Non-Japanese CAD companies openly admit they have problems selling their software in Japan. Some of them blame their staff their or the way the sales structure is set up. Have any of them given a thought to pricing? Pro/ENGINEER Walker did.
I've converted the prices listed by the site to US$. Note that some countries include all sales taxes in the retail price, while others exclude it.
Foundation XE package
USA - - $4,995.
Japan - - 985,000 Yen = US$8,700.
UK - - £4,500 = US$9,500.
Germany - - €6,390 = US$9,400.
No doubt Walkers site would be very interesting if I could understand Japanese charachters. :-P
Point taken though, That can only be blatant profiteering. Or are they paying their Japan sales agents 50% commision on the sticker prics? Yeah right! Its no wonder software piracy is rife in this part of the world (Asia Pacific). Our national CAD manager has a pirate copy of acad 2008 on his pc at home. Aquired on a recent trip to one of our poorer asian neighbours. He offered it to me as well and I said no thanks btw.
Posted by: Usually I say but I'll get somebody in trouble if I do. | Nov 28, 2007 at 04:22 PM
It costs a lot more to sell and support s/w in Japan.
Posted by: | Nov 29, 2007 at 05:22 AM
Most CAD companies set prices for each market. Rhino from McNeel and Associates is an exception to the CAD company norm. They have one global price, $1,000. They set it by choosing the price a professional user could afford in the poorest country where a market could exist -- at the time it was Vietnam.
Posted by: Randall Newton | Dec 02, 2007 at 10:29 AM
Starbucks is more expensive in Japan too. Obviously a global conspiracy!
Posted by: Greg | Dec 03, 2007 at 06:22 AM
Randall wrote: Rhino from McNeel and Associates is an exception to the CAD company norm.
This is almost true, BUT both McNeel and Alibre charge the same amount in Euros (in Europe) as they do in USD (the rest of the worls). This has become quite a different lately.
Posted by: Ragnar Thor Mikkelsen | Dec 03, 2007 at 02:41 PM
Sell the software for one universal "commodity" price. Sell the support as a second price, which embeds costs for salaries, facility rental, etc, based on location of support group.
Basically - ala carte your entire software enterprise. Software, Support, School. find out where your profit center is and mine it.
Treat each business unit as a separate entity, in terms of business requirements and competitive growth methodologies.
Support the business units with single management system (for HR, staffing policies, etc.) Figure out a "sports- managment model." In sports, management are not the highest paid, talent is.
Let the talent/experts ( engineers, trainers, technicians, etc. ..) earn more by getting better at their job skills ( or improving) BUT force them to become managers to earn more.
Give a voice to everyone in the company to improve the product.
Posted by: Greg Hruby | Dec 04, 2007 at 06:48 AM