This is a question I get many times when talking with potential and existing clients. First, I like to change that to “inexpensive”, as a marketer once coached us.
Second, most of the people asking are used to dealing with 2 different types of situations:
- In-house IT departments
- “Enterprise” Software Sales
With Incident Check, we have taken a different approach – Software as a Service (Saas) and we have specifically targeted safety management systems, incident tracking systems, incident management systems, etc. (as they are variously called in the industry) because we see a perfect fit in the safety area for a product that brings together best practices and procedures and provides great value to many companies.
For many customers, they have previously had (or tried to have) solutions built by in-house IT departments. These can be successful, but many times IT departments are overworked, resulting in long times to development and large budgets. Or just simply not having the capacity to deliver. And at the end you have a product that met your needs 8 to 12 months ago when you asked for it initially.
The other model we see in this industry is the “Enterprise” sales. People working for those companies will explain how amazing their software is and how it can do everything, and will talk your ear off about everything except price. Getting a price on a system from them is akin to pulling teeth, which is odd considering that you want to give them money. Eventually you will get a price but they are built on formulas that Einstein would have problems with so you are left with nagging doubts as to if you received good value for your money.
3CIS looked at the safety industry and thought – “No company uses safety as a trade secret, so we can collaborate to provide the best system out there.” The information sharing nature that occurs in this industry benefits everyone at all levels. Think about it – if you found a formula to reduce accidents in the workplace for a company you work for, would you hoard that information and use it in recruitment materials? We don’t think so, which leads to people sharing their research, results, etc.
When it comes to providing a system to meet the data-capturing requirements and followup, we follow the same line of thinking to capture feedback from existing customers in order to make the product better for ALL customers.
Don’t let the price throw you off – we have all the features that companies need, and our product continually evolves to keep up with changing requirements and best practices in the industry. And that beats “Enterprise” any day.