Rocky Mountain High Tech Blog

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts meant to apply Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis to the IT Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. The post is meant to delve into Switching Costs as a factor in creating Barriers to Entry for new firms to join the industry.

According to Porter, below are the 5 Forces that drive industry competition and are the determinants of the Intensity of Competition:

·        Threat of Entry of New Competitors

This is the third in a series of blog posts meant to apply Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis to the IT Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. The post is meant to delve into Capital Requirements as a factor in creating Barriers to Entry for new firms to join the industry.

According to Porter, below is a list of factors determining the Threat of Entry from new providers:

·             Economies of scale

This is the second in a series of blog posts meant to apply Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis to the IT Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. The post is meant to delve into Product Differentiation as a factor in creating Barriers to Entry for new firms to join the industry.

According to Porter, below is a list of factors contributing to a Threat of Entry:

·           Economies of scale

This is the first in a series of blog posts meant to apply Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis to the IT Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry.

You should spend some time segmenting your market in the New Year and get to know who your ideal potential customers are. This could be one of the most important things that you can do now to fuel solid revenue growth in 2012.

Did you know that 80 percent of the variance in revenue growth between companies is explained by choices about where to compete, according to research summarized in The Granularity of Growth, leaving only 20 percent explained by choices about how to compete?

This is a great article from Jason Fried of 37Signals on why he is not a fan of giving a product away and making up for it in volume:

http://bit.ly/tRdw4n

Many underlying assumptions between corporate and private company finance are different and at odds with each other. Several characteristics are particularly noteworthy:

Few decisions that marketers make influence customer behaviors as much as pricing. That is why it is essential that price levels be set in a way that supports and advances the broader marketing objectives of the firm. When Microsoft dropped prices on its Windows operating system by as much as 40 percent in 2009, the move was consistent with the company’s long-held goal of maintaining and growing market share. The critical question for Microsoft managers was whether the price cuts would result in higher profits over the long-term.

The starting point is buyer utility. Does your offering unlock exceptional utility? Is there a compelling reason for the mass of people to buy it? Absent this, there is no blue ocean potential to begin with. Here there are only two options. Park the idea, or rethink it until you reach an affirmative answer.

Ben Horowitz has penned another brilliant blog post - please take 3 minutes and read. In essence, many companies think the best way to deal with a strong competitor is with a silver bullet, some creative twist that leapfrogs them.