In the rush to maintain a competitive advantage, many companies play it safe. They think limiting themselves to one technology platform will rein in IT maintenance and staffing costs. Our feature article explores the myth of a homogenous technology platform. The article explores the complexities, drawbacks and benefits of managing multiple platforms.

Last month, we asked how you can market a revolutionary new product without giving away secrets to your competition. Your responses demonstrate how to sell this product while keeping an eye on copycats. This month, we ask how you can use non-disclosure agreements to protect a new product when you show it to potential customers. How can you enforce violations of such an agreement? We need your best advice.

Please let me know which articles are relevant to you—and your business. Take our 1-minute reader survey and you could win a pair of 8x22 DigiCam Binoculars. We invite your feedback.

We are a value-added fulfillment company specializing in creative fulfillment programs that go well beyond the services offered by standard fulfillment providers. In many cases, we have developed proprietary solutions and technologies that give us competitive advantages. We want to get the word out about these capabilities, but at the same time, we want to make it as difficult as possible for competitors browsing our web site to get too many ideas about what we offer.

Ideally, our web site will show only enough details to get a serious prospect interested, and then the sales team will qualify them and demonstrate the capabilities in-depth as needed. If we can’t give sufficient details on our web site and in our generic brochures, how can we let prospects know the true power of the product we offer?

Should we describe our product in detail in our marketing materials or should we keep this revolutionary product as quiet as possible?

—Daryl G., IT Director