AMX Bronze Pricing?
vining
Posts: 4,368
[rant] I was putting an order together and I noticed all my pricing went up 20% (At least the couple of items I checked) which I assume is the result of our beloved Bullseye program. So now of course my material profit margins just got reduced 20% since I carelessly used the pricing in my QuickBooks database to put the estimate together and since I always trim the list costs to make the pricing reasonable and get the job I now feel royally screwed. (Actually the proposal was created prior to the BS program) Besides being finacially screwed my database now has to be updated since all the AMX entries are now wrong but the part that boggles my mind is that somehow AMX thinks this will force me to sell more systems in order to achieve the better lower pricing. If only that were possible! All I get from potential customers is AMX, who? IMHO their thought processes are flawed and will have the complete opposite affect but what do I know, I'm just an idiot addicted to AMX programming and systems integration but maybe this is the treatment I need to get that monkey off my back. Maybe I can find a friendlier monkey. IMHO I think it's time to replace some of the suits.[/rant]
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We've got a new Sales program (see that) implemented here as well but it doesn't seem as Draconian. Losing 20 points seems like justification for going and working with something else. Were you guys just on incredibly good buying terms previously?
I got an email from a rep yesterday who wasn't really trying to push any products and they used to handle AMX but they now handle Savant which is really irrelevent but this line in the email seemed poetic in light of the Bullseye changes.
Just like with dealer tech support and bronze pricing levels it seems to be at the expense of loyal dealers. Obviously not all bronze dealers are loyal but I would say that the small dealers are more loyal that the larger dealers since the larger dealers need to feed the machine and follow their profits regardless of loyalty.
I guess every 8 or 9 years AMX has to do something to alienate those that love them: the loyal dealers. As you may recall and with disdain I might add, Panja was the last major push AMX did to get rid of dealers (and dare I say market-share). They pulled that off wonderfully.
I am finishing up a few AMX systems that were pre-wired/boxed and then it's on to the wild blue yonder.
More rant:
I don't think I have ever seen AMX reduce the price of anything, either. A 12 inch TP 7-years ago: $ 8800. Today: same price. How does that compare with the iPad? First one right out of the gate: $ 499.00. Wow. How old is the MVP-8400 anyways? Shouldn't we be seeing some economies of scale here
Main troubles with BS program:
20% cost increase for AMX hardware
$ 5000/year for "demo" gear
$ 1200/year for tech support
Oh well.
I've been investigating open source alternatives for years, but have not been able to qualify any as a replacement until recently. Sometime this fall, I'm planning on proposing some of these ideas to my boss. We've already dumped RMS in favor of something else and have cut project costs 40% or more on smaller installations by eliminating AMX control systems from the equipment lists. The only solution AMX provides at the moment for us happens to be in larger, auditorium systems. It's entirely possible that in 2 years our particular group may not use them for any project. I could never put an exact dollar value on the product purchased in the recent past by the entire institution, but I'd have to guess it's in the low 7 figure range over the last 10 years, easily.
It really does suck that some of the smaller residential dealers who have been loyal for so long, are catching the brunt of this. A sudden 20% increase leaves an unmistakable dent in your bottom line.
I would love for Mr. Skaf to take a look at this quote. Well said.
It seems ever since the buy out AMX delivers to us less and expects from us more. The only incentive I see is out the door with another vendor which is a real shame.
Here is a slightly different look at the new pricing structure. I don't want to go into too many details, but the new program has helped us combat some questionable quoting/business practices in our market. I have also noticed that tech support has had less wait time and they seem to be more up on the latest firmwares and modules that haven't even been released yet. The transition was tough for us as well and AMX still needs to do more work, but I think that this was actually a good start.
In the near future, AMX does need to improve their residential marketing strategy. I also hope that they do something to address the growing deficit in their touch panel offerings. (This could start as simply as adjust the pricing, but I don't know if the cost of the current parts prohibits this)
Again, I wish that the program didn't hurt the dealers like you, but based on my market, I think you are an exception, not the rule. I'm sure there are also a few other exceptions that participate in the forums. I just wanted to present a slightly different point of view. And no, we are not a platinum dealer
Jeff
Unfortunately, unlike the Tea Party the only way our vote gets counted is by spending money eslewhere. So increase tech support availability by decreasing sales & dealers, hmmm, that's one hell of a strategy. Maybe they shouldn't have brought all those "no progamming required" dealers in, in the first place.