January VAR of the Month: RB Document Management Solutions Ltd.
RB Document Solutions Ltd. has been named VAR of the Month twice in one year, increasing sales 122%, despite a global financial crisis that hit its market of financial advisers hardest.
January 3rd, 2009 by Hobey Echlin
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RB Document Solutions Ltd. (RBDSL) has been named VAR of the Month twice in one year, increasing sales 122%, despite a global financial crisis that hit its market of financial advisers hardest.
How did RBDSL do it?
“Simply because we understood that the need of the organizations did not go away,” explains Harvey Burgess, RBDSL Managing Director. “When we did not succeed it was not ‘No,’ it was more often just ‘Not now.’ We re-evaluated our client’s needs to establish what was affordable and what was necessary. At the consultation stage we could pitch our solution at the correct level to make the offer a viable first phase solution.”
It’s this confidence that’s afforded RBDSL the luxury of optimism in ’09. But getting there has not been without its risks. When we heard from Burgess and his team last March, the firm had been enjoying sizable success in all verticals, as evidenced by its recent sale of Europe’s first-ever Rio installation to the Royal Saudi Embassy in London for 125-plus users. But RBDSL has found its sweet spot specializing on independent advisers and financial providers in mortgages and investments. “By concentrating our efforts we became experts in the IFA and other financial service markets; we could provide reference sites to clients of a similar nature and demonstrate how Laserfiche empowered other IFAs with its features and the benefits they were likely to gain as a result.”
Another key to this success, Burgess says, was being able to expand existing customers’ Laserfiche systems from document management to business process management. “With Workflow 8.0, we have realized a whole new potential for the Laserfiche solution. The flexibility and depth of capability, including integration with Microsoft, has enabled us to promote Laserfiche as automating active work in progress–as well as offering electronic filing. This is not just in paper-intensive environments, it’s also in handling email, web forms and Word correspondence. Promoting Web Access is also a hot button,” he adds. “It’s always easier to sell to existing customers, especially because an initial Laserfiche sale is usually smaller-scale and departmental. Also it supports the increasing demands within organizations to deliver flexible working.”
Selling is synonymous with demonstrating, and Burgess’ team has become an, if not the, industry leader. “We maintained that if we could demonstrate the features of Laserfiche we would make the sale 95 times out of 100. We could in all cases reassure potential users that the learning curve wasn’t as steep as imagined,” he says. “Yet when demonstrating to Administrators or Directors we could demonstrate the corporate security necessary for all types of business, from SMEs as well as Government sector enterprises and that Laserfiche was capable of delivering on all key drivers.”
RBDSL’s success has also shown the value of expanding service, including the recent addition of an on-site training engineer, James Hobbs, to its modest eight-person staff. “We saw Laserfiche clients needed to be given constant support and mentoring,” explains Burgess. “This gives RBDSL another sales opportunity. If the users are happy and confident with the system, then it makes every future quarterly client consultation period a greater opportunity for expanding the volume of users and in the case of large corporation a much more realistic option to expand throughout the enterprise.”
In fact, the skills honed during the rough patches of ’08—expanding systems enterprise-wide, focusing on service, specializing in IFA solutions—have become the RBDSL battle strategy for ‘09
“Trying to part an IFA from their hard earned money is not the easiest thing in the world,” Burgess laughs, “but getting them to understand the benefits is much more effective.
“Our objective is to revisit our entire client base at the earliest opportunity in 2009. By proactively consulting with the clients regarding their Laserfiche usage, we will gain further valuable knowledge of whatever their own company needs. This will then enable us to create a corporate strategy for the client to evolve the Laserfiche system and when it makes sense to, expand the Laserfiche modules throughout the client organization.”
- Keep positive when met with financial barriers – try to understand the client’s full requirements and offer to assist with consultation opportunities to better present Laserfiche as the Solution. If you are able to provide consultative services in this way, you may well be the first to steer the financial constraints in a manner best for an entry level solution until a new budget period is available. If Laserfiche has already been adopted at an entry level solution it is much simpler to expand thereafter rather than from an even playing field.
- Remain in constant contact with your clients and establish a rapport to enable more useful information gathering and be more trusted as a solution provider. If you are always consulted regarding an issue, you’re better able to steer the solution to the Laserfiche Path. Maintain constant communications with potential clients and keep interested in the progress of their procurement and development needs.
- Find someone to champion the Laserfiche System in the client organization and concentrate all relevant dialogues through this channel. If possible create more than one channel.
Author Info
Laserfiche
Staff
Hobey Echlin is a Writer/Researcher in the Laserfiche Marketing department and is active in the Laserfiche Luminaries program.