We’re Not Charging Enough for Microsoft Dynamics GP

I don't think that we're charging enough for Microsoft Dynamics GP. I can hear the howls now from partners who replace 10 user QuickBooks installations with Dynamics GP. How can I pronounce such sacrilege? Let me offer the other side of the argument. For enterprise implementations, I don't think we're charging enough.

In an enterprise engagement, especially when replacing SAP or Oracle, the amounts that companies are charged for those systems is astronomical - often well out of balance with the value received. Dynamics GP pricing certainly comes in lower while regularly delivering comparable value but if it comes in too much lower it destroys the opportunity by being too cheap.

Here's an analogy. Mercedes will happily sell you a car for $80,000.  When they started to compete with Mercedes, a Lexus was less expensive, maybe $65,000, but not up there with a Mercedes. Folks buying a Lexus felt like they got a great car without paying the markup for the Mercedes name.  But they still paid about 80% for a roughly comparable car. This gave Lexus the cash and the experience to get better and to grow to truly compete with Mercedes.  If Lexus had priced their car at $15,000 and offered it as a step up from a Honda Civic they would never have gotten the opportunity to compete against Mercedes.

In the GP space, there are cases where the SAP or Oracle implementation being replaced was 5 times the costs of the cost of the incoming GP implementation. The payback period for switching to GP and lowering their maintenance and support costs was less than a year. You might think that's a great sales story but it has problems. Convincing someone that something that is 5 times cheaper is just as good is actually ...