By Scott Evans, ARC Advisory Group
This is the second in a series of blogs on the results from a recent survey jointly conducted by ARC Advisory Group and SPAR 3D. The previous post focused on the ranking of technical selection criteria.
This blog post will continue the conversation on user selection criteria by providing insight on business and non-technical factors which may impact purchasing decisions. The chart below depicts the key results:
While we anticipated price to be an important business purchasing criteria, ARC was surprised at the sky-high level of price sensitivity. When we filtered the results by whether the respondent was an Asset Owner, Service Provider, or Design Firm, we discovered that, for service providers and design firms, the price sensitivity is even more extreme then represented in this chart. It is the asset owners who are the least price sensitive out of the bunch. Instead, asset owners place a large emphasis on vendor-offered training and vendor support.
Users as a whole view unclear financial benefits as their greatest business challenge in justifying purchase of a 3D Scanner. Financial justification continues to be the key purchasing inhibitor, and high entry level price point does not help.
We also investigated if non-technical purchasing criteria varied by size of company. We found that respondents from small businesses (0-50 employees) were more influenced by brand name and salesperson’s product knowledge than respondents from much larger companies. Smaller companies have fewer internal resources for their technical support needs and must reach out to the suppliers.
Recommendation:
There are clear differentiators between classes of 3D Scanning users, more so than we originally expected. While offering a solution at a reasonable price point will be unanimously well-received, suppliers can create compelling value propositions by offering training and focusing on ease-of-use. Relying on strong brand image to win sales may only carry clout among a select customer base.
