can stand its ground". A SEXI, who is basically an integrator with no proprietary product, must offer the customer a solution to a particular requirement. You must be able to answer the customer questions. First of all, they will want to know what is your track record, what is your financial capability, who is your management, what is their background with this product, industry, etc. If you get by a few missionary sales to friends and associates (as SEXI may do where they are providing demos), the real work starts. What happens is government technocrats see the technology, if they have the budget they may create a requirement, send out to bid or negotiate with a few integrators, etc. (This is the the same for the commercial world. Do you think Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Mellon Bank, etc is going to trust going sole source to a SEXI. No way). This is where it gets harder to make sales but where the big contract are. When companies see the RFP or RFQ they start looking how to meet the requirement and will find alternates to SEXI or go to SEXI sources. The game is over. As telephonics has I think been trying to point out, this is not "rocket science". If there is a requirement within the DOD for 10,000 desktop VC units and the requirement is built around SEXI specs, the Big Boys (and smart little guys) will go to the SEXI vendors like Sigma Electronics and Isthmus or whoever and get quotes and integrate the systems themselves. Is Sigma Electronics not going to quote to a EDS, GTE, CSC, BDM, etc? Don't bet on it. They are going to be smart business people and quote to anyone that they think can pay their bills and are operating legally. But you do not even have to go to a Sigma, therr are other switch manufacturers, baluns, etc available to make a desktop VC systems(like Lightwave). Nobody is jumping on the bandwagon yet since the big requirements have not materialized. They will, but have not happened yet. SEXI and other companies offering similar products are only laying the ground work for others that are just watching what is going on in the market.. Once VC is here(only by riding applications and not by talking heads) everyone will leapfrog over SEXI because they will not have the baggage, have superior marketing, financial strength, and a track record of providing total solutions. SEXI's problem is they are an intergrator that is trying to sell to other integrators. This can work if there is enough room in the contract, but in today competitive world that is not often the case.
Can you imagine a government contracting officer, making a recommendation to buy the SEXI product? It can happen as may be the special case of the White House but they don't have the oversight that other government agencies will have. You don't think the competition informs the customers on the internal problems of their competitors?
Why did BDM, Booz-Allen, DEC, PRC, E-Systems, GTE, MCI, AT&T, CDSI, (the list goes on) walk away from ICMX? One of the key questions asked was who owns the technology? Is it patented or patent pending? |
