Accellion sought to position itself as a service provider in the Distributed File Storage, Management and Delivery market space. Its major targeted customers are Global2000 entreprises and Internet-based providers of premium content who need to supply their organizations and clients with reliable and fast access to their Internet-linked servers. As more and more companies move their applications and data from isolated desktops and local area networks (LAN's) to more globally accessible Internet-based applications, Accellion promises the instant infrastructure to provide the required availability and download and upload times, improving their revenues and reducing their costs. Still new to the industry, Accellion developed its service guarantee as a part of its value proposition to potential customers. The guarantee was designed to credibly promise high service standards to potential clients.
The case can be used for the following teaching objectives: To introduce the service guarantee as a source of competitive differentiation To demonstrate the power of a service guarantee for the firm's marketing efforts to potential customers To show that service guarantees can be used to communicate and enforce customer-driven standards internally To teach the design of an efficient service guarantee To show how potential cheating by customers on a service guarantee can be managed
- Service marketing
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Service guarantee.
RD0302 - AR2002
