Final Customer Purchasing from the Product Producer

Use Steps: Use steps include all the customer's value added activities or the consumption of the product itself. These steps include all the costs the customer incurs in employing the product in its intended use.

3. Intellectual: Segment customers on the basis of their current knowledge and understanding of the company and its products

B. Understanding how product works with other products

No.	SIC	Year	Note
1	3571	1999	Sun acquired Forte Software. The $540 million deal for Forte boosts Sun's network computing strength. Forte's software tools let Sun create, integrate and manage applications across networks for thousands of users. The merger allows Sun to offer a more complete dot-com offering.
2	3571	2001	Compaq will spend $500 million to create a service unit in an effort to cash in on the growing industry. Currently, there are a variety of services from high-priced consulting companies who will create IT systems, to systems integrators to outsourcing, in which companies actually maintain their clients' systems. However, it is a difficult and expensive industry to break into, as competitors have seen. IBM had to build an IT staff from scratch but has seen big rewards for its efforts.
3	3571	2002	Neoware Systems sells bundled software and hardware that lets business customers deploy thin client computer systems.
4	3571	2002	Apple Computer has created a strong, applications-based software strategy, a feat for a PC manufacturer, where hardware and software usually don't harmonize. Some of Apple's software applications include iPhoto, iDVD, iTunes, and iMovie.
5	3600	2004	Kodak's EasyShare digital camera line, priced between $129 and $499 was started in 2001. The easy-use cameras, designed for amateurs, come with a docking station that enables images to be transferred to a computer at the touch of a button. They can also be hooked to printers that deliver prints in 90 seconds.
6	3651	2003	The Samsung Napster YP-910GS is Samsung's portable music player and comes in one model, with 20-gigabyte capacity, for $399, the same price as the 20-gigabyte iPod. It offers up to 10 hours of battery life, about 25% more than the iPod's, but much less than the Dell's. The player has a voice recorder, an FM radio, and an FM transmitter. It can also record MP3 files from a song being played on its internal radio, or from an outside sound source that you plug into it.
7	3714	2002	Johnson Controls shifted its focus from assembling automobile seats to providing automakers with integrated interior modules and complete cockpits. Thus, the company has moved from simply manufacturing a high-quality product to addressing automakers' higher-order needs: reducing the risk and complexity of vehicle design and improving the efficiency of vehicle assembly.
8	7372	2002	The price point of e-procurement software has dropped dramatically, and that's putting a lot of pressure on Commerce One and Ariba. People are looking for a broader suite of products than they would have been a year and a half ago.
9	8742	2005	Electronic Data Systems' new CEO has the idea to sell EDS as the leader of a federation called the Agility Alliance. The "alliance" features 10 key partners that have recently strengthened their ties to the company. They have pledged to help EDS design new services in joint development labs, give previews of future products, and potentially invest in joint contracts. The companies include Cisco, Microsoft, Dell, and Oracle. In the past, EDS installed software/hardware from rivals like IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Now it encourages customers to choose from its partners like Dell.

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