A global ICT device vendor uses strategic white papers to share business advice and insights with its clients to influence their purchase decisions, leading to new contracts.

1. CLIENT CASE STUDY
ONEACCESS' CAPTURES' €300K' CONTRACT' WITH'
CUSTOMER'BUSINESS'VALUE9DRIVEN'WHITE'PAPER'
Case Summary:
Target Audience:
Key Point:
A global ICT device vendor uses strategic white papers to share business advice and
insights with its clients to influence their purchase decisions, leading to new contracts
Small company - Business Owner, President, Head of Business Development
Med & large firms - CMO / Marketing Director, Head of Product Marketing
Relevant and high quality customer-driven content offers new ideas and insights to
clients and helps influence their purchase decisions
CLIENT'OVERVIEW''
OneAccess is a leading, worldwide provider of business multi-service routers,
Ethernet access devices and managed service software, enabling
communication service providers to deliver profitable communication
propositions to business customers of different types.
It supplies routers to over 120 service providers in over 50 markets worldwide,
including 4 of the 5 largest European providers, and currently holds over 30% of unit market share of branch office
routers in EMEA. The companies was incorporated in 2001 and employees over 400 people in 13 locations
worldwide.
one of its key assets. However to accelerate the
company’s shift from network device supplier to
business partner it needed an effective way of
internally capturing and transferring business
and market-specific knowledge based on its
experiences, including past client successes.
ONEACCESS’'BUSINESS'CHALLENGE'
As an established player in the business router
market, OneAccess’ strength lies in working with its
clients to design and build custom devices tailored to
their particular requirements. Its commercial,
engineering and operations teams work in close
collaboration with their client counterparts to quickly
define and deliver adapted products.
While this approach has helped OneAccess develop
its client base and consistently grow its business
despite a tough economic environment, when
compared to the market leader, it is sometimes
perceived by service providers as a router vendor
rather than a key partner capable of helping them
create and jointly go-to-market with new business
communication value propositions.
To make the shift from a network device supplier to a
business partner it faced several issues:
!
Instilling greater client business focus –
OneAccess’ customer-facing teams, including
engineering, operations and field support, are
!
Offering clients value for creating
successful services – As part of its offer
OneAccess delivers product design, technical
support and other services related to the
customized devices it sells to clients. While its
technology portfolio is an important part for
delivering successful communication services,
there are other equally important business
issues and considerations for developing
successful services. As a global supplier to
service providers around the world it has access
to such valuable information that other clients
would find beneficial. OneAccess needed a way
to share these insights and best practices with
clients and prospects, thus confirming its
commitment to their business success.

2. !
Broadening and strengthening client
relationships – OneAccess has been quite
successful at establishing client relationships
with its commercial, engineering and network
operations client counterparts. However, to be
viewed more as a strategic business partner and
increase its circle of influence, it needed to
broaden
and
strengthen
its
customer
relationships with other client decision-makers
and influencers, including the marketing and
strategy-focused teams.
THE' SOLUTION:' OFFER' CUSTOMER'
BUSINESS' INSIGHTS' USING' STRATEGIC'
WHITE'PAPERS'
In order to help OneAccess improve its commitment
to its clients’ business success, and help further
broaden its relationships, Merkado designed,
researched and developed a comprehensive
strategic
report
on
creating
successful
communication services, targeting its clients’ strategy
and marketing leaders.
BUSINESS' RESULT:' STRATEGIC' WHITE'
PAPER'HELPS'NET'A'€300K'CONTRACT'
The strategic white paper was published in early 2012
and is currently being used as a strategic commercial
tool
for
value-selling
OneAccess’
business
communication offer to prospective clients, while
helping broaden and strengthen client relations.
The customized report (Figure 1) offers businessminded readers’ relevant information and insights –
in the areas of product strategy, marketing, sales,
distribution, operations and customer satisfaction for creating successful business IP voice services for
today’s clients. The recommendations are further
reinforced with a set of success cases focusing on
two distinct European communication service
providers. Each case example clearly shows the
qualitative and quantitative business benefits that
have been achieved by working with OneAccess.
Figure 1 – Value-driven, Strategic White Paper
This value-driven strategic white paper had several
objectives:



Provide an updated market and customer-driven
view of OneAccess’ business voice services
portfolio
Demonstrate to service provider strategy and
marketing leaders the business value offered by
OneAccess’ business IP voice portfolio, as
shown through successful customer cases.
Provide OneAccess customer-facing teams with
valuable, business-oriented discussion points for
engaging with other client executives, thus
helping broaden and deepen client relations
The custom report included an overview of current
business communications market trends, a discussion
of the business end-user market and an overview the
key considerations for successfully commercializing
new business IP voice services. These points were
further highlighted through a set of comprehensive
service provider success cases, clearly demonstrating
the value from partnering with OneAccess.
merkadoservices.com
In one particular instance, the white paper was
distributed to some staff at a prospective client that
was in the process of evaluating several router
vendors, including OneAccess. One of their senior
business managers read the report and found it
particularly compelling and relevant to his business.
To influence an upcoming investment decision from
his management team, he extracted various key
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3. points and insights from the report and included
them directly within the project-funding request.
Following the management review, the funding
request was accepted and the project was given a
go-ahead with OneAccess as supplier, leading to a
€300,000 contract for them.
RECOMMENDATIONS'FOR'TECHNOLOGY'COMPANIES'
1.
Technology companies need to sell business insights to solve customer needs – In a world
where clients have become adept at identifying, analyzing and understanding their problems, while
assembling their own solutions, technology companies need to find new ways to sell. To be more relevant
to today’s customers, technology companies should target emerging rather than established customer
demand. This can be done by offering thought-provoking ideas and insights of what customers should do,
while also engaging with non-conventional client contacts to mobilize the status quo.
2.
Relevant, high-quality content has become critical for doing business – In today’s digital
world content has become the core for most B2C and B2B marketing activities. Relevant, high-quality
content allows prospective clients to conduct meaningful research, discover the benefits of new offers,
learn about others’ experiences and build a case to justify any new purchase. Technology companies must
increasingly invest in relevant and engaging content, delivered in various forms (e.g. social media,
newsletters, blogs, case studies, white papers) in order to entice prospects, influence their purchase
decisions and ultimately convert them into clients.
3.
Customized reports give companies an excellent way to engage with a wider range of B2B
client stakeholders – The main target audience for many technology companies includes the
engineering or development departments and technical product managers. However, the final purchase
decisions are increasingly being lead by strategic and/or financially minded stakeholders. This includes
business owners or finance directors at small firms, and finance and/or strategic planning director and
CxOs at larger ones. Developing customized reports that address a range of market, strategy and
business-oriented issues and how clients can be successful within that environment, is an excellent way to
shift the commercial discussions to a higher business level and appeal to the interests of these key
individuals.
merkadoservices.com
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4. About Merkado
Contact Us
Merkado helps technology companies
create customer value and business
growth through our practical and
integrated go-to-market solutions.
To see how Merkado can assist your
organization please contact:
From market opportunity evaluation to
strategic sales support, we deliver a full
range of go-to-market advice,
assistance and methods, combining
proven, international experience with a
first-hand understanding of the latest
consumer and business technology
trends.
merkadoservices.com
Copyright © 2013 Merkado Services. All rights reserved
Juan Carlos Sanchez
Managing Director
jcsanchez@merkadoservice.com
For more information visit:
www.merkadoservices.com
Merkado SAS
10 rue de Vouillé
75015, Paris
France
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