The following is a brief summary of a typical CMaps Plugin and GMaps Plugin sales cycle and what you may need to access through the sales cycle:
Prospecting:
Outbound Prospecting
One of the first tasks is communicating the value of location intelligence to business and technical stakeholders. We have prepared a document (top 3 uses for location intelligence) which you can re-purpose for your needs.
Must have scenarios for Location Intelligence
NOTE: We will soon have line of business and industry specific pages for you to utilize.
Customer requests maps through some business requirements, or reseller recommends mapping.
Questions to Qualify an Opportunity with CMaps Analytics
The following is a typical survey that we use for customers to understand current needs, existing investments, and will ultimately dictate how we will quote the project:
What version of BusinessObjects are you running?
This will indicate how we will approach and support the customer. With the CMaps Plugin release, we only support modern versions of SAP Dashboards (BI4 SP04 and later). For customers running earlier versions we can technically still grant access to GMaps Plugin licenses but expectations must be set that they will need to migrate prior to Sept 2014.
1. How many Xcelsius developers will be building the maps enabled dashboards?
The answer for this will partially indicate the size of the initiative and what bundle suits the customer.
2. Are you and/or your developers working in a virtualized environment i.e. Citrix?
Virtualized / server environments are not supported by default because developer licenses are named users. If the customer has a virtualized environment, we typically are looking at the top tier map bundle which allows for a high volume of developers.
3. Do you already have Google Maps for Business API licensing in place at your organization?
We no longer support use of Google Maps for Business API with CMaps Plugin. However, with the pending mobile integration for SAP dashboards and GMaps Mobile App for iPad, we do support customers re-using existing API key from Google to help reduce costs. Please work with Centigon Sales for current pricing/licensing options for these customers.
4. How many users will view the dashboards? (approximate)
This is an important question that will help you scale the size of the opportunity. A small user group under 100 will typically require the small or mid-tier bundle (depending on mobility needs). As a benchmark we take the the number of users and multiply it by 270 to determine a ballpark page view count.
5. Approximately how many dashboard page views will be needed? Please use this calculator to determine http://gmapsplugin.com/templates/xcelsius/pageview.swf
This will let the customer determine their utilization.
6. Is mobile access a requirement? If yes, for how many devices/users?
If yes, you will automatically need to move them from the small bundle to a mid or large bundle based on the number of mobile users.
7. Are you currently running SAP Mobile in production?
This will help you determine the maturity of their mobile deployment and if we need to include mobile at this time. For many customers mobile is a requirement mid-long term but not a lot of customers are running production mobile BI yet.
8. Would you be interested in viewing indoor maps?
With a pending CMaps Analytics for iOS in Q1 2014, indoor maps will be available. This is a huge opportunity to expand BI in new ways. If the answer is yes, you can work with our sales team to arm you with further materials and possibly assist in POCs
And, to better understand more about your project – please let me know:
The following questions help you further qualify the opportunity and how to approach the customer. You can customize these questions based on where your organization is in a sales cycle. We use these questions for net-new opportunities.
a) Â What are your geo-dashboard initiative/reporting requirements?
b)Â Â Â What is your purchasing time frame?
c)Â Â Â What is your role in the decision making process?
d)Â Â Â What is your success criteria?
Evaluation / POC:
Typically resellers run the POC / evaluation process on behalf of customers. We now provide access to premium templates, in addition to our standard templates to accelerate this process.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Centigon Solutions does NOT permit the use of CMaps Plugin trials and NFR copies for active development for customer engagements. Development of dashboards for intended use will require a full CMaps Plugin license.
Evaluation Keys
By default, the CMaps Plugin standard trial will expire 30 days or after 300 page views have been consumed. This is industry standard for evaluation software, but understanding the sales cycle can be elongated, we do offer the opportunity to extend trials. Centigon Solutions will issue enterprise trial keys to system integrators upon registration of opportunities with Centigon Solutions sales.
Engaging Centigon– Let us know the industry and general use case and we may likely have a pre-existing template or example or canned demonstration.
Presentation:Â
Present to business stakeholders to prove business requirements and make case to acquire technology for projects.
Engaging Centigon– We are happy to join or assist in presentation to business stakeholders. We recommend using some of the canned CMaps Analytics sales slides to properly articulate how customers can easily inject location intelligence into their existing BI investments and projects.
Key Points During Presentation
1. CMaps Plugin / GMaps Plugin- Plug and play solution requiring minimal configuration
2. CMaps Plugin / GMaps Plugin is the most widely adopted and used location analytics solution used in SAP Dashboards. SAP Certified.
3. No requirements to install additional software on the BI server. Infrastructure team does not need to be involved
4. No data presented on top of Google / TomTom map layer is ever transmitted to Google or TomTom. All data (points, regions, popup windows, etc) are natively drawn inside of the plugin, behind the firewall. A complete security explanation of CMaps and GMaps plugin is publicly available. Â CLICK HERE
5. CMaps Plugin licenses are delivered as a subscription that renews annually.
Managing Objects and Concerns
If customers have objects, technical questions, or any concerns, we recommend engaging the Centigon Solutions sales team who can provide required materials to satisfy objections.
Price Quote:Â
Provide a detail quote for pricing and supply information about pricing.
Price quotes to customers should be completed by Centigon Solutions sales or official Centigon Solutions reseller partners.
RESELLER PARTNER PRICE LISTEngaging Centigon-Â Use the partner portal to provide standard license terms to customer. Engage the Centigon Solutions team for any questions about licensing.
Procurement Process
When a customer decides to take next steps to procure CMaps Plugin / GMaps Plugin, you can engage the Centigon Solutions team or an official Centigon Solutions reseller partner.
NOTICE FOR US GOVERNMENT CUSTOMERS: All opportunities for US government customers are managed by 5x Technology. Please contact 5x Technology for GSA pricing and guidelines for procurement.