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Examples of Work : High Tower 

Case Study: Interim VP Marketing for High Tower Software, 2003-2004
Enterprise Network Security Solutions in Security Event Management (SEM)

Situation Summary

  • In 2002, the security event management (SEM) market was in its infancy. High Tower was virtually unknown. Technology developed at NASAs Jet Propulsion Lab was leveraged by the Company very suitably into a software solution for securing corporate networks in real time. At the very end of 2002, as the Company prepared their network security offering, MarketSavvy was hired and given overall responsibility for marketing as a key member of the CEOs executive team.

Getting Started - Phase One

  • MarketSavvy completed a competitive analysis in early 2003 that included in-depth research of the SEM products on the market. The data was gathered from competitors web sites, online demos, collateral, screen shots and live discussions at trade shows. Summarizing how they differed from High Towers offering led to strong, bold differentiation for the TowerView SEM product.
  • An early Spring 2003 launch was planned. MarketSavvy completely re-wrote the demo and scripted it for coherent delivery to the majority of audiences. MarketSavvy revamped the Companys web site, both in content and in look, to communicate those differentiators.
  • Due to issues with the companys investors and top management, the product launch was delayed about eight months.
  • During 2003, the SEM market matured and grew as a category. Differentiation became increasingly difficult as the top five (more established) players carelessly threw around buzzwords like real time correlation.
  • Between the planned launch in early 2003 and the actual launch, High Towers competitors co-opted our messaging and differentiating claims. MarketSavvy went back to the drawing board in Q3, 2003.

MarketSavvy's Implementation Approach - Phase Two

  • With no time to lose, we announced our SEM solution (and technical approach) at the Computer Security Show in Nov. 2003, effectively priming the market to receive a new entry into the now-established SEM category.
  • Differentiation required support at a deeper technical level: real time correlation just wasnt good enough anymore because it was the same claim that competitors we making, (regardless of their fundamental inability to deliver on that claim). Diving deeper, and working closely with the CTO and Engineering, MarketSavvy developed a comprehensive and more technical supporting argument for differentiation on two fronts: intelligent correlation and understandable presentation of the correlation results both in real time. The first, intelligent correlation, was based on the fundamental uniqueness of our architecture, and we began to educate the market on how only this architectural approach could provide a real-time solution. The second, understandable presentation of results, was based on a 3D grid that presented the correlation results in a way that enabled the security analyst to spot anomalies in real time and understand their severity at a glance.
  • Prior to our announcement of General Availability at RSA (2/04), we re-packaged the TowerView solution in an appliance, delivering another competitive advantage; ease of installation and maintenance. Also leading up to these announcements, MarketSavvy designed and executed an outbound communications program that included further re-vamping the web site and re-writing the collateral. New collateral consisted of data sheets, several press releases, and three new differentiating white papers, one of which was authored by MarketSavvy, to highlight our competitive advantages.
  • MarketSavvy launched TowerView security event management (SEM) appliance at RSA in Feb. 2004 with strong analyst support and exceptional press coverage.

 

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