| Abstract: | Pricing applications software vendor and consulting firm will provide data-driven price management applications and services to joint clients to improve price setting and execution processes across the business. |
| Keywords: | Zilliant, Deloitte, price management, pricing software, price optimization, customer relationship management, CRM, consulting, Precision Pricing Suite |
Aiming to better meet the growing demand for advanced pricing management solutions, Zilliant Inc. and Deloitte Consulting announced a formal alliance to provide price management software and services to business-to-business manufacturers, distributors, and service companies.
Zilliant's Precision Pricing Suite comprises five modules that address all facets of price analysis, setting, and execution, and augment traditional CRM or ERP applications, which focus primarily on the processing and administration of pricing rules, said Eric Hills, Zilliant's vice president of marketing, in an interview with Managing Automation.
"Zilliant is different by helping companies make better, more profitable pricing decisions through advanced analysis and statistical techniques," Hills said.
Zilliant's pricing software mines a company's historical transactional data and uses algorithms to deliver pricing guidance for its sales force based on similar deals the company closed in the past.
"A large percentage of pricing decisions are made by salespeople with guidelines that corporate management has established, but it's not uncommon to see up to 50% of quotes from salespeople be exceptions to such guidelines," Hills said. The resulting "margin leakage," he said, typically means money is left on the table during a deal, or leads a manufacturer's customers to question whether they are getting consistent market prices.
Industry analysts have acknowledged the benefits of price management software. AMR Research fellow John Hagerty recently released a report (subscription required) stating that "data-driven segmentation is an important first step in any price and profit improvement program." Zilliant's offerings are based on a data-driven model.
Zilliant currently has more than 30 customers using its software, Hills said, including diversified automation manufacturers Parker Hannifin and Schneider Electric. Hills said the major market for Zilliant's products includes medium to large manufacturers with at least $500 million in annual revenue that handle many complex transactions.
In about two-thirds of cases, Hills said, the Zilliant software ends up recommending a price that is above what the sales force typically provides. In the other third of cases, the price actually decreases, with the tradeoff realized in increased volume sales, Hills maintained.
Deloitte brings to the table extensive experience with the traditional ERP or CRM applications Zilliant runs alongside — including those provided by SAP and Oracle — and can help customers integrate the Zilliant software with existing applications.
Deloitte also is well-versed in helping its clients handle change management, according to Hills, and helping a company's upper management, its pricing operations staff, and its sales force get on the same page when it comes to making quantitative price decisions. Deloitte's consultants can also help a manufacturing team "understand where Zilliant's scientific-driven prices come from and how they should use them," Hills noted.
The partnership announcement comes as Zilliant finishes a year in which sales jumped more than 160% over 2005 and its customer base more than doubled. Another highlight for the company in 2006 was its attainment of SAP NetWeaver certification for the Precision Pricing Suite. That status underscores Zilliant's ease of integration with SAP-centric environments, a characteristic shared by Zilliant competitor Vendavo Inc., which announced a distribution partnership with SAP late in 2005. Other vendors in the price management space include Metreo Inc., Rapt Inc., Maxager Technology Inc., and pVelocity Inc.
Page : 12 ... NEXT
 |
|
|
|