Project Detail
VeriSign: Online ROI Calculator
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“We were very pleased with Callan Consulting’s expertise and professionalism. The Managed PKI for SSL Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator project proceeded smoothly, and the final product was exactly what we hoped it would be.” —Susanne Lambert Outbound Marketing Manager, VeriSign |
Background
VeriSign is the leading provider of intelligent infrastructure services that enable individuals and businesses to conduct secure, online transactions. The company provides the security backbone for the overwhelming majority of online business—including over 93% of the Fortune 500 and the world’s 40 largest banks.
Business Problem
In 2005, the VeriSign marketing team was looking for better tools to describe the value of Managed Public Key Encryption (MPKI), one of its key SSL digital certificate offerings. MPKI provides a business with multiple digital certificates, and while there is a per-certificate price advantage to MPKI, VeriSign believed that other advantages such as reduced digital certificate management costs were lost on the customer. It decided to create a customer-facing total cost of ownership (TCO) calculator that would demonstrate to a prospective customer all aspects of the TCO savings of MPKI.
Solution
Callan Consulting conducted a series of interviews within the VeriSign organization to fully characterize the MPKI product and pricing, the customer process of assigning and managing digital certificates, and how MPKI streamlines that process. Based on the findings, Callan Consulting, in conjunction with its development partner Douglas & Co., developed a TCO calculator that showed all aspects of cost savings using the MPKI product.
The calculator has a page into which the prospect enters five or six key variables defining their need, and, after the submit button is hit, the calculator presents an page showing not only the total cost savings of MPKI but also how it is broken out between per-certificate price savings, benefits from reduced website downtime, and reduced labor hours to manage and monitor certificates.
In addition, Callan Consulting created a public-facing white paper describing the mechanics of the TCO savings and the workings of the calculator.
Results
The VeriSign sales and marketing teams were very pleased with the resulting calculator, and used it as a response call to action in VeriSign marketing campaigns. In addition, VeriSign decided to roll it out to its international websites, and asked Callan Consulting to perform a follow-on engagement to internationalize the calculator.
© 2008 Ed Callan. All rights reserved. Client quotes used by permission.