Month: February 2015

February 24, 2015 | Charley Powell | Vice President, Sales – West

As a sales person, I am always looking for ways to provide valuable information and research to both my prospects and customers that is relevant to their business. Just as we, at Spinnaker Support, are continually looking for timely market and competitive intelligence to give us an edge, pinpoint trends and gaps, and develop new and/or improved service offerings.

Sometimes, we do the research ourselves. Our Vice President of Marketing, Lee Mashburn, has recently developed and launched a new research report series, detailing the current financial and operational health status of key manufacturing industry sectors. Currently available are:

• Beverage & Tobacco
• Chemical
• Computer & Electronics
• Food Products
• Machinery
• Paper
• Petroleum & Coal
• Plastics & Rubber
• Transportation

The research reports have a remarkable amount of both financial and operational data for the key manufacturing sectors of the economy. Our audience is utilizing this information to help confirm the state of their industry, and also to compare their company’s Key Performance Indicator’s to an aggregate of their peers.

These reports are just the latest example of research, analysis, and insight that we provide our customers and prospects to assist them in making critical and timely decisions. Several of my customers and prospects have already expressed their appreciation that Spinnaker Support’s understanding of their business is fundamental to a long term relationship.

February 18, 2015 | Kurt Moydell | Vice President, Sales – Americas

Recently, I came across a surprisingly pointed paper from Accenture’s information technology team titled, How Software Maintenance Fees are Siphoning Away Your IT budget – and How to Stop It. Reading the document I was struck by the thought that this was the first time I had seen a leading global management and services firm, often viewed as tightly aligned with the software publishers, provide succinct industry analysis and salient counsel on managing the high cost of software maintenance and support.  Accenture’s assessment suggests that 50 to 60 percent of software spend goes to maintenance and support but that many of these dollars are wasted. Their studies find that up to $12 billion is wasted on maintenance fees for shelfware alone.

Their causal analysis is spot-on and leads to Accenture’s three-pillared solution recommendation; take control of the initial buy, leverage the renewal process to right-size the support agreements, or consider third-party support.

Spinnaker Support’s more than 400 customers are realizing significant financial and service benefits… and are a testimony to the fact that third-party maintenance is a proven and viable model. I highly recommend you read Accenture’s paper.