Since its founding five years ago, Josanti InfoImaging has achieved significant success in its native Ghana, a market as economically and technologically challenging as the world has to offer. Yet, Josanti’s client list reads like a consortium of West Africa’s most forward-thinking financial institutions: CAL Bank, Ecobank Ghana as well as National Investment Bank.

With the addition of two World Bank-sponsored government projects, the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Land Administration Project, Josanti InfoImaging has earned its place in the Laserfiche Winners Circle for the first time this year.

Joseph Amoh-Anti founded Josanti InfoImaging five years ago upon returning to Ghana after working as a technical consultant for Boeing in the U.S. and Toronto Dominion Bank (now TD Canada Trust).

While living in the U.S., he explored business opportunities to bring home to Africa, deciding on document management and Laserfiche in particular, “because it was so user-friendly,” Amoh-Anti says. He found a mentor in Vicki Pattle of VP Consulting. “She encouraged me to become a Laserfiche VAR,” he explains. “VP Consulting was and is my inspiration.”

Amoh-Anti had originally envisioned Josanti as a sister operation to VPC in Ghana. But he returned to find the market too underdeveloped to support it. “Electronic document management had no real precedent – most people working with paper had very little computer knowledge and there was no legislative backing for the practice,” he notes.

Instead, he provided ancillary information management solutions while educating prospective businesses - mostly banks and insurance companies - about the benefits of going paperless. “One needs patience, perseverance, focus, and above all extra resources for survival,” he says of the burgeoning document management market in Ghana. “The sales cycle can be quite long; you could be out of business before the customer is ready to implement.” Some accounts, he notes, have taken over four years to land.

Still, Amoh-Anti was encouraged by the response his Laserfiche presentations received, even if it didn’t always result in sales. “What we’ve realized in that time is that any business that saw Laserfiche would call us back, because they saw how Laserfiche holds the ultimate answer to matters of business continuity,” he says.

But by concentrating so much on the technical capabilities of Laserfiche, Josanti had neglected to market itself. “I think that’s why it took us so long to get into the Winners Circle,” Amoh-Anti says. “We probably were complacent since we knew we had the best business solution; we thought it would speak for itself. Our marketing efforts had no sales and functional focus and were highly technical, so they only reached a limited audience in organizations.”

Now, Josanti has formulated a marketing message to address efficiency, functionality and business continuity with positive results, most prominently in the financial sector. The company is now expanding its reach into other West African countries with an opportunity on the Q2 horizon in neighboring Liberia.

“It’s a clear fact that Laserfiche’s guided marketing practices are sure ways of hassle-free success – if you just simply embrace and practice them. Interestingly, they apply to all economies whether developed, developing or less-developed,” Amoh-Anti observes. “We have business partners, around the world but Laserfiche is the only one that offers a marketing plan workbook, proposal guidelines and all the relevant marketing materials.”

Besides its marketing, Josanti is also building its educational presence. User competency is still a major variable to the success of a technology company in West Africa, so Amoh-Anti’s 17-member staff will welcome seven new hires this month to help handle everything from backlog conversion and project management to Laserfiche training classes for his massive government projects. “Our hope is that one day we’ll become the Laserfiche Regional Center in Africa and our training facility will be an affiliate of the Laserfiche Institute,” he says.

In the meantime, he can enjoy that his persistence has carried Josanti InfoImaging into the Winners Circle.

Says Amoh-Anti, “The future for Laserfiche in Africa can only be brighter.” Especially now that Josanti’s marketing efforts are helping to light the way.

Posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 2:16 pm under VAR of the Month. You can comment on this post.