Very interesting article from Im+magic's Jim Farmer
Summary
- Using industry-average data, the cost of selling a Blackboard enterprise learning system is estimated to be $259,000 per sale. Analysis of the third-quarter 2005 data estimates this cost at $280,913. Other estimates range as low as $222,386.
- This cost compares to an estimated cost of $78,000 per sale for commerciallymarketed open source software and $450 to $1000 for community-building for the uPortal product.
- The high cost of marketing software is influenced by the procurement practices and expectations and demands of potential clients.
Based on the SEC filings from the WebCT merger talks, Jim estimates BB spends 11.9% of revenue on R&D, and 30.5-35.9% of revenue on sales & marekting