A funny thing happens when you tell people you work for a company called gap intelligence. After people realize you aren’t talking about the GAP clothing store the question is, “so what is it that you actually do?” As the product manager for gapTCO, I’m pretty sure I can give the elevator pitch for this product in my sleep: The gapTCO Tool is a cloud based solution that allows you to quickly and easily conduct head-to-head product comparisons for copier and printer based devices, as well as analyze the true total cost of ownership for an unlimited number of products over a period of time. Boom. Blank faces. So what does that mean?
The gapTCO Tool is a cloud based solution that allows you to quickly and easily conduct head-to-head product comparisons for copier and printer based devices, as well as analyze the true total cost of ownership for an unlimited number of products over a period of time.
A Long History of Data
To start, the gapTCO Tool has a long history at gap intelligence, and is powered by over 12 years worth of market intelligence data for printers and copiers. I’m not sure if you realize how much data that is, but it’s a LOT. It’s a lot because gapTCO has data on product specs, warranties, consumables, and accessories (Oh my)! Our data not only comes from manufacturers, but also retail stores, their online counterparts, other ecommerce sites, and even government and independent copier and printer contracts. All of this data gets rounded up every Monday and put into the gapTCO tool in order reflect the most current product and pricing information.
You might be wondering, “How does this magical tool actually work? There’s no way all of that data can be user friendly or actionable.” Great question! To explain, let’s take a brief walk through the lifecycle of a gapTCO comparison.
How does this magical tool actually work?
gapTCO in Action
Maybe you walk into your client’s office and see an ancient clunker of a copier. Chances are that client is definitely overspending in order to keep a Stone Age product alive. In just moments, you can pull up gapTCO on your laptop, punch in the name of the creaky copier, and immediately show your client how much money switching to a newer device is going to save them over time. gapTCO will take the guesswork out of a comparison in just 3 easy steps, which gapTCO refers to as Choose, Compare, and Calculate.
Step 1: Choose
Starting with Choose, you can search for the client’s existing product and add it to your TCO cart. From there, if you already know which newer device (or devices) that you want to recommend (awesome!), you can search directly for it and add it to your cart as well. If you are not sure what device would fit your client’s needs, the gapTCO Tool can help. By using the competitive models search, gapTCO is going to immediately display similarly priced and segmented products based on the specs of the current device. From there you can select the best fit device and add it directly to your cart for a comparison.
Step 2: Compare
Once you have selected all the devices you want to analyze, it’s time to “Check Out” the products by heading over to the Compare Tab. gapTCO will provide you with all of the products’ specifications and allow you to highlight specification fields to visually call attention to a product’s competitive advantages.
Step 3: Calculate
To wrap up the process, it’s time for step 3: Calculate. gapTCO will calculate your customer’s proposed savings using defaults for pricing and printing environment parameters. The default prices shown for hardware and consumables represent the product’s most frequently occurring price. The defaults for the printing environment like average monthly page volume, however, are determined by the product’s market segment and industry averages. Most importantly, these are totally customizable! You can always select a different pricing channel and modify the printing parameters to best represent your customer’s needs. Remember, gapTCO provides the user with defaults in order to get them to their total cost of ownership calculation as quickly as possible; after all we want to help you close deals quickly!
In case your client wants a keepsake of gapTCO to take home with them, gapTCO will also allow you to generate, download and email a professional and customizable proposal highlighting why your customer should choose your product.
Diving Even Deeper
gapTCO is extremely easy to use, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be sophisticated or more granular. gapTCO utilizes advanced search features enabling a user to broaden or narrow a product search based on manufacturer, product type, product specifications, and price bands.
Maybe the default set of specifications is too long or too short? Don’t fret! A user can choose to display as many or as few specification fields as they like. As previously mentioned, gapTCO has product warranty and accessory information. Maybe your client needs a 3 year warranty and an extra tray. You can add it in with just the click of a mouse! Or maybe you want to factor in additional costs for travel or installation, possibly even a margin or discount. What if you have special pricing from the manufacturer for hardware, consumables, accessories, or warranties? You can upload all of that directly into gapTCO.
The gapTCO tool can easily account for all kinds of variables when calculating the total cost of ownership. Additionally, that data doesn’t have to just live its life in gapTCO. A user can export different cuts of all of that information both in Excel and PDF formats. You can even save your work as you go and continue to revisit similar scenarios.
Need to See gapTCO in Action?
So I’m sure by now you are thinking, I need to see this tool in action! Well, that’s easy peasy, hit me up at mcastro@gapintelligence.com and I will gladly give you a live walkthrough.
