Case Study: Market Development

Company: Leading computer hardware and software reseller in the Midwest

Situation: ASAP was facing a major challenge to its strategic direction. For years, ASAP built its reputation as a leading systems integrator and Apple Reseller in the Midwest, serving Fortune 1000 clients and the Higher Education market. However, because of market and margin pressure, Apple was forced to restructure its business model taking the Higher Education business direct which threatened a significant portion of ASAP’s sales. As a part of that restructuring, Apple also decided to revamp its K-12 reseller model as well, taking a majority of the margin on Apple products away from the channel while allowing newly designated “Sales Agents” to represent Apple on a commission basis. ASAP had no significant K-12 sales and had little knowledge of the market at that time.

Solution: Despite the setback in lost revenue from the Apple Higher Education business, there was an opportunity to capitalize on Apple’s restructuring. In under two weeks, we conducted in-depth market analysis on the K-12 market relying on a number of sources, including qualitative, quantitative and secondary research from Quality Education Data (QED). That research provided the foundation for the K-12 Business Plan, which included product positioning, competitive analysis, market sizing, margin analysis and pricing, sales model and staffing, and a 3-year integrated marketing communications plan. The business plan was presented to the Apple K-12 Steering Committee. Competing against nearly 100 other resellers in the Midwest, ASAP was awarded a multi-state, multi-year contract that resulted in millions of dollars of new business and led to the subsequent purchase of the company by a national K-12 reseller, Random Access. Some of the key elements of the business plan included:

  • Business Revenue Model that targeted 80% of the Sales Agent revenue coming from third party hardware, software and networking integration sales
  • Multi-state Opportunity Analysis and Account Attack Plan that segmented school districts based on federal funding, local funding and resident demographics.
  • Regional PR tour and event plan that included multi-media proof-of-concept school bus
  • Third party education catalog and strategic alliance plan