SAP Mastering The Cloud in 8 Easy Steps recorded webinars

SAP Mastering The Cloud in 8 Easy Steps webinar series.

Over the eight sessions, you heard cloud experts Kamesh Pemmaraju, who demystified the cloud with critical research insights, and Jeff Kaplan, who interviewed companies already leveraging the cloud to achieve their business goals.

To help you continue to benefit from this timely information, use the links below to access the recorded sessions and white papers. Please share this content with your colleagues.

Session 1: April 13, 2011 Beyond the Hot Air: What's really in the cloud? Hear Kamesh Pemmaraju of Sand Hill Group define the cloud and learn how companies like yours are already leveraging the cloud. White Paper

Session 2: April 20, 2011 Cloud Insider: Beyond the Hot Air: Jeff Kaplan of THINKstrategies talks with Sina Moatamed, former CIO of BendPak Inc. White Paper

Session 3: April 27, 2011 Cloud Benefits 101: What's in it for you? Kamesh Pemmaraju explains the cloud benefits in store for your company. White Paper

Session 4: May 4, 2011 Cloud Insider: What's in it for you? , Jeff Kaplan presents implementation success strategies from Eric Brown, CEO of Johnson Products Company, who achieved his start-up mandates within 90 days - in the cloud. White Paper

Session 5: May 11, 2011 Roadmap to Cloud Success: How to get there? Kamesh Pemmaraju defines eight mission-critical steps for mapping your route to success in the cloud.

Session 6: May 25, 2011 Cloud Insider: Roadmap to Cloud Success. Neil Briggs, CFO of WL Plastics, shares his roadmap to cloud success with Jeff Kaplan. White Paper

Session 7: June 1, 2011 Competitive Edge in the Cloud: Is the sky the limit?. Kamesh Pemmaraju recaps Steps 1- 6 and advises that a long-term cloud view is your ticket to riding this next massive economic and technological wave to ongoing growth and success. White Paper

Session 8: June 8, 2011 Cloud Insider: Competitive Edge in the Cloud. Jeff Kaplan asks Greg Dunn, CFO of Sambazon, about the innovative strategies that are enabling Sambazon to surpass business boundaries in the cloud.

convience strore pricing at the supermarket drove me online

I never would have guessed that an offer for free shipping on a trailer hitch would have been the straw that motivated me to buy chili powder online rather than from my local supermarket.

I make a wicked mexican chili bean salad. The recipe has been available on this blog since 2007, although it's been refined over time. I never make it twice exactly the same, but chili powder is always a key ingredient, and a large batch takes 1 to 1.5 ounces of chili powder.

Did you ever wonder why you can buy 2 liters of soda at the supermarket for the same price as a 12 oz can from the cooler at a convienience store? Convienience. Convienience stores know that most of us are willing to pay more when we want it cold and ready to drink. I almost always buy soda from the supermarket, and keep a mini - fridge stocked in the basement. I rarely buy it from a convienience store, but that is a different story.

Since I go thorugh a lot of chili powder, I realized a while ago that my local grocery stores have been making huge profits by charging rediculous prices for small jars of cooking spices, including my beloved chili powder. I started shopping around a while ago, and found much larger containers are available, at very reasonable prices but, not where I shop. My store used to stock a 4 oz container of chili powder, which were priced just a little more than the 2.5 oz, and I bought them whenever they were available, however they must have realized the larger containers were cutting into their profits and eliminated them. I've asked about larger containers at the grocery store from time to time, but was told they don't stock them. For a long time, I wasn't inclined to order a monster size chili powder online. I didn't want to pay the shipping, and it just wasn't on my mind until I was making bean salad and found I was out of chili powder, so I just kept running out to the store and paying the rediculous price.

Then something happened. I bought a new vehicle, and needed to order a trailer hitch for it. While shopping at Amazon, I was offered a free 1 month trial of Amazon prime, with free 2nd day shipping for a year at a fixed fee of $79. I figured, with the price of gas, it wouldn't take long to make up the cost of running around shopping, and the savings on shipping the trailer hitch alone were substantial, so I went for it.

It happended again this week, I went to make bean salad, and found only about half an ounce of chili powder in the house. I finally said enough it enough. I ordered 2 16 oz jars of Durkee chili powder for $13.58, with free 2nd day shipping from Amazon and it showed up here 2 days later. My wife, VJ, stopped in the grocery store yesterday, and told me the usual 2.5 oz jar of chili powder was just under $5, and this was for the store brand, not some fancy gourmet brand, so I was pleased that she left it on the shelf.

I can't wait to taste the bean salad with the sweet taste of my bargain priced chili powder. I bet it will be much better than the rip-off grocery store powder becasue at less than a fourth of the cost per ounce, I won't be choking on the price.

Now that I'm over the online grocery hurdle, who know what additional business my local supermarket will lose? And all becasue of a trailer hitch...

4 key Steps to Pricing

Nice overview of pricing methodology from Jim Schuchart on the MIT Entreprenurship Review.

1. Identify Alternatives: What is the next best competititive alternatiive? Sometimes the compeition is not making any investment in this issue.

2. Quantify Your Superiority: Use simple math. (the simpler the better) Apply basic, but conservative assumptions that are easy to understand and difficult to refute. Don’t worry too much about perfecting the numbers, just be conservative. Roughly right is better than precisely wrong. As you move forward, customer conversations, annual reports, pilot programs, and field tests will help refine the inputs. The important thing is to understand how we are driving value, and roughly how much it is worth.

3. Acknowledge Your Deficiencies: Your story must be fair and believable to gain traction, and a key step is to acknowledge that the next best competitive alternative may have some advantages. The analysis looses credibility if the audience thinks we didn’t look at the entire picture. Consider the cost of switching from the incumbent solution as a deficiency.


4. Put it Together and Capture Your Value: In most cases, you’ll have multiple positive and negative drivers to consider, but for now we’re keeping it simple. So now what?

If we are more valuable than the competitive offer, their price is a hard floor for our offer. Anything below this number leaves money on the table and can lead to dangerous price wars. Our ceiling is that differentiation plus the price of the next best competitive offer. Above this price you are asking your customer to make an economically irrational decision.

This approach creates a pricing band – from floor to the ceiling, and the range may be quite large. Decisions on how to share that value creation band with your customers (e.g. where to set your price) depend on company strategy, industry dynamics, and degree of innovation. In mature and highly competitive markets where innovation happens on the fringes, companies typically capture 10% of the differential value. More aggressive companies who focus on profit or operate in younger markets often captured roughly 30% of the net differential value. In some cases, such as highly innovative products where psychological drivers are in play or unquantifiable pain points exist, nearly 100% of that value can be captured.

Kohl's Kiosk - interesting idea, many issues remain

I've been a fan of Kohl's for a quite a while,. They've been my primary source for sneakers for many years. Their quality and selection are way above Walmart, without the pricey "brand attitude" of say Macy's. I've been reluctant to buy sneakers online because I really want to try them on before buying. Recently however, as the inventory seems be more tightly managed, I've had trouble finding my size and style, especially during promotions, when stock gets depleted quickly. I've never ordered online from Kohl's because I don't like to pay shipping, so I've often delayed footwear purchases until I find my size during a sale. When I do find them, I've been known to buy more than one pair, because I don't mind stocking up when I'm getting a good deal. Recently, our local Kohl's store introduced a kiosk where you can order online and have it shipped to your home (or anywhere) with no shipping charge. Frequently I shop online from home and take advantage of free in-store pick up to avoid shipping charges.

I was shopping for sneakers today at Kohl's and found a style that I liked at a good price. Unfortunately, there was no 1o.5 wide available. I tried on size 10 wide - it was not bad, but a little short. I tried the 11 wide, it was definitely loose in the heel. I decided I would give the kiosk a try to get my usual 10.5 wide. I had a little trouble with the responsiveness of the touch screen, and finding the wide sizes wasn't completely intuitive, but I managed to get them into my cart. I navigated to check out, and realized I had 2 pair in my cart, a 10.5 regular, and a 10.5 wide. I deleted one and then scanned my Kohl's charge card; however, I then realized I had deleted the wide, and was about to order the regular, so I tried to go back before completing the check out, and got this:
bluemartini anyone? I pressed the button for assistance, heard a page, "Customer Assistance to the Kiosk in shoes." Reassured, I waited...., and waited. The page repeated. "Customer Assistance to the Kiosk in shoes." I waited some more. While waiting, I tried the home button, which was still visible at the bottom the screen. I tried the exit button. Neither responded. So I used the brick and mortar exit.

Closing thoughts. I would be a lot more inclined to buy from Kohl's online if I could do it from home with free or low cost shipping. Shipping to the store is preferable to me because I can pick up the order at my convenience. I certainly wouldn't wait in line to use their in-store Kiosk. I'm sure they figure if they can get people into the store many will buy something else while there. Have you ever waited for someone to pick a movie from Redbox? How long would you stand there waiting to use the in-store kiosk, while a clown like me tries to figure it out? Do you want an audience of fellow shoppers looking over your shoulder at the big screen while you shop online? Have you tried in-store online shopping? What did you think?
best,
Chuck

Where does pricing power come from?

Warren Buffet was quoted recently as saying:

The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power. If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business... The extraordinary business does not require good management.

So what is pricing power? The ability to raise prices without loosing business.

Where does it come from? Pricing power derives from many sources. Bloomberg cited Buffet's holdings in railroads and utilities, which derive pricing power from their dominant market position. Buffet also has stakes in consumer companies like Coca-Cola Co. and Kraft with powerful brand appeal that attracts and retains customers. Businesses that serve value oriented customers who demand more than brand appeal and those without high barriers to entry rely on innovation, quality, extraordinary customer service, operational excellence, and value to achieve pricing power.

Bottom line: Pricing power is an indicator of a good business, but isn't the cause which makes a business great. History is replete with stories of titans laid low by disruptive upstarts, so I wouldn't discount the need for good management even in extraordinary businesses.

How NOT to label products

I hate it when I buy something, take it home, and find I have to struggle with irremovable product labels. Note to Boise Cascade, Home Depot, and anyone else who is listening... If you are going to sell AB Plywood, put the #%&@! label on the B side, not the A side.

I'm paying extra to get a clean finish for my project. Do you think that means I want to spend 15 to 20 minutes scraping off your UPC that seems permanently glued near the middle of the sheet of plywood?




You would hope they would know better!
Now I feel better.

Diane Rheme interviews Eduardo Porter, author of "The Price of Everything" listen

Diane Rheme interview with Eduardo Porter, member of The New York Times's editorial board, and author of "The Price of Everything" Podcast - I bought the book becasue of my interest in pricing, but it's much more about value and values. [~ 50 minutes of great listening]