I'm currently investigating the idea of offering a very niche product to a very nice market; looking for pointers to pricing for this.
I am currently being trained on a best-of-breed software package by the company that owns and develops the product. They have customers globally, but are hamstrung by the fact that there aren't enough people available to support their product. Similarly, going "to the source" for training is extremely expensive (think six figures to get around a dozen people completely trained).
I think there's an opportunity to provide this training through online video courses to the existing customers of this product. Regardless of customizations they do, their staff will need to know how to use the product and potentially how to extend its functionality.
I am considering offering this as some form of subscription - either monthly, annually, or something in between. The customer is be able to give their staff streaming access to the videos from wherever (S3 hosted or something), and there can be an additional testing component to be sure that competency has been gained.
To me, the "obvious" comparisons are to both FTE trainer costs and to sending people to the developer for training.
I believe I can get access to the existing customer list for North America at least, probably globally (both directly and through selective use of Google), so reaching the right people isn't a big hurdle, it's the pricing and convincing. The potential customers have money - everyone uses their product.
I am currently being trained on a best-of-breed software package by the company that owns and develops the product. They have customers globally, but are hamstrung by the fact that there aren't enough people available to support their product. Similarly, going "to the source" for training is extremely expensive (think six figures to get around a dozen people completely trained).
I think there's an opportunity to provide this training through online video courses to the existing customers of this product. Regardless of customizations they do, their staff will need to know how to use the product and potentially how to extend its functionality.
I am considering offering this as some form of subscription - either monthly, annually, or something in between. The customer is be able to give their staff streaming access to the videos from wherever (S3 hosted or something), and there can be an additional testing component to be sure that competency has been gained.
To me, the "obvious" comparisons are to both FTE trainer costs and to sending people to the developer for training.
I believe I can get access to the existing customer list for North America at least, probably globally (both directly and through selective use of Google), so reaching the right people isn't a big hurdle, it's the pricing and convincing. The potential customers have money - everyone uses their product.
Ideas? They're all appreciated.