# Pricing & Packaging Tracker — Worked Example (Industrial)

All companies, prices, URLs, and figures are **fictional**. Industrial sibling of
[`sample.md`](sample.md), and the opaque-pricing case the SKILL.md warns about: none of these
competitors publish a price list. The run shows what the tracker does when "contact sales" is the
whole market — track *structure* (editions, bundling, program terms), label the inferences, and
refuse to invent numbers.

**Invocation:** `Pricing tracker on Helix Foresight, Corvid Industrial services, Meridian — prior
capture from August pasted below. [capture]`

---

# Pricing Capture / Delta Report

## 1. Run Header
**Competitor set:** Helix Motion Systems (Foresight), Corvid Industrial (monitoring services), Meridian Freight Systems
**Prior capture date:** 2026-08-30
**This run date:** 2026-11-25

## 2. Pricing Capture (per competitor)
_Delta mode — captures below only for competitors with changes._

### Helix Foresight — [program page](https://example.com/helix/foresight), as of 2026-11-25
- **Tiers:** no published prices (unchanged). Editions: "Foresight Essentials" / "Foresight Plus" — **new edition split**
- **Key gates:** Essentials = dashboards on Helix smart components only; Plus adds legacy-Helix-equipment sensor kits and priority service SLAs — **Fact**
- **Usage limits:** none published
- **Free tier / trial:** "pilot program" language removed from the page — **change, see below**
- **Enterprise signals:** both editions "available with Helix aftermarket agreements" — bundling unchanged

### Meridian — [solutions page](https://example.com/meridian/solutions), as of 2026-11-25
- **Tiers:** no published pricing (unchanged)
- **Key gates:** unchanged
- **Free tier / trial:** unchanged
- **Enterprise signals:** new "Manufacturing early access" form appeared on the solutions page — **Fact**

## 3. Changes Since Last Capture (Delta Mode)

### Helix — Foresight split into two editions; pilot language removed
- **Then / Now:** single unpriced "Foresight" program → "Essentials" / "Plus" edition split, with legacy-equipment kits and SLAs gating at Plus; "start a pilot" replaced by "talk to your Helix service representative" — **Fact**
- **Evidence:** [program page vs. archived capture, Aug 30 vs. Nov 25](https://example.com/archive/foresight)
- **Reading:** productization inside the aftermarket fence — the edition split monetizes their *own* legacy installed base (consistent with the "installed-base-first" earnings language), and killing pilot language routes everything through the service channel. No move toward third-party equipment in either edition — the mixed-vendor gap persists in their packaging, not just their docs — **Inference**
- **Reading (price posture):** an SLA-gated Plus edition signals value-based service pricing, not a per-asset price war — **Inference**, labeled; no numbers exist to cite, and none are invented here

### Meridian — "Manufacturing early access" form appears
- **Then / Now:** logistics-only solutions page → same page plus a manufacturing early-access signup — **Fact**
- **Evidence:** [page diff](https://example.com/archive/meridian-solutions), Nov 25
- **Reading:** the certification filing (watch report, Oct) now has a demand-side companion — they're collecting a waitlist before they can legally ship. Entry is being staged in public — **Inference**

_Corvid Industrial: no packaging or program changes this cycle._

## 4. Signals
- Both movers are packaging *around* the price: editions and access programs instead of numbers — in opaque markets, structure is the only public pricing signal, and it's moving — **Inference**
- For our pricing: Northfield's published per-line pricing with an integrator margin schedule is now the segment's only transparent offer — decide deliberately whether transparency is our wedge or our leak (feeds `finance-based-pricing-advisor`) — **Inference**
- For the battle card: Foresight's edition gates (legacy kits at Plus, SLA bundling) belong in the Pricing & Packaging Snapshot verbatim — they're citable structure

### Assumptions to Validate
- The Essentials/Plus split reflects tested willingness-to-pay rather than org-chart packaging (win/loss can probe)
- Meridian's early-access form feeds a 2027 launch (correlate signup-page changes with their certification progress next run)
- Our pricing transparency wins integrator trust more than it costs negotiating room

---

## Why this example works

- **Zero prices, real intelligence.** Every finding is structural — an edition split, a gate
  placement, a pilot program dying, a waitlist appearing. The tracker's "structure over numbers"
  teaching isn't a fallback here; it's the entire method, because this market publishes nothing
  else.
- **The do-not-invent rule got stress-tested and held.** The tempting move — estimating Foresight
  Plus pricing from service-contract anecdotes — is exactly what the report refuses; the price
  *posture* inference is labeled and number-free.
- **Cross-channel corroboration on Meridian:** a registry filing (watch report) plus a demand-side
  signup form (this capture) is two independent channels telling one entry story — the stacking
  rule operating across skills, not just within one.
- **The Signals section turned the mirror around** — the market's opacity makes Northfield's
  transparency strategically loud, a question this capture surfaces and routes to the pricing
  advisor rather than answering by vibe.