How large is the market for our clients’ e-commerce products? The market for their leading-edge, e-service products is vast, with much opportunity for a company like ours. For example: 1) International Data Corp. expects e-commerce among corporations to soar to $2.5 trillion in 2004, from about $200 billion today. 2) GartnerGroup/Dataquest predicts that the value of online transactions in the business-to-business (B2B) market alone will be 50 times greater than it is today, reaching $7.29 trillion by 2004, and will account for 7 percent of all global sales transactions. 3) The Boston Consulting Group forecasts that one-fourth of all U.S. B2B purchasing will be done online by 2003; growing by 33% each year, to reach $2.8 trillion in transaction value.

Who are our clients key Investors? Their company is financially sound and backed by funding from investors who are among the most savvy in the U.S. This includes Accel Partners, Attractor Investment Management, Austin Ventures, BT Alex Brown, Hambrecht & Quist, Intel, Palantir Associates, Phoenix Growth Capital, Piper Jaffray, Pivotal Asset Management, Silicon Valley Bank, SSM Venture Partners and TL Ventures.

Who are our clients’ Customers? Our clients’ customers today represent some of the best brands in the world, including Dell Computer Corporation, GE Information Services, Kmart, Merrill Lynch and VISA.

Our clients’ current solutions target e-business, corporate information technology (IT) and high-technology companies.

Our clients’ suite of e-service products provides comprehensive and integrated solutions for automating distributed e-service networks. Their enterprise-class, business-software products provide Web-based self-service and assisted-service capabilities, and use our clients’ patent-pending technologies to automate service delivery. These Internet-based tools allow business experts and technical-support experts to 1) analyze service incidents, 2) interact with online users, and 3) dynamically create solutions and answers for these incidents.

From the "Wallstreet Journal, October 1999.

The two-year-old Austin, Texas, company is combining online experts, easy-to-use databases and diagnostic software to find and fix problems with personal computers.

Here's how it works: Our client develops software that stores information about a PC and its software programs. When a customer pushes the machine's help button, it links the PC to a Web site that matches the PC's profile information with known problems and fixes in its database.

If customers want an expert to handle the repair, they can request help from online technicians. If the machine is under warranty, diagnostic data on the PC and any attempted fixes will be automatically directed to the technician.

Founded in 1997, our client has raised $31.2 million in venture capital and projects revenue of more than $10 million this year. The company charges clients for its software and takes a small fee for each fix retrieved from its online storehouse. In addition to PC and software makers, it also has corporate customers such as Walt Disney Co., insurer USAA and stock-brokerage firm Merrill Lynch & Co.

They are currently seeking a Director, Product Marketing who would report to the VP of Marketing and direct the Product Marketing group, a team of 5 that is rapidly growing.

The Director of Product Marketing must catalyze the effective functioning of the group of product managers as a team, which means

• Defining a strong role and culture for the group;
• Working with the team to develop multiple product lines that are empowered individually while leveraging synergies between teams and markets when appropriate;
• Working with business development to ensure that its activities are aligned with current and future product efforts;
• Implementation of a product management discipline and methodology for the Company which institutionalizes product management efforts for maximum efficiency and speed-to-market.

The Director of Product Marketing will have overall responsibility for building a world class product marketing organization. Individually, product managers are responsible for (1) defining requirements and the optimal mix of product capabilities and trade-offs to gain share in target market segments; (2) providing strategic direction to the engineering team related to the business objectives of the products as well as the major 'themes' of individual product releases; (3) serving as an advocate or "champion" of the product to industry influencers who drive decision-making in target market segments; (4) provisioning the sales force with effective "sales weaponry" to win in competitive, direct selling engagements.

Finally, the Director of Product Marketing must ensure that the efforts of product marketing are in sync with the initiatives of its key "customers," including sales, engineering, and professional services. This involves effectively communicating and meeting the expectations of these groups as well.

Background Experience: The prospective candidate will be a strategic thinker who has established a strong track record (minimum 7 - 10 years) of product marketing in successful, fast-growth technology companies. The candidate's career will have begun in a technical/design engineering position and then will have moved into broader product marketing roles, and will currently hold a position with a sufficiently broad scope to have developed a broad based business and general management perspective. Candidate will have:

• experience in a market driven environment and be sensitive/responsive to customer needs.
• experience building/fostering a collegial and team-oriented environment/capable of motivating and inspiring others to achieve outstanding results.
• interpersonal and technical skills required to introduce an appropriate structure, programs/processes and meaningful change into the company as it evolves into a larger, more complex business unit.
• a track record that includes developing successful/innovative technical products - preferably Web-based services, but also, supply chain, e-business, enterprise oriented software or systems.
• a keen understanding of the product development process so that the practical needs of the Company to develop/deliver innovative products will be met.
• high level of competence working with software systems to facilitate the coordination of activities across a cross-functional team.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The Director or Product Marketing must possess genuine passion and excitement about the business.

• Be highly self-confident and self-motivated.
• have superior communication skills w/the charisma to both guide/influence direction and establish priorities.
• Have excellent decision-making abilities and an entrepreneurial spirit/mindset, and be able to work effectively cross-functionally.
• Possess the highest professional standards and personal/professional integrity.
• Possess an exceptional level of intellectual, professional and interpersonal agility and flexibility, combined with strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Possess strong leadership skills.
• Be able to serve as a mentor and role model, with the ability and interest to grow his/her team.