Benchmarking

Three questions decide every software deal, and this page answers all of them in about two minutes.

Start at the bar and ask the market. Type a vendor's name and the tools suggest themselves, more than a thousand vendor and product lines, with your own vendors floated first. Or skip the typing: drag a vendor quote onto the page and the platform reads the paper for you. Every tool works toward the same three answers. The discount you are being offered. What comparable customers pay for the same deal. And where that places you.

Here is how a check runs. You enter the deal as you know it, the net you pay and the units you buy, and the first answer comes back plainly: the discount your figures imply. The second answer is the range, what buyers your size land with that vendor for the same product, stated with its midpoint. The third is the verdict, where your deal ranks between poor and top of the market, with the gap priced in points and in money over the term. Targets follow: a defensible floor, a strong close, and what to push for. Save the run as a scenario and next quarter's check starts prefilled.

Your discount, the market's range, your rank. Two minutes, any vendor, whenever a quote lands.