What are the best pricing software applications?

Does anyone have any experience with the pricing applications on the market such as Vendavo, Zilliant, etc? I am just starting to research these applications. Any data will help. What should I look for? Are their categories for applications?

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Sales

CRM

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Craig Rosenberg

asked on Oct. 31, 2009

Bezerkus

Posted on Nov. 1, 2009

Tough question. As a general category, pricing software receives very little attention because it's pretty arcane stuff and usually only applies to specific vertical markets such as hardcore manufacturing verticals. Gartner estimates that this is only a $180M market. Small potatoes. Even so, there are some things to look out for:

1. You should really only look for help from an enterprise application if you have a lot of different inputs that impact pricing. These might include raw material costs, customer or sku specific shipping costs, and whether you have a history of creating custom quotes for specific customers. You need an enterprise class pricing app even more if these inputs are dynamic in nature. For example, your raw materials are commodities and prices change in real time.

2. There are not many vendors to chose from in this market. You mention two of the market leaders. The other vendor that tends to get thrown into this category if PROS. Usually, this will work against you as a buyer, but these vendors are in such a dogfight that you have the power if you make them compete for your business.

3. Most end users need help from of the big SIs/consultancies to make this stuff work. This is not SaaS type stuff. It's 1995 big enterprise application implementation time again.

4. Make sure you believe that you can improve gross margin with one of these solutions. You want to win 2+ points of GM when you are live with the software. Then make sure the vendor can deliver.

5. Ultimately, this looks like a market that the big legacy ERP vendors will own. Maybe it's too small for them to care, but eventually the investors in the pricing app vendors will start shopping them to SAP and Oracle, maybe even Microsoft.

Bezerkus

-1

Len Green

Consultant/SI, TSI-Transforming Solutions Inc

Posted on Nov. 1, 2009

Craig: I have seen pricing applications work great in Excel, Quickbooks, Oracle EBS, Dynamics AX, SalesForce.com etc etc. Many ERP's have product based pricing capabilities, some also handle service based pricing (e.g. for professional services, projects, construction etc).

It really starts with : What is your business pricing need?

Non-traditional business areas, esp internet/multi-media/next generation communications etc need a very different pricing engine, often dependent on complex rules and on data collection (e.g. usage/consumption records).
If your needs are unusual, you may want to look at HighDeal Software or even a BPM application.

Regards

-1

PROS MKT

Posted on Nov. 2, 2009

Full disclosure - I'm a PROS employee. That said, PROS is the largest and most successful pricing software company out there with a specialization in B2B manufacturing and Distribution. PROS has been in business for over 20 years (others are VC funded startups), has been profitable for 10 consecutive years (others have $50-60M in losses over the last 5-10years w/ some having additional bank debt), and is the only publically traded company (NYSE: PRO). All this points to PROS being able to make the investments in technology (25% of revenue goes to R&D) and staffing (PROS is growing this year again - the other 2 companies mentioned have cut staff form 2008 to 2009 - Gartner Marketscope validates this).

PROS also has the best trackrecord for successful implementations and ROI - Gartner, AMR, McKinsey will all validate this statement - I strongly encoursge you to do your own homework on this point - don't take it from me.

Also look at the facts of who is partnered with PROS:

PROS is the only vendor who is Microsort Gold Certified and an official alliance partner. Vendavo has a sales and marketing alliance w/ SAP - that just means that SAP gets a cut of whatever Vendavo systems they cna sell - not a good thing for you the customer as it does not encourage partnership or innovation.

https://solutionfinder.microsoft.com/Solutions/SolutionDetailsView.aspx?solut...

PROS is also the only vendor w/ an alliance with Accenture - the largest global consulting company out there. Accenture partnered with PROS after an extensive evaluation of all vendors on technology, implementation, pricing science, ROI, partnership, long-term staying power, and other factors. These guys don't make these decision lightly and they will only recommend partners that they believe will be a successs. Consultants can't risk their reputation.

http://www.accenture.com/Global/Services/Alliances/PROS.htm

See also Accenture video blogs on www.pricingleadership.com

http://www.pricingleadership.com/?page_id=223

Bottom line -PROS is the leader in technology, user adoption, ROI, pricing science, global B2B enterprise pricing.

see www.prospricing.com for more info.