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Technology Stocks : Trimble Navigation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: arun gera who wrote (2685)	8/16/1998 6:57:00 PM
From: SKIP PAUL	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3506

See comments Inserted below: The cost of sales is totally out of hand! Look at the number of corporate offices, just in the US! More than IBM (not really just seems like it)! An example is the Miami area, two seperate facilities within miles of one another! Have these people ever hears the concept of shared resources! Trimble has relationships with some very resspectable resellers, yet rather than pass the cost of end-user sales down-stream where they are more cost effective, they have an out of control sales bueracracy(?). Is anyone aware that the majority of the Sales Management team is not even formally educated in Sales and Marketing, they are either brother in law positions or technical people promoted for longevity? << Arun: Any comments?.>> [skip] If true these are pretty serious allegations!! What are they based on? I doubt their validity. The annual report lists only ten regional locations. That certainly does not seem excessive in that they are serving all 50 states and eleven markets thru four divisions. This one would make Henry Ford roll over in his grave! A VP of Trimble actually made a statement "we have found assembling systems one at a time proves more cost effective"!!! If I were Mr. Trimble and heard that, I would put the guy on the street! << Arun: Remember my Designer Boutique Analogy. It may work for the current mix of products. But anything that is manufactured in some volume, forget about it.>> [skip] This is Unfair. Trimbles OEM boards are manufactured in a completely automated assembly line. This is very high volume three shifts a day very efficient operation. I have seen it. The surveyors are assembled one at a time. The volume isn't high enough to warrant an assembly line. Take a look at the real estate occupied by Trimble, the most expensive they could find! Having a maufacturing facility in Sunnyvale CA makes no sense at all, especially since they have a half used facility in Austin TX, where the costs would be dramatically lower, everything from wage base to taxes. >>Arun: Would need to take a big one-time charge to do this. Management may not have the courage.>> [skip]Manufacturing occupies a small percentage of the of many buildings Trimble occupies. Trimble has been there a long time probably before it got expensive. There could be some savings by moving to Austin when the leases expire. But it may be difficult to find the talent they need in Austin. There are far too many variations in the product offerings, one basic product, $10k range, has at least twelve variations. Anyone with manufacturing experience realizes that it costs more to manage the variations than can be gained in a complicated price/stocking/ordering structure. >>Arun: Need a focus on few products that sell well. Like Iomega did to Zip. US Robotics did to Sportster.>> [skip Overly simplistic. The 4800 bundle does attempt to do that. But one solution doesn't solve the universe of applications. GPS is used for so many different applications that it is not simple to reduce to one or two products. That works only in mass market products. So, fellow investors, it is not a technology problem, sales price, etc... It is 90% managment problems. >>Arun: There definitely is a problem in management. I don't know the percentage. I would say the priority for improvement should be sales, manufacturing, and development. If moving one manager from US to Europe can make so much difference in European sales, then they should be hiring new managers like him. Or fire managers who can't meet their sales targets. If the sales team can't sell against practically no serious competition, what will they do when competition increases.>> [skip] There is always room for improvement. I think as each of Trimble's business lines mature they need to be housed in nine distinctly separate companies. Each serving a billion $ market. They are Land Survey, Mapping, Marine Survey, Agriculture, Construction, Mining, AVL, Aerospace, OEM. Each of there are distinctively different businesses and need their own constituency within Trimble. I hope they are headed in that direction.

To: arun gera who wrote (2685)	8/17/1998 6:46:00 PM
From: Bill Day	Respond to of 3506

Arun, >I challenge anyone here to actually try to purchase a product! I have had many potential customers inform me that it took 30 days or longer to actually be referred to a local reseller! The customer sometimes talks to six or more trimble employees, cost, cost, cost!!!! <<Arun: Anybody else experienced this?>>< I don't know what product the poster was referring to, but I have not found this to be true of their surveying products. The dealers I've spoken with seem competent. Bill Day

To: arun gera who wrote (2685)	8/21/1998 12:21:00 PM
From: Forrest Coile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3506

Red Chip Review likes TRMB. Gives "B" rating. -------------------------------------------------------- THE RED CHIP REVIEW Investor Conference Showcases Investment Opportunities In High-Performance Small-Cap Arena PR Newswire, Friday, August 21, 1998 at 07:22 PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Sixteen publicly traded small-cap companies present their stories to the public on August 27 in Portland,Oregon, at a conference hosted by THE RED CHIP REVIEW. "This is a unique opportunity for individual investors to gain information on quality small-cap stocks directly from company management," said Marc Robins, editor-in-chief and publisher of THE RED CHIP REVIEW, the event's sponsor. "Most investor conferences are targeted for retail brokers and institutional money managers. The mission of THE RED CHIP REVIEW is to make available to individual investors information that is generally available only to the profession." THE RED CHIP REVIEW Investor Conference is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the World Trade Center in Portland. Tickets are free for subscribers to THE RED CHIP REVIEW, $30 for nonsubscribers. Admission includes a two-page comprehensive analysis, researched by RED CHIP's expert analysts, on each of the 16 presenting companies, plus a healthy sit-down lunch, provided free by THE RED CHIP REVIEW. At the August 27 conference, investors will meet the top executives from 16 of these promising companies that have made it through RED CHIP's demanding selection criteria and tough objective analysis. Attracting special attention is OrCAD, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCAD). Portland-based OCAD develops Windows based design automation software products and is in an ideal position to capitalize on the design industry's projected 70% growth in Windows NT applications. OCAD's game plan is to provide product that increases design productivity, reduces time to market, and reduces cost of ownership. The company has no long term debt and over $33 million in cash and equivalents as of March, 1998. Visit the Company's Web site at www.ocad.com. Other companies presenting at the conference include: (NOTE: Other presenting companies omitted for space consideration) Trimble Navigation, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRMB) RED CHIP RATING: B TRMB leads the market in development of navigation products using the Global Positioning System (GPS), a 24-satellite network built by the U.S. government and available free to commercial users. TRMB has been selected to provide GPS technology to Microsoft's Auto PC platform. This product will be installed in a car's dashboard and allow the driver access to e-mail, traffic reports, and alternate routes. Visit TRMB's Web site at www.trimble.com. THE RED CHIP REVIEW Investor Conference in Portland will featurea select group of companies that are not currently followed by THE RED CHIP REVIEW analysts. These companies have been reviewed by the RED CHIP team, who have determined that they show exciting promise. However, acceptance of an invitation to present at a RED CHIP Investor Conference neither guarantees nor implies that THE RED CHIP REVIEW will initiate coverage. These companies are PlayCore, Inc. (AMEX:PCO) and Hello Direct Inc.(NASDAQ:HELO). PlayCore manufactures playground systems for schools, park districts and amusement parks, while Hello Direct markets and develops desktop telephony and telecommunications equipment interface solutions to businesses. Typically, companies followed by THE RED CHIP REVIEW are undervalued and underfollowed, yet they show exciting promise. Because they're smaller, they're usually more nimble companies, often in their early stages of development. They tend to be fast-growing, possess a leading technology, or in some way have a unique story. THE RED CHIP REVIEW is the nation's leading source of information on small-cap stocks, providing in-depth research and analysis on approximately 250 publicly traded small capitalization companies across 28 industry sectors. THE RED CHIP REVIEW is published biweekly. Visit the RED CHIP Web site at www.redchip.com. SOURCE THE RED CHIP REVIEW -0- 08/21/98 /CONTACT: Linda Meyer of THE RED CHIP REVIEW, 800-REDCHIP, or 503-417-2243, or fax, 503-417-2256/ /Web site: redchip.com