Business Description
General
Stratasys develop, manufacture, market, and service a family of 3D printers and 3D production systems that enable design and manufacturing engineers to create physical models, parts, tooling and prototypes out of plastic and other materials directly from a CAD workstation. Stratasys’ computerized modeling systems use the proprietary technology to make models and prototypes as well as end-use parts directly from a designer’s 3D CAD file in a matter of hours. Their solutions are sold by seven brands, including affordable desktop 3D printers for idea and design development, various systems for rapid prototyping, or RP, and large production systems for direct digital manufacturing, or DDM. They have more than 1,100 employees and hold more than 500 granted or pending additive manufacturing patents globally. Stratasys has been the market-share leader for the last six consecutive years.

Products
Stratasys’ products consist of various series of AM systems and the consumables they use. These series offer a broad range of performance options for consumers, depending on their desired application, as well as on the nature and size of the designs, prototypes or end products they seek to produce. Within each series, they offer products at different price points. These products include affordable desktop 3D printers for idea and design development, a range of systems for RP, and large production systems for DDM. They also offer a range of more than 130 3D printing materials, including more than 120 proprietary inkjet-based PolyJet photopolymer materials and 10 proprietary FDM-based thermoplastic materials. Stratasys’ systems also integrate their software and are supported by services that they provide to their customers, both directly and through their reseller channel.

Marketing, Sales & Distribution
 Marketing
Stratasys’ marketing strategy is focused on increasing awareness of their brands in order to generate sales and increase their customer loyalty. They also focus heavily upon the identification of customer needs. They initiate marketing programs and campaigns to drive lead generation throughout the regions in which they and their resellers and agents operate. They customize the sales pipeline-building activities and programs to industry specific requirements. This infrastructure allows them to measure and analyze the success of various marketing tactics. They create and update their product roadmaps and individual marketing plans to help optimize distribution while helping ensure a smooth process of release, ramp-up and sales.

 Sales distribution methods
Their sales organization sells, distributes and provides follow-up support services with respect to their AM systems and related consumables, through a worldwide sales and marketing infrastructure. They use three methods for distribution and support:
1. Sales to resellers who purchase and resell products and through whom follow-up support and maintenance services and replacement parts are provided to end-users;
2. Sales of systems that are arranged by a network of independent sales agents worldwide, pursuant to which they sell directly to end-users, pay commissions to such agents, and directly handle the sale of consumables and provision of follow-up support services;
3. Direct sales of systems to end-users without the involvement of any intermediaries, for which all aspects of their sales and follow-up services are handled exclusively by the company.

 Geographical structure of sales organization
The sales organization for Stratasys’ 3D printers and production systems and consumables is divided into groups based on the following geographical regions: North America; Europe and Middle East; Asia Pacific and Latin America. This structure allows them to align their sales and marketing resources with their diverse customer base. Their sales organization in each region provides sales support to the network of independent reseller and sales agent locations throughout the particular region. Stratasys Ltd also operate sales and service centers in various locations throughout North America and internationally, including in Shanghai, China; Frankfurt, Germany; Genoa, Italy; Bangalore, India; Tokyo, Japan; and Hong Kong.

Competition
Their principal competitors of Stratasys consist of other developers of additive manufacturing systems as well as other companies that use FDM and inkjet based technologies to compete in the AM market. A variety of technologies compete with their proprietary technologies, including: stereo lithography; selective Laser Sintering; power Binding; and digital Light Projection. These technologies possess various competitive advantages and disadvantages relative to one another within the key categories upon which competition centers, including resolution, accuracy, surface quality, variety and properties of the materials they use and produce, capacity, speed, color, transparency, the ability to print multiple materials and others. Due to these multiple categories, end-users usually make purchasing decisions as to which technology to choose based on the characteristics that they value most. This decision is often application specific. The competitive environment that has developed is therefore intense and dynamic, as market players often position their technologies to capture various vertical markets simultaneously.