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"Since the price of MS Office Home Edition is $150..." I don't think that really has anything to do with it. There are plenty of Office plugins that cost hundr

by martin 18y ago

"Since the price of MS Office Home Edition is $150..." I don't think that really has anything to do with it. There are plenty of Office plugins that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. It's all about how much value the product offers and how much that value is worth to the users. I don't disagree that $100 a seat seems a bit pricey for Xobni's existing functionality, but I don't doubt it could someday be worth that or even more to a large organization.

mwerty 18y ago
> There are plenty of Office plugins that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Do you remember the names of these plugins? I know there are some dev-tool type plugins that cost a lot.
- martin 18y ago
  Well, I work in the financial industry, so that's the type of product I'm familiar with... but Bloomberg, FactSet, SNL, Capital IQ, Datastream, Mekko, DealMaven... all of those offer Excel, Outlook and/or PowerPoint plug-ins that carry price tags well above those of the Office apps they depend upon.
  - kirubakaran 18y ago
    Thank you for sharing the knowledge. I didn't know that. Follow-up questions: I look at Xobni as a time (hence money) saving tool for the end user... not a money making tool. Are all the tools/plug-ins that you mentioned money making tools? Can a time saving tool be sold for a price higher than the host app?
    - martin 18y ago
      Well, it's kind of a blurry line that separates the two. The financial industry existed before all of those products did. Building a financial model doesn't require these products -- one could do it by spending hours pouring over government filings, etc. to compile all the information needed -- so they're all "time saving." And since time is money -- faster modeling means more work can be done in the same time, and/or fewer analysts are required to do the same work -- they're all "money making." I suppose you could distinguish between the "market data/financials products" and "products that save time and thus money in other ways." Mekko, for example, might fall into the latter group -- it's basically just an advanced charting tool. It retails for about $500. DealMaven, which is basically a workflow improvement tool, would probably fall into that category as well, although I'm not sure what it costs.
  - mwerty 18y ago
    thanks

by martin 18y ago

mwerty 18y ago

> There are plenty of Office plugins that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Do you remember the names of these plugins? I know there are some dev-tool type plugins that cost a lot.

martin 18y ago
Well, I work in the financial industry, so that's the type of product I'm familiar with... but Bloomberg, FactSet, SNL, Capital IQ, Datastream, Mekko, DealMaven... all of those offer Excel, Outlook and/or PowerPoint plug-ins that carry price tags well above those of the Office apps they depend upon.
- kirubakaran 18y ago
  Thank you for sharing the knowledge. I didn't know that. Follow-up questions: I look at Xobni as a time (hence money) saving tool for the end user... not a money making tool. Are all the tools/plug-ins that you mentioned money making tools? Can a time saving tool be sold for a price higher than the host app?
  - martin 18y ago
    Well, it's kind of a blurry line that separates the two. The financial industry existed before all of those products did. Building a financial model doesn't require these products -- one could do it by spending hours pouring over government filings, etc. to compile all the information needed -- so they're all "time saving." And since time is money -- faster modeling means more work can be done in the same time, and/or fewer analysts are required to do the same work -- they're all "money making." I suppose you could distinguish between the "market data/financials products" and "products that save time and thus money in other ways." Mekko, for example, might fall into the latter group -- it's basically just an advanced charting tool. It retails for about $500. DealMaven, which is basically a workflow improvement tool, would probably fall into that category as well, although I'm not sure what it costs.
- mwerty 18y ago
  thanks