High Performance Technical Computing

As HPTC Segment Manager for North America at Compaq, I was responsible for developing and implementing marketing programs to increase sales of technical computing systems.

The first step was recognizing the unique characteristics of this market, and then developing programs that reached prospective customers on their terms.  The basic ideas are described in the page on technical marketing.

I developed both marketing and merchandising programs.  The distinction is that merchandising programs had the goal of getting someone to make a purchase decision.  These programs are targeted at people who are in the buying process, and are determining which system to purchase.

The marketing programs, on the other hand, were intended to influence.  Since large HPTC systems are purchased on a 2-4 year cycle, only a small part of the market is actually in a buying mode at any given time.  Thus, the major goal of the marketing programs was to reach people in any phase of the buying cycle -- including inactive -- and influence them so that Compaq systems would be on the "short list" of systems to consider when they entered an active buying phase.  This resulted in Compaq being brought into active sales situations in a timely fashion -- critical for a new player in this market!

Marketing programs included Direct Marketing base on technical papers, conferences and events and seminars.

Responsibilities included:

  • Developing marketing strategy and plans
  • Work closely with other organizations
    • Corporate marketing
    • Corporate HPTC
    • Engineering
    • Field and sales
  • Developing and implementing marketing programs
    • Direct marketing
    • Conferences and Trade Shows
    • Seminars
    • On-line programs
    • Webcasts
  • Develop programs targeting:
    • Distributed and cluster computing
    • Large SMP systems
    • Linux
    • UNIX
  • Develop collaterals, including:
    • Technical papers
    • Presentations
    • CDROMs
    • Customer success stories
  • SuperComputing (industry trade show)
    • Event planning
    • Customer meetings
      • Invitations (coordinated through field organization)
      • Schedule meetings
      • Develop complete software package to automate scheduling of 150+ meetings over 4 day period
      • Host and present to customers
      • Track results and follow up
  • Develop and deliver sales training sessions
    • In person
    • Through WebCast
  • Deliver sales presentations to customers
    • Often 3-4 hour in-depth interactive sessions