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.

B.

Resources: Reduce resources required for the use of the product

1.
Money: Reduce the money the customer uses with the product. For more ideas on using pricing, please see the Improve/Pricing section of StrategyStreet.

B. Reduce the customer's spending on people, purchases or capital costs the customer uses with the product itself

Purchase costs used with the product itself
Reduce need for third party assistance used with the product

Substitute technology for labor

No.	SIC	Year	Note
1	2711	2000	AmericanGreetings.com is the fastest growing and second largest provider of electronic greetings. Through exclusive partnerships with AOL, Lycos, and Yahoo the company reaches 81% of all Web users. The company is the only online greetings site offering interactive games and comics as well as free Web-based software for making customized paper greetings that are printable at home.
2	3571	2001	Because of a slowdown in tech spending, several makers of storage systems are introducing and updating their midrange products. Each of these products is used in divisional and departmental-sized business units. Hitachi Data Systems announced HiCommand, software that can help automate storage management. The product allows storage managers to control all aspects of Hitachi’s Freedom line of storage products from single, integrated Web-based interface.
3	3600	2000	Gentner was built around equipment to help keep radio and TV talk shows rolling. It developed a product that queued talk-show callers.
4	3679	1988	Sony sells a kit of 5 filters to accompany videocameras, so you can soften picture edges, surround subjects in a multicolored halo, or highlight bright objects.
5	4800	1986	Handar has developed an automatic, 24-hour weather reporting system for aircraft which employs hundreds of sensors to measure wind, temperature, visibility, cloud cover. Computer analyzes the readings and broadcasts continuous reports via radio and phone.
6	4899	2003	Wider-Fi also could give local phone companies and cable operators night sweats, allowing wireless Internet service providers to cheaply hook up homes at broadband speeds.
7	7372	2000	Accrue's giant database and proprietary Insight software tracks Web users' behavior when buying or browsing products. Accrue can tell Apple for example how many visitors looked into buying iMacs and other information.
8	7372	2005	A few large companies have emerged to sell all the parts of a complete business software stack: applications, application servers, databases, and middleware. These stack vendors are Microsoft, IBM, SAP, and Oracle. Due to market uncertainty, it has become clear that size does matter for these companies as software buyers are demanding more functions, lower costs, and tighter integration.
9	7379	2000	Big companies have budgets to hire IT specialists to run their systems, or to turn over their systems to a consulting operation such as EDS. CenterBeam is one of a handful of "managed service providers" who offer this service to small and medium sized companies.
10	7379	2004	Spending is up for product lifestyle software. Originally used to help make techie or complex products such as cars, jets and cell phones, the product is now growing fast among companies that manufacture consumer goods, drugs and clothes. Companies such as J. Crew, Procter & Gamble and GE Plastics have all increased spending on product lifestyle software. Companies are using the software to cut costs and boost growth by developing better products. Product lifestyle software can cut the cost and time it takes to develop products by up to 80%, improve success rates and help meet regulations. The software can help improve communication and cooperation within a company.

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