Comments on: Lessons from LucidEra on BI for the mid-market http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/ Where the humans meet analytics and related subjects Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:33:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Do you Postmortem? 5 Key Pre-Market Launch Questions « Marketing & BizDev Lessons from the Front Lines http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-752 Do you Postmortem? 5 Key Pre-Market Launch Questions « Marketing & BizDev Lessons from the Front Lines Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:02:03 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-752 [...] We dug up a bit of history, found an insightful blog entry, a self-analysis written by the CEOs of the trailblazing firm LucidEra -successful, seasoned entrepreneurs, happy customers, “white” space, offering an attractive business proposition and offering flexibility in business model to make it work. But ultimately they just did not get enough customers off the ground. So what went wrong? [...] [...] We dug up a bit of history, found an insightful blog entry, a self-analysis written by the CEOs of the trailblazing firm LucidEra -successful, seasoned entrepreneurs, happy customers, “white” space, offering an attractive business proposition and offering flexibility in business model to make it work. But ultimately they just did not get enough customers off the ground. So what went wrong? [...]

]]> By: Geschäftsmodelle: Freemium und seine Tücken » startwerk.ch http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-735 Geschäftsmodelle: Freemium und seine Tücken » startwerk.ch Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:35:53 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-735 [...] die schnelle Adaption durch viele User. Software-as-a-service-Anbieter LucidEra hat zum Beispiel schlechte Erfahrungen damit gemacht, ein zu komplexes Produkt [...] [...] die schnelle Adaption durch viele User. Software-as-a-service-Anbieter LucidEra hat zum Beispiel schlechte Erfahrungen damit gemacht, ein zu komplexes Produkt [...]

]]> By: A matter of words? Business Intelligence versus Data visualization -bimehq.com http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-669 A matter of words? Business Intelligence versus Data visualization -bimehq.com Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:58:35 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-669 [...] as Ted highlighted in his interesting post, “be wary of users’ ability to analyze data” (lessons from Lucidera on BI for the [...] [...] as Ted highlighted in his interesting post, “be wary of users’ ability to analyze data” (lessons from Lucidera on BI for the [...]

]]> By: Ajay Dawar http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-646 Ajay Dawar Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:01:18 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-646 I don't know if freemium will work or not, for BI. There is an interview by Eric Schmidt (of Google) that they try to craft business models around free. It is an interesting strategy. That said, I think we need to go back to basics. Whenever there is something new introduced in the market an incentive is needed for people to consider the new offering. Free, is one of the most tried and tested incentives. I wouldn't measure Freemium's effectiveness based on a company going under - there are too many factors that may have caused the company going under. Drawing a cause and effect line between Free and a company going under is over-simplifying. "Free" is supposed to encourage consideration, not necessarily purchase. If a "Free" offering encouraged adequate consideration in the intended segment, then it worked and if it did not, then it did not work. That is why, I agree with Byron Igoe's comment - it is about evaluation, not purchase. I don’t know if freemium will work or not, for BI. There is an interview by Eric Schmidt (of Google) that they try to craft business models around free. It is an interesting strategy.

That said, I think we need to go back to basics. Whenever there is something new introduced in the market an incentive is needed for people to consider the new offering. Free, is one of the most tried and tested incentives. I wouldn’t measure Freemium’s effectiveness based on a company going under – there are too many factors that may have caused the company going under. Drawing a cause and effect line between Free and a company going under is over-simplifying.

“Free” is supposed to encourage consideration, not necessarily purchase. If a “Free” offering encouraged adequate consideration in the intended segment, then it worked and if it did not, then it did not work. That is why, I agree with Byron Igoe’s comment – it is about evaluation, not purchase.

]]> By: O Reilly http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-643 O Reilly Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:50:25 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-643 I wouldn't characterize LucidEra as a good model to take lessons from. They had a lazy BI salesforce dept that didn't care to follow up. Read Havard Business Reviews about what makes a performant organization - there's the differentiator. I wouldn’t characterize LucidEra as a good model to take lessons from. They had a lazy BI salesforce dept that didn’t care to follow up. Read Havard Business Reviews about what makes a performant organization – there’s the differentiator.

]]> By: Twitted by steve_dodd http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-642 Twitted by steve_dodd Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:27:28 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-642 [...] This post was Twitted by steve_dodd [...] [...] This post was Twitted by steve_dodd [...]

]]> By: Byron Igoe http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-641 Byron Igoe Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:18:13 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-641 Thanks for the article. I can understand the concerns people have about freemium, since it can feel like a bait-and-switch. We're positioning our free service more as an evaluation tool, lowering the barriers to trying our enterprise BI software. Let me know what you think: http://visualizefree.com -Byron Thanks for the article. I can understand the concerns people have about freemium, since it can feel like a bait-and-switch.

We’re positioning our free service more as an evaluation tool, lowering the barriers to trying our enterprise BI software. Let me know what you think: http://visualizefree.com

-Byron

]]> By: Software pricing: When does freemium really work? » Andreas Goeldi http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-635 Software pricing: When does freemium really work? » Andreas Goeldi Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:01:11 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-635 [...] free versions of its products pretty well. Startups like photo sharing site Phanfare and the recently demised LucidEra (a vendor of SaaS business intelligence) tried freemium models, but weren’t successful. And [...] [...] free versions of its products pretty well. Startups like photo sharing site Phanfare and the recently demised LucidEra (a vendor of SaaS business intelligence) tried freemium models, but weren’t successful. And [...]

]]> By: Neil Raden http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-633 Neil Raden Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:07:56 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-633 An old friend, Klaus Mikkelsen once said me, "Neil, don't forget, the average IQ is 100." People in this industry are (generally) pretty smart and it's easy to overlook the fact that our customers might not all be so smart. This is true in the SMB market, and it's true in the F500. Sometimes the people who gather information are the more expendable assets or they'd be doing something more creative. -NR An old friend, Klaus Mikkelsen once said me, “Neil, don’t forget, the average IQ is 100.”

People in this industry are (generally) pretty smart and it’s easy to overlook the fact that our customers might not all be so smart. This is true in the SMB market, and it’s true in the F500. Sometimes the people who gather information are the more expendable assets or they’d be doing something more creative.

-NR

]]> By: Rasmus Madsen http://datadoodle.com/2009/08/03/lessons-from-lucidera-on-selling-bi-to-the-mid-market/comment-page-1/#comment-630 Rasmus Madsen Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:44:24 +0000 http://datadoodle.com/?p=882#comment-630 At youcalc (SaaS analytics vendor) we signed up more than 4,000 customers across the world since our launch Dec '08 - mainly with a freemium offering. (I am sorry I cannot disclose paying subscribers data). We strongly believe in the freemium model, but it has to match the offering and the sales method. We have no sales team, no customer interaction, and a low price point. We believe this is is right strategy for the main SaaS user base today, but we do see that model change as we start to move up-market in the longer term. You have to be extremely cautious targeting too up-market now - big enterprise is simply not using SaaS for their business data yet. BI Analyst David Raab just wrote a very clever blog on the differences of our approach vs. other SaaS BI vendors, it's worth reading: http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.com/2009/08/youcalc-on-demand-analytics-without.html Rasmus Madsen CEO - www.youcalc.com At youcalc (SaaS analytics vendor) we signed up more than 4,000 customers across the world since our launch Dec ’08 – mainly with a freemium offering. (I am sorry I cannot disclose paying subscribers data).

We strongly believe in the freemium model, but it has to match the offering and the sales method. We have no sales team, no customer interaction, and a low price point. We believe this is is right strategy for the main SaaS user base today, but we do see that model change as we start to move up-market in the longer term. You have to be extremely cautious targeting too up-market now – big enterprise is simply not using SaaS for their business data yet.

BI Analyst David Raab just wrote a very clever blog on the differences of our approach vs. other SaaS BI vendors, it’s worth reading: http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.com/2009/08/youcalc-on-demand-analytics-without.html

Rasmus Madsen
CEO – http://www.youcalc.com

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