Aiming a Little Bit Higher


FingerTec’s positioning is clear; we are in the mid-range market. The question is where are we positioned in the mid-range market? Do we place ourselves closer to the low-range market, or do we aim higher, securing a position near to the high-end corner? Consumers choose products from the low-range market largely due to price. The lower the better. In short, they least expect to receive great support and high quality products. As long as the price is right, they’ll buy the products, deal with the support and quality issues as and when they arise, and believe me they arose. The market is well aware that product quality and great support are positively correlated to the market positioning.

To be positioned near to the low-range, we need to pay more attention to providing slightly better quality product with more focus on support. If consumer could obtain answers to their technical support questions in the shortest amount possible and the answers settle their problems, then we have done a good job. Consumers would feel okay to pay slightly more for the slightly extra service.
The journey is not easy yet it's necessary
FingerTec however, wants to aim a little bit higher. It’s imperative for us to be spotted higher on the grid and closer to the high-end products. We want our customer to feel that FingerTec is worth the money they spend. Nonetheless, there’s a lot to be done and dealt with and then some more!

FingerTec has ensured the product’s quality from the get go, providing sought after features, making sure that the clients get what they are paying for. With products come supporting resources such as manuals, video guides, warranty matters, support issues – and our objective is clear, we make things easy for our clients. Then, we move forward to the next step where we provide marketing support to our resellers through our online resources. As a FingerTec reseller, you can get all readily available materials just by downloading them online, and if you couldn’t find what you are looking for, we are always there to assist.

Moving along, FingerTec stops and looks at the areas where we can help resellers deal with customers. We engrave our support@fingertec.com on all FingerTec hardware, relaying a message that we are here should you have any problems, regardless from whom you bought this machine from. This does not discount the role of resellers in the whole process but subconsciously we lend a helping hand for the benefit of all parties. We’ve also made available the back-end system for resellers to trace and track their orders with us, to have history of purchases online through Cloudtrack, tweaking our system to benefit our resellers in the long run. Ultimately, we bend backwards for our resellers and customers.
Bending backwards to satisfy our customers
Aiming a little bit higher, we want to be near to the high-end spectrum, as a company that provides quality products at an affordable price. In our effort to become better and to provide more information, we published Academia, pseudo-academic articles to present our technologies better, to present deployment of our solutions better, to tackle industry needs of our system better. Moving forward, there are many plans in the pipeline that’s going to provide our clients with value-added advantages going into the market with the FingerTec brand.

So when you ask yourself, are you paying a good price for FingerTec solution? The answer is a definite one. 

By Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

FingerTec’s positioning is clear; we are in the mid-range market. The question is where are we positioned in the mid-range market? Do we p...

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The “Predicament” of the Mid-Range Market

I recall the day when I was involved in selling newspaper electronic publishing system some 15 years ago, there was this famous true story circulated among the insiders.

An ailing newspaper kicked off a rescue plan to boost its readership, and they engaged a market research company to offer them some constructive advices after a thorough market survey.  Their analysis summed up that X newspaper dominated the high-end market, Y newspaper conquered the low-end’s; there was still a vacuum of the untapped huge mid-range market.

The conclusion drew so much laughter, because the fact was, the assumed of vast mid-level customers simply didn’t exist.
Stuck in the middle?
Their new strategy based on this market report failed flat and landed them with receivership eventually. I told this story because it seems like we are very much situated at the same “predicament”. We have been sandwiched by the high-end system providers from advanced countries and renowned brands, and the low-end system providers from the Mainland China.  If the mid range market was non-existence for the newspaper industry, does it exist for time attendance and access control industry?

And I conclude that it definitely does. 

The content and presentation style in a newspaper are easier to devise to suit the taste of its readers in larger market coverage; hence to leave a vacuum of an untapped market is almost out of the question. But for industrial products, it’s pretty much different. If marketers aim for the low-end market, their costs and profits have to be squeezed to the least; hence it’s hard for them to provide quality software and services, or even more features have to be sacrificed for the sake of their low price.  In contrast, high-end marketers target big corporations that allow them to charge exorbitant fees, and pay high maintenance cost for scrupulous solutions and services; they’re unlikely to lower their postures for less profitable market. Even if they want to their system would not permit them to be mid-range or low-end friendly.

Stand tall in the middle
And, our company is destined to apprehend this large amount of mid-to-high and mid-to-low market. While I’m writing this article, these three emails caught my eyes and it is in my opinion, best illustrated our position. I summarized it as follow:

An ERP solution provider wrote to us, saying they are in the midst of implementing their solution to one of their customers that currently using a HR solution provided by one of our resellers that using our biometric device to track time attendance. The reseller has difficulty to solve their problem when they want to retrieve time data from our device to be further processed by using their ERP software. And, they hope to establish a meeting with us to discuss about the data interface between our device and their system. They stressed they are in urgency because the technical team from India would only be in town until end of the week.

They received an email from our Assistant Sales Manager, the reply went like this, 

I’m Ms Fazalina from the sales department of FingerTec responding to your inquiry. We have read and understood your requirements and FingerTec has prepared many applications without any costs for you to use. Please go to www.fingertec.com and click on software icon at the bottom. There you can find FingerTec Data Processor (FTDP) for the data interface between FingerTec terminals and your application. FTDP is a free application at your disposal.

If you want your solution to be able to connect directly to FingerTec terminals, please use the SDK instead.http://www.fingertec.com/images/w_brochure/software-biobridge_e.html

While you are at that, take a peek at FingerTec Developer Program and see how this can help you:http://www.fingertec.com/developerprogram/

Therefore depending on your requirement you may choose between the FTDP (data has been processed for you and you just select which you require) or SDK (for system developers and they need to integrate FingerTec readers into their system for a solution).

We have also contacted our reseller regarding this matter and he will revert back to you shortly.

Later, we got his email saying:

Thank you for your prompt reply and support rendered right away.

My team believe what your solution has offered should be sufficient for us to proceed with our work.

We have also got in touch with your reseller.

We shall seek your support should we encounter one. We look forward a good partnership, where our product will be work well with Fingertec products.

This is how the magic is done with our “We Make Things Easy” strategy. Our products come with the comprehensive features and sell at affordable prices and extensive supports are provided without any further charges.

Yes, in our case, there is really a huge untapped market for the middle range. 

By Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

I recall the day when I was involved in selling newspaper electronic publishing system some 15 years ago, there was this famous true story...

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