How to Discount Your ECM System without Really Trying

If you are a customer of Documentum, FileNet, IBM, OpenText, Vignette or Interwoven, there is a really easy way to get deep discounts in your next license negotiations. Just follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Download Alfresco here
2. Install it in less than 5 minutes
3. Walk through the Alfresco Tutorial here

Even easier, try a hosted trial here.

That’s it. If you say you are using Alfresco and that it is so much easier and cheaper, these ECM guys are offering massive discounts. The steps above will give you all the information that you need to have the upper hand in negotiations. Alfresco is even cheaper than their annual maintenance, because it is based upon CPUs, not users, so you can use it in negotiations for annual maintenance.

If the discount isn't massive, it is because they don't think you are strategic. It really shows what they think of you. In the strategic accounts, they are definitely discounting just to keep the business. If you still want to do business with them, it could be worth some free extra training or some free consulting time.

The secret to negotiation in enterprise software is to be confident and know that you can get a better deal elsewhere, even if you have no intention of doing so. They are often willing to match our support costs, but you can’t beat free. That's all it costs to try Alfresco out. The sales guy may appear to be confident in his negotiation, but he’ll be thinking, “Oh no! Not again.” You’ve got him where you want him.

Oh and by the way, try this at the end of the quarter. Right about now would be perfect for Q1 targets when things are pretty tough for them anyway. Having flushed their pipeline to get their annual commissions in December, they are much more flexible right now.

Comments

[apoorv]

i like it :)

[James]

Support is more than just about having a warm voice on the other end of the phone. Support also includes having software vendors do Powerpoint presentations so that enterprise architects don't have to. Don't underestimate the amount of value provided by vendors in the presales cycle...

[John Newton]

I'm not suggesting you stop doing that with proprietary vendors. I'm just helping you save spending more money for that "support".

However, I think there is a better way. That one on one consultation can be done much better in a public forum. There is the same type of consultation happening on our forums ( http://forums.alfresco.com ) not just with pre-sales, but with the developers. You could get that with Documentum, but it will cost you at least $1000/day plus expenses.

In the future, I can imagine a much richer consultative experience where one-on-one collaboration happen over the internet with live walk throughs and screen sharing can happen in time-shifted conversations. Sort of a YouTube-based forum. These conversations can then be used by others with similar problems. This, of course, assumes that the software has nothing to hide and is open source.

[James]

If folks were to consult with your developers, how long would it take for them to get XACML support into your product?

[Lars Plougmann]

To increase your bargaining position, negotiate at the end of a quarter then let the agreement lapse and refuse to resume negotiations until the end of the subsequent quarter.
I have seen some very deep discounts from established software vendors in this space.