In the midst of the economic downturn, a number of companies are looking to solutions to retain key customers, open up new revenue streams, and support higher margin deals. New research from Solutions Insights, conducted in partnership with ITSMA, suggests four types of initiatives that hold the most promise for companies seeking to improve performance with solutions:

• Improving the solutions development process. Companies are looking to develop more packaged and “mass-customized” solutions rather than relying mostly on fully customized, one-off solutions. Only 16% of the companies in our survey are looking to increase the number of highly customized solutions. In today’s buyer’s market, we lean toward a mass-customized approach rather than offering just fully packaged solutions—buyers are looking for the best possible fit for their individual situations.
• Reorienting value propositions and messaging. Marketers have long focused their messaging on describing what they do (i.e., features and functions).