Clearwater Technologies Essay Example for Free

Clearwater Technologies Essay Clearwater set a per-seat manufacturers suggested retail price (MSRP) that decreased with higher quantity seat purchases, reflecting the customer perception of declining manufacturing cost per seat. Clearwater also saw this as advantageous because it encouraged customers to maximize their initial seat purchase. Clearwater typically sold its products through value-added resellers (VARs). A VAR was typically a small local firm that provided sales and support to end users. The value added by these resellers was that they provided a complete solution to the end user/customer from a single point of purchase and had multiple information technology products available from various vendors. Using VARs reduced Clearwaters sales and service expense significantly and increased its market coverage. These intermediaries operated in several steps. First, the VAR combined the QTX from Clearwater with database software from other suppliers to form a turnkey customer solution. Second, the VAR loaded the software with customer-specific information and linked it to the customers existing sales history databases. Finally, the VAR installed the product at the customers site and trained the customer on its use. Clearwater sold the QTX to resellers at a 50 percent discount from the MSRP, allowing the VARs to sell to the end user at or below the MSRP. The discount allowed the VARs room to negotiate with the customer and still achieve a profit. The Upgrade Initially, the expectation had been that the 30-seat unit would be the largest volume seller. In order to gain economies of scale in manufacturing, reduce inventory configurations, and reduce engineering design and testing expense to a single assembly, Clearwater decided to manufacture only the 30-seat server with the appropriate number of seats enabled for the buyer. Clearwater was effectively giving away extra memory and absorbing the higher cost rather than manufacturing the various sizes. If a customer wanted a 10-seat server, the company shipped a 30-seat capable unit, with only the requested 10 seats enabled through software configuration. The proposed upgrade was, in reality, allowing customers to access capability already built into the product. Clearwater knew that many original customers were ready to use the additional capacity in the QTX. Some customers had added seats by buying a second box, but because the original product contained the capability to expand by accessing the disabled seats, Clearwater saw an opportunity to expand the product line and increase sales to a captive customer base. Customers could double or triple their seat capacity by purchasing either a 10- or a 20-seat upgrade and getting an access code to enable the additional number of seats. No other competitor offered the possibility of an upgrade. To gain additional seats from the competitor, the customer purchased and installed an additional box. Because customers performed a significant amount of acceptance testing, which they would have to repeat before switching brands, the likelihood of changing brands to add capacity was low. The objective of this mornings meeting was to set the price for the two upgrades. As QTX product manager Rob Erickson stopped to collect his most recent notes from his desk, he reflected: What a way to start the week. Every time we have one of these meetings, senior management only looks at margins. I spent the whole weekend cranking numbers and Im going in there using the highest margin weve got today. How can anybody say thats too low? He grabbed his notes, calculator, and coffee and headed down the hall. From the other wing of the building, financial analyst Hillary Hanson was crossing the lobby towards the conference room. She was thinking about the conversation she had late Number MSRP to VAR Unit Unit of Seats End User Price Cost* Margin** 10 $8,000 $4,000 $500 87. 5% 20 $14,000 $7,000 $700 90. 0% 30 $17,250 $8,625 $900 89. % TABLE 1 *Unit cost reflects additional $200 for memory capability for each additional 10 seats. **Margin _ VAR Price _ Unit Cost VAR Price Number Original Original Actual Actual of Seats Unit Cost Unit Margin Unit Cost Unit Margin 10 $500 87. 5% $900 77. 5% 20 $700 90. 0% $900 87. 1% 30 $900 89. 6% $900 89. 6% TABLE 2 Friday afternoon with her boss, Alicia Fisher, Clear waters CFO. They had been discussing this upcoming meeting and Alicia had given Hillary very clear instructions. I want you to go in and argue for the highest price possible. We should absolutely maximize the profitability on the upgrade. The customers are already committed to us and they have no alternative for an upgrade but with us. The switching costs to change at this point are too high since theyve already been trained in our system and software. Lets go for it. Besides, we really need to show some serious revenue generation for the year-end report to the stockholders. Hillary had not actually finalized a number. She figured she could see what the others proposed and then argue for a significant premium over that. She had the CFOs backing so she could keep pushing for more. From the parking lot, Brian James, the district sales manager, headed for the rear entrance. He, too, was thinking about the upcoming meeting and anticipating a long morning. I wish marketing would realize that when they come up with some grandiose number for a new product, sales takes the hit in the field. Its a killer to have to explain to customers that they have to pay big bucks for something thats essentially built in. Its gonna be even tougher to justify on this upgrade. At least with the QTX, we have something the buyer can see. Its hardware. With the upgrade, there isnt even a physical product. Were just giving customers a code to access the capability thats already built into the machine. Telling customers that they have to pay several thousand dollars never makes you popular. If you think about it, thats a lot of money for an access code, but you wont hear me say that out loud. Maybe I can get them to agree to something reasonable this time. I spent the weekend working this one out, and I think my logic is pretty solid. Price Proposals Once everyone was settled in the conference room, Rob spoke first: I know we have to come up with prices for both the 10-seat and 20-seat upgrades, but to keep things manageable, lets discuss the 20-seat price first. Once that number is set, the 10-seat price should be simple. Because the margin on the 30-seat unit is the highest in the line, I think we should use that as the basis to the price for the upgrade. He went to a whiteboard to show an example: If a customer is upgrading from a 10-seat unit to a 30-seat unit, they are adding two steps of capacity costing $200 each to us, or $400. $400 /1-0. 90 _ $4,000 to the reseller, and $8,000 to the end user. We keep the margin structure in place at the highest point in the line. The customer gets additional capacity, and we keep our margins consistent. He sat down feeling pleased. He had fired the first shot, had been consistent with the existing margin structure, and had rounded up the highest margin point in the line. Brian looked at Robs calculations and commented: I think thats going to be hard for the customer to see without us giving away information about our margins, and we dont want to do that, since they are pretty aggressive to begin with. However, I think I have solved this one for us. Ive finally come up with a simple, fair solution to pricing the upgrade that works for us and the customers. He walked over to a whiteboard and grabbed a marker: If we assume an existing 10-seat customer has decided to upgrade to 30-seat capability, we should charge that customer the difference between what the buyer has already paid and the price of the new capacity. So . . . New 30-seat unit $17,250 Original 10-seat unit $8,000 Price for 20-seat upgrade $9,250 Its consistent with our current pricing for the QTX. Its fair to the customer. Its easy for the customer to understand and it still makes wads of money for us. It also is easy for the customer to see that were being good to them. If they bought a 20-seat box in addition to the 10-seat box they already have, it would be costing them more. He wrote: New 20-seat unit $14,000 A new unit provides customers with redundancy by having two boxes, which they might want in the event of product failure, but the cost is pretty stiff. Upgrading becomes the logical and affordable option. Hillary looked at the numbers and knew just what she was going to do. That all looks very logical, but I dont see that either of you has the companys best interests at heart. Brian, you just want a simple sale that your sales people and the customers will buy into, and Rob, you are charging even less than Brian. We need to consider the revenue issue as well. These people have already bought from us; are trained on our hardware and software and dont want to have to repeat the process with someone else. It would take too long. Theyve got no desire to make a change and that means weve got them. The sky is really the limit on how much we can charge them because they have no real alternative. We should take this opportunity to really go for the gold, say $15,000 or even $20,000. We can and should be as aggressive as possible. All three continued to argue the relative merits of their pricing positions, without notable success. Jefferies listened to each of them and after they finished, he turned to a clean whiteboard and took the marker. Ive done some more thinking on this. In order to meet the needs of all three departments, there are three very important points that the price structure for these upgrades must accomplish: 1. The pricing for the upgrades shouldnt undercut the existing pricing for the 30-seat QTX. 2. We want to motivate our buyers to purchase the maximum number of seats at the initial purchase. A dollar now is better than a potential dollar later. We never know for sure that they will make that second purchase. If we dont do this right, were going to encourage customers to reduce their initial purchase. Theyll figure they can add capacity whenever, so why buy it if they dont need it. That would kill upfront sales of the QTX. 3. We dont want to leave any revenue on the table when buyers decide to buy more capacity. They are already committed to us and our technology and we should capitalize on that, without totally ripping them off. Therefore, while Hillary says the skys the limit, I think there is a limit and we need to determine what it is and how close we can come to it. If we assume that those are the objectives, none of the prices youve put together thus far answers all three of those criteria. Some come close, but each one fails. See if you can put your heads together and come to a consensus price that satisfies all three objectives. OK? Heads nodded and with that, Jefferies left the conference room. The three remaining occupants looked at one another. Brian got up to wipe the previous numbers off the whiteboards and said: OK, one more time. If our numbers dont work, why not and what is the right price for the 20-seat upgrade?

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his dramatic works, Shakespeare has provided insights into human nature which, in the opinion of many of his disciples, equal those of the greatest modern psychologists. The impact of the Bard's insights is compounded by a masterful use of the language which makes him the mostly widely studied English writer. Church records indicate that William Shakespeare was baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire on April 26, 1564. April 23 is widely accepted as his date of birth. His father was a respected tradesman (a glover who was involved in a variety of commercial activities) who held several important municipal offices. Shakespeare was probably educated at the local grammar school. He would have viewed local theatrical productions by groups of travelling players. When he was eighteen he married the twenty-six year old Anne Hathaway. In May of 1583 she gave birth to their first daughter, Susanna. In 1585, twins, named Hamnet and Judith, were born. Shortly thereafter, Shakespeare left Stratford. It is speculated that he was fleeing prosecution for poaching deer on the property of a local nobleman. By about 1587 he had arrived in London and begun his career as an actor and playwright. His success earned him the jealousy of rivals such as Richard Greene who condemned him as "an upstart crow" in 1592. The following is a chronological listing of Shakespeare's canon of plays and poetry: 1588-93 - The Comedy of Errors 1588-92 - Henry VI (three parts) 1592-93 - Richard III 1592-94 - Titus Andronicus 1593-94 - The Taming of the Shrew 1593-94 - The Two Gentlemen of Verona 1593-94 - "The Rape of Lucrece" 1593-1600 - "Sonnets" 1588-95 - Love's Labor's Lost 1594-96 - Romeo and Juliet 1595 - Richard II 1594-96 - A Midsummer Night's Dream 1590-97 - King John 1592 - "Venus and Adonis" 1596-97 - The Merchant of Venice 1597 - Henry IV (Part I) 1597-98 - Henry IV (Part II) 1598-1600 - Much Ado About Nothing 1598-99 - Henry V 1599 - Julius Caesar 1599-1600 - As You Like It 1600-02 - Twelfth Night 1600-OI - Hamlet 1597-1601 - The Merry Wives of Windsor 1600-OI - "The Phoenix and the Turtle" 160I-02 - Troilus and Cressida 1602-04 - All's Well That Ends Well 1603-04 - Othello 1604 - Measure for Measure 1604-09 - Timon of Athens 1605-06 - King Lear 1605-06 - Macbeth 1606-07 - Antony and Cleopatra 1607-09 - Coriolanus 1608-09 - Pericles 1609-IO - Cymbeline 16IO-II - The Winter's Tale 16II - The Tempest 16I2-I3 - Henry VIII 16I3 - The Two Noble Kinsmen In 1594, Shakespeare joined The Chamberlain's Men, a theatrical company which enjoyed the patronage of the royal court.

Reflective Material

Monica Wells MSM 5100 August 28, 2011 Why did Jim feel it necessary to analyze reflective material produced by students rather than just interview final-year students in his research? ANSWER: I feel that Jim choose to use both means of collecting data to ensure he was able to see the whole picture. Additionally, I feel it was good for him to lay down a base line for the interviews by reviewing the reflective data. I also believe this allowed him to get a better understanding of the students and the data prior to conducting interviews. Why was it important to plan and manage the interview the way described. ANSWER: I believe that it was good to explain to the students what he was attempting to do during the interview process. I also believe that as an interviewer you want as few distractions as possible thus not disrupting the flow of the information. Iti s also important to put the students at ease and not have them concerned about what they say and how it will be used. Furthermore, I believe as an interviewer one wants as few distractions as possible during the process. With Jim allowing for cross flow of communication and having them in a group, I believe that it enabled the process to get to the route of the problem. More often that not, people feed off of others comments thus adding to the discussion. As Jim only interjected when they got off topic this allowed for him to gather more data during the timeframe they were allotted. How did Jim deal with the ethical issues in his research? ANSWER: I feel that by Jim explaining up front to the students that he was recording and offering up the possibility of erasing something the students did not like, this made the ethical questions disappear. He took the time at the beginning to tell them what was going on and what he intended to do with the data gathered. I feel he covered any ethical dilemmas that could be raised. Why was it valid for Jim to decide to interview tutors when originally he had not intended to? ANSWER: I believe it was valid to interview the tutors because his initial dat collection led to him to believe there was more than what met the eye. I don’t believe the initial information was able to answer the why, how and when questions would like an interview did. It was able to get to the route of the problem allowing for him to make the WBL a better plan. The more he was able to learn about the flaws the better for him. Additionally i feel the answers in the primarily data led to more questions. He found out that many students had not been placed and now he knew why they had not.

Pros and Cons of Class Field Trips

Are field trips worth all the time and effort required to make them successful? Most teachers have asked themselves this question at one time or another, typically when feeling overwhelmed as they prepare for  a field trip. The truth is that field trips at any grade level can cause quite a few headaches for teachers. At the same time, well-planned field trips can provide students with truly educational experiences they cannot get in the confines of the classroom. Following is a look at the pros and cons of field trips. Benefits of Field Trips Field trips provide students with new opportunities for learning through experience: Information is presented to students in a way that meets different learning modalities.  Field trips provide students with the ability to learn by doing instead of just passively listening to the information being taught in class.  Students are exposed to  new experiences that, hopefully, broaden their horizons. This can be especially helpful for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who may not have been exposed to these opportunities before.  Concepts that have already been learned in the classroom can be reinforced. Sometimes seeing information being taught in a new way can make a big difference in student comprehension. There is quite a difference between being taught about something like hurricanes and wind speed and experiencing them in an exhibit at a science museum.  Students are provided with shared reference points that teachers can then refer to and use in future lessons. There may be an opportunity to have two or more disciplines use a field trip as an e nrichment activity. For example, a trip to an art museum (art) may couple with a timeline for social studies (political systems in place when art was created) or math (measurements) can combine with science in a biosystem (river, beach, and meadow). In this manner, several teachers can then refer to things that students saw and experienced during the field trip for the remainder of the school year.  Students and teachers can see each other in a different light, helping to increase communication between them. Some students who might be overlooked in class because they are quiet might really come alive on field trips.  If parents are involved as chaperones, they can feel more connected to the teacher and the lessons being taught. They can get to know the teacher  better and understand what teachers deal with daily.Standards in social studies and science  require students to have experiences  related to concepts in the discipline. In social studies, students are required to t ake informed action.  In science, students need to be exposed to a series of concepts to help them to better understand the world around them. Field trips help teachers meet these objectives. Problems With Field Trips Teachers face a number of concerns and challenges when designing field trips that they need to recognize and address before planning a field trip. Field trips take preparation if teachers want to make them meaningful. They have to coordinate locations and transportation. They also need to create an effective lesson plan that they will follow when on the excursion.Students will be out of the school building for a field trip, which means they will miss other classes—at least in middle and high school. If each core subject area (ELA, math science, or social studies) offers one field trip during a school year, students would be out of the building for four days. School attendance policies may count these as excused absences, but any field trip that removes students from class reduces the number of classroom hours.  Field trips can be expensive, and some students may not have the funds to attend. Organizers of the field trip may consider asking for parents to add a few dollars to help students in need. School boosters may need to host a fundraiser for students to raise money for more expensive trips.Teachers have to organiz e the collection of money and the assigning of chaperones. Teachers need to spend some time creating student groups that work for all students and ensuring that chaperones are assigned accordingly.  Teachers will likely have to deal with red tape as they plan field trips including permission slips, medical information, and emergency procedures. Schools typically require paperwork from teachers and their students.  Students will be placed in a larger environment than the classroom. New surroundings could possibly lead to additional discipline problems. Because teachers typically only lead a small group (such as 30 to 40 students), they may not be able to maintain control over the behavior of every student on the field trip, especially if the group is large. Teachers should go over rules and expectations before the field trip, enforce the rules strictly while away from school grounds, and create effective consequences for misbehavior.  The field trip destination might not live u p to the teachers expectations. The location might not be as interesting as the teacher thought it would be. The time to complete the field trip might be considerably less than was expected. Therefore, it is a good idea to have some contingency plan in mind just in case.There may be students who, for one reason or another, will not attend the field trip. Teachers must leave lessons, usually enrichment offerings, that mirror some of the concepts being experienced on the field trip. Requesting Feedback One of the best ways to measure the success of a field trip (other than returning all students back to the school) is to ask for feedback. Teachers can post a survey for participants and for other chaperones asking them to express how they would evaluate the trip. Students should have the opportunity to reflect on the trip and write a response in a journal or essay. Requiring journal responses after the trip can solidify the information learned as students reflect on their new experiences.  Asking students to write a thank you to the school principal for allowing the trip may even smooth the path to additional field trips.   Many teachers feel that well-chosen field trip destinations are worth the difficulties they may create. The key is taking the time to plan each aspect as much as possible.  Teachers should be proactive when thinking about and planning field trips. Students, on the other hand, may remember the experience of the school field trip as a highlight of the school year, and the time they learned more than anything taught in class.