Delving Into Docuware\u2019s Growth Trajectory in Latin America
\nA Conversation with Docuware\u2019s Vice President of Sales for the Americas Steve Behm<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nDocuWare is a robust Integrated Document Management Solution (IDMS) that sells its products only through a worldwide network of certified resellers, never direct. Founded in 1988, DocuWare ![\"SteveBehm\"](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/SteveBehm-201x300.gif\")
has grown to more than 10,000 active installations and over one hundred thousand satisfied users daily in 72 countries. The product suite is available in 17 languages, is ISO 9001:2010 certified, and supports all forms of electronic signatures. DocuWare is a Microsoft Gold Independent Software Partner, holds a 5 star ranking, the highest ranking by Buyers Laboratory, Inc (BLI) and they have recently won the BLI Pick Award and the Business Solutions Best Channel Vendor award for 2011 in the category of Electronic Content Management (ECM) Software.<\/p>\n
To ensure that information is captured and disseminated efficiently, DocuWare\u2019s suite of software products was created to help companies achieve their organizational objectives. By utilizing the best of breed solutions and consultants who are trained with the latest techniques and philosophies, the company has set about creating a service that provides a return on investment within just one year. It is DocuWare\u2019s goal to achieve corporate success for all its clients by providing the highest quality document management services to those in the financial services, accounting, healthcare, government and commercial markets. This Integrated Document Management Systems (IDMS) producer offers solutions that target small to mid-sized companies, government agencies and departments in large organizations. Over 400 Authorized DocuWare Partners make up a worldwide independent reseller network, employing over 1,000 DocuWare experts who bring DocuWare close to its customers.<\/p>\n
The DocuWare Group has continued on an incredible growth trajectory in 2011. With a jump of 37 percent in German-speaking countries and 41 percent in Spain, they were the period\u2019s revenue leaders in the first half of 2011. The company\u2019s US subsidiary, DocuWare Corporation, also showed growth from the previous year, and that is no easy task in this economy, boosting revenue by another six percent. In total, revenue of the DocuWare Group grew by 14 percent in the first half over the same period last year.<\/p>\n
Steven Behm, DocuWare\u2019s recently appointed Vice President of Sales for the Americas, was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to speak with ENX Mexico & Latin America about their success. Behm joined DocuWare in August 2002 as a Regional Sales Director for the South Central region of the USA. His new responsibilities now include expanding the network of Authorized DocuWare Partners (resellers) in North, Central and South America.<\/p>\n
ENX:<\/strong> Steve, DocuWare as a company had a great first half of the year, 14 percent over the same period in 2010; how were results in the first half for Latin America and how have results been the last 6 months?<\/p>\nBehm:<\/strong> Latin America has been tremendously strong for us
\nthis year, up 30% in first half, 40% overall Year-To-Date. Our partners in some cases have experienced significant growth as well due to large strategic takedowns we have worked together with them.<\/p>\nENX:<\/strong> To what do you attribute the growth and success of your team this year?<\/p>\nBehm:<\/strong> I attribute the growth and success in Latin America to my team\u2019s tenure in the marketplace, their strategic alliances\/partner base and their partner base\u2019s experience working with our product suite and their world class support.<\/p>\nENX: <\/strong>What are some of your biggest successes in Latin America this year?<\/p>\nBehm:<\/strong> Brazil is exploding! We have really been able to capitalize on the electronic invoicing legislation by the Brazilian Government and have really capitalized on this opportunity with our partner base. Companies in Latin America and especially in Brazil are becoming major players internationally, for this reason they must keep or become very competitive in their fields. This makes the \u201cC\u201d level of companies to pay more attention to organizational challenges and needs. In the beginning ERP and CRM systems were a priority; now they know ECM solutions, such as DocuWare, can play a major role in their international operations as well as a compliance tool for requirements such as SOX. Mexico also has a very strong group we work with called Microformas based in Mexico City– they have an established foothold in 55 cities across the country and have numerous multi-nat ional corporations they support with our product offerings.<\/p>\n ENX:<\/strong> What makes DocuWare unique for the resellers marketing your products in Latin America?<\/p>\nBehm: It is our go-to-market strategy. Our model is about empowering our partners to do the work. We\u2019ve developed a proven business model that includes teaching our partners how to build a professional services team which will allow the reseller to control their customer\u2019s relationship. This means there is no need to bring in additional support from a supplier or from a third-party vendor. The reseller adds the value, maximizing his profits and maintaining 100% of his customer relationships. Bottom line, what makes us unique is how we sell the product and how we support the product.<\/p>\n
ENX:<\/strong> You mention support as being unique. All software needs support, so how do the resellers get that support?<\/p>\nBehm: Everything comes through our New York location; we have native speakers of Spanish and Portuguese onsite to support them with any issues. Another unique selling proposition is that our products suite comes in 17 different languages. It is a big competitive advantage for us to provide the offering in Spanish and Portuguese with very experienced people hired to support those countries by our native speaking consultants and technical support team.<\/p>\n
ENX: <\/strong>How much impact is Mobile Document Management having in your sales success?<\/p>\nBehm:<\/strong> Branches and subsidiaries of companies, and especially remote employees, can have access to current information as if working at HQ via a Web browser and with an iPhone or iPad Mobile App, so information is accessible whenever it\u2019s needed. With one search, authorized users can instantly access all of the documents relating to any business transaction. We are also working on the Blackberry and Android applications as well.<\/p>\nENX: <\/strong>Steve, give me some of the technical advantages from a marketing perspective on which your team continues and will continue to capitalize.
\nBehm: Smart functions, no doubt. Enhanced workflow functionalities, Web Content Management, and universal integration functions like Smart Connect provide powerful ECM functionality for enabling expansion throughout any size organization. Using the Internet, the central document pool is available around the clock to any authorized users. We also have a wide range of customizable DocuWare add-on modules that equip DocuWare for, among other things, automatic indexing, COLD applications, and enhanced workflow features. Other software applications are easily integrated with a set of our standard tools. Numerous interfaces exist for ERP systems (including a certified SAP interface) and Groupware (like Exchange or Lotus Notes\/Domino). Our solutions are very well known for their easy installation, administration and operation, as well as an exceptionally low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).<\/p>\nENX:<\/strong> The growth and success of the economies in Latin America has been well documented. While the US and Europe struggle, a country like, for example, Brazil as one of the major economies in the world with an average annual GDP growth rate of over 5 percent and last year alone grew 7.5 percent. How has this period of economic harmony in Latin America aided your team\u2019s success?<\/p>\nBehm: <\/strong>Has it had an impact? The answer is yes. It has been a tremendous aid in our success because it has given companies the confidence to take on a project like integrated document management, when they otherwise would not have had the confidence and thus they have been willing to put a project like this at the top of their priorities. As multi-national agreements, such as the Mercosul (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) and the Pact for the Andes countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile) improve every country\u2019s economy, they also benefit in the international arena and help us grow as a whole. Also, countries such as Chile, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia became more than commodities exporters driving them to add value to their exports. Another factor is the technology aspect that is developed by many of the Latin American countries either by bringing their own solutions to the market as well as looking into leading products such as DocuWare to assist them with their efforts. With our success over the past year we have doubled our sales efforts in the Latin American region with additional Regional Sales Directors and consultant support.<\/p>\nDocuWare is a company that is capitalizing on a number of strategic initiatives in Latin America and will continue to have success in 2012 and beyond. What DocuWare is doing with their global focus is the future of document management, and for their customers that future is here now.<\/p>\n
DocuWare AG is based in Germering, Germany. The company\u2019s US subsidiary, DocuWare Corporation, is located in Newburgh, New York, and is responsible for all activities in North, Central and South America. Other subsidiaries include DocuWare Ltd. (United Kingdom), DocuWare Espa\u00f1a (Spain) and DocuWare SrL (France). For further information visit www.docuware.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DocuWare es una robusta soluci\u00f3n integrada de gesti\u00f3n de documentos (IDMS), que vende sus productos s\u00f3lo a trav\u00e9s de una red mundial de distribuidores certificados, nunca directamente. Fundada en 1988, DocuWare ha crecido a m\u00e1s de 10.000 instalaciones activas y m\u00e1s de cien mil usuarios satisfechos diariamente en 72 pa\u00edses. La gama de productos est\u00e1 disponible en 17 idiomas, esta certificado por ISO 9001:2010 y soporta todas las formas de firma electr\u00f3nica. DocuWare es socio del programa de Microsoft Gold Partner de Software Independiente, tienen una clasificaci\u00f3n de 5 estrellas, la clasificaci\u00f3n m\u00e1s alta otorgada por Buyers Laboratory, Inc. (BLI) y han ganado recientemente el Premio BLI Pick y el premio Business Solutions al Mejor Proveedor del Canal del a\u00f1o 2011 en la categor\u00eda de Electronic Content Management (ECM) Software. Para asegurarse que la informaci\u00f3n es capturada y difundida de manera eficiente el software DocuWare fue creado para ayudar a las empresas a alcanzar sus objetivos organizacionales. Mediante la utilizaci\u00f3n de la mejor de las soluciones y consultores que est\u00e1n capacitados con las \u00faltimas t\u00e9cnicas y filosof\u00edas de la compa\u00f1\u00eda se ha propuesto la creaci\u00f3n de un servicio que proporcione un retorno de la inversi\u00f3n en s\u00f3lo un a\u00f1o. Es la meta de DocuWare lograr el \u00e9xito corporativo de todos sus clientes, ofreciendo la m\u00e1s alta calidad de los servicios de gesti\u00f3n de documentos a los clientes de los mercados financieros, contable, salud, gubernamental y comercial. Este Sistema de Gesti\u00f3n Integrada de Documentos (IDMS) ofrece soluciones dirigidas a peque\u00f1as y medianas empresas, agencias gubernamentales y departamentos de grandes organizaciones. M\u00e1s de 400 socios Autorizados de DocuWare forman parte de la red mundial de vendedores independiente, dando empleo a m\u00e1s de 1.000 expertos en DocuWare que lo llevan a sus clientes. El grupo DocuWare ha continuado una incre\u00edble tendencia de crecimiento en el 2011. Con un salto de 37 por ciento en los pa\u00edses de habla germana y 41 por ciento en Espa\u00f1a. Fueron los l\u00edderes en generaci\u00f3n de ingresos en la primer mitad del 2011. La subsidiaria Estadounidense de la compa\u00f1\u00eda, DocuWare Corporation, tambi\u00e9n mostro crecimiento con respecto al a\u00f1o anterior, y no es una tarea f\u00e1cil en esta econom\u00eda, incrementando la utilidad en un seis por ciento. En total, los ingresos de DocuWare Group crecieron en 14 por ciento en la primera mitad sobre el mismo periodo del a\u00f1o anterior. Steven Behm recientemente nombrado Vicepresidente de Ventas para las Am\u00e9ricas de DocuWare tuvo la amabilidad de tomarse un tiempo de su agenda para hablar con ENX M\u00e9xico y Am\u00e9rica Latina acerca de su \u00e9xito. Behm, se uni\u00f3 a DocuWare, en agosto de 2002 como Director Regional de Ventas para la regi\u00f3n Centro Sur de los EE.UU., sus nuevas responsabilidades ahora incluyen la expansi\u00f3n de la red de socios Autorizados de DocuWare (revendedores) en Norte, Centro y Sur Am\u00e9rica. ENX: Steve, DocuWare como compa\u00f1\u00eda tuvo un primer semestre del a\u00f1o muy bueno, 14 por ciento m\u00e1s ingresos que el mismo periodo del a\u00f1o anterior, \u00bfC\u00f3mo fueron estos resultados en el primer semestre para Am\u00e9rica Latina y como han sido los \u00faltimos seis meses? Behm: Latino Am\u00e9rica ha sido tremendamente fuerte para nosotros este a\u00f1o, arriba del 30 por ciento en la primer mitad , 40 por ciento durante todo el a\u00f1o. Nuestros socios en algunos casos han experimentado un crecimiento significativo debido tambi\u00e9n al trabajo en conjunto con nuestros socios para disminuir costos. ENX: \u00bfA qu\u00e9 atribuye el crecimiento su \u00e9xito de su equipo este a\u00f1o? Behm: Yo atribuyo el crecimiento y \u00e9xito en Latinoam\u00e9rica al lugar de mi equipo en el mercado, las alianzas estrat\u00e9gicas\/base de clientes y su experiencia en trabajar con nuestro software y el Soporte de clase mundial. ENX: \u00bfCuales han sido algunos de sus mayores \u00e9xitos en Am\u00e9rica latina este a\u00f1o? Behm: \u00a1Brasil est\u00e1 explotando! hemos sido capaces de capitalizar la legislaci\u00f3n de la facturaci\u00f3n electr\u00f3nica llevada a cabo por el gobierno brasile\u00f1o y realmente hemos capitalizado esta oportunidad con nuestra base de clientes. Las compa\u00f1\u00edas en Latino Am\u00e9rica y especialmente en Brasil se est\u00e1n convirtiendo en jugadores internacionales, por esta raz\u00f3n se deben mantener competitivos en su medio. Esto hace que las compa\u00f1\u00edas de nivel \u201cC\u201d presten m\u00e1s atenci\u00f3n en los desaf\u00edos y necesidades organizacionales. Al inicio el CRM y ERP eran prioridad, ahora las soluciones conocidas como ECM como DocuWare pueden jugar un rol mayor en sus operaciones internacionales as\u00ed como una herramienta como SOX. M\u00e9xico tiene un grupo muy fuerte llamado Microformas ubicado en la Ciudad de M\u00e9xico; tienen una red en m\u00e1s de 55 ciudades en todo el pa\u00eds y apoyan a diversas corporaciones multinacionales con nuestra oferta de productos. ENX: \u00bfQue hace a DocuWare \u00fanico para que los revendedores comercialicen sus productos en Latino Am\u00e9rica? Behm: Es nuestra estrategia dirigida-al-mercado. Nuestro modelo es acerca de impulsar a que nuestros socios hagan el trabajo. Hemos desarrollado un modelo de negocios que incluye el capacitar a nuestros socios para construir un equipo de servicio al cliente profesional lo que permite a los revendedores controlar su relaci\u00f3n con los clientes. Esto quiere decir que no hay necesidad de brindar soporte adicional a un subdistribuidor. El revendedor a\u00f1ade valor, maximiza sus utilidades y mantiene la relaci\u00f3n del 100 por ciento de sus clientes. Esto se traduce, en que somos \u00fanicos en la manera en que comercializamos y soportamos el producto. ENX: Mencionas que el Soporte es \u00fanico. Todo el software necesita soporte \u00bfas\u00ed que como obtienen este soporte los revendedores? Behm: Todo pasa a trav\u00e9s de nuestra Oficina de Nueva York; tenemos personas que hablan espa\u00f1ol y portugu\u00e9s para ayudarlos con cualquier problema. Otra de las propuestas de venta \u00fanica es que nuestra suite de productos viene en 17 idiomas. Es una ventaja competitiva enorme para nosotros el tener una oferta en espa\u00f1ol y portugu\u00e9s con personal altamente experimentado para apoyar a esos pa\u00edses con nuestros consultores y t\u00e9cnicos cuyo idioma materno es espa\u00f1ol y portugu\u00e9s ENX: \u00bfQu\u00e9 tanto impacto est\u00e1 teniendo Mobile Document Management en el \u00e9xito de sus ventas? Behm: Las sucursales […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2238],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12824"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12832,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824\/revisions\/12832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}