 A landmark study of both end-users and vendors of data loggers and industrial control equipment has uncovered some surprising findings about perception of value, customer satisfaction and the purchase-decision process. Among findings announced from the just-completed study:
- Only 32% of buyers think product cost is as important as other issues they care about!
- More than 70% of the market says that accuracy is the most important aspect of data loggers and remote
terminal units, yet, not a single end-user survey taker was satisfied with the accuracy of the product they buy!
- Only 2% of users think there is any quality difference between brands!
What this survey conclusively shows is that vendors have allowed themselves to be completely commoditized. This lead to significant downward pricing pressure, low vendor profitability, lack of resources and lack of resources lead to compromises in product development that then lead to a vicious circle of where pricing pressures lead to lack of resources, and where lack of resources leads vendors to make compromises in product design that leads to product dissatisfaction that then lead to more downward pricing pressure.
But all of this is, in fact, good news - for the savvy vendor with the knowledge from this report in hand.
In a market where everybody is happy, there is no way to stand out. There is no way to provide customers with something better, and something that makes them more satisfied and something that they are willing to pay more for. In a commodity market, where their is widespread user dissatisfaction, there is tremendous opportunity to grow, to wipe out competition and become the dominant vendor in the market. So the savy vendor, with direction from this market report, can learn where their customers needs and how to grow profits.
Conducted in the summer of 2010 by Atenga, Inc., a market research and consulting firm, the study was designed to capture the decision landscape, value perceptions and willingness of users to pay for various aspects of equipment and services for remote monitoring and control.
Complete information from the survey and its analysis is available in a comprehensive report that provides vendors with in-depth, accurate, surprising and actionable data that can, and should, be used to better meet the needs of their customers, increase the value users see in the products, and, most important, the ability to enhance customer satisfaction and increase business results.
Users, on the other hand, can leverage a better understanding how other users make their decisions, what is important in their particular industry and how their perceptions compare with those of their peers in similar companies.
The study was conducted with the assistance of Remote Site & Equipment Management magazine and included detailed surveys of end-users involved in data acquisition, SCADA and remote site and equipment monitoring in a number of industries including utilities, telecommunications, communications providers and infrastructure, water & wastewater, transportation, energy and power.
The full report is more than 250 pages and is available from Remote Magazine. $995 for an individual print version, $1,295 for a PDF (corporate copy) version. |
