Maidsfield Blog - Partnering and Business Development

I wrote before about partnering with perceived competitors.

Paisley (MN, USA) and QUMAS (Cork, Ireland) are clearly active in the same markets, selling to similar buyers and are side-by-side on the Forrester Wave and the Gartner Magic Quadrant. They are not competitors.

Even in reviewing both company’s products and services, they are clearly providing solutions to solve similar needs. Yet, they are not competitors.

In this partnership, Paisley will embed the QUMAS DocCompliance™ functionality as a feature of Paisley Enterprise GRC™

Paisley and QUMAS fit because:

• Paisley is an industry leading provider of solutions for governance, risk and compliance (GRC) including comprehensive software solutions, training, and expert GRC professional services. Paisley have more than 1,400 large enterprise and mid-market organizations including 30% of the Fortune 500.
• QUMAS is the leader in Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) with more than 250 customer deployments and over a decade of experience helping companies in highly regulated industries provide a proactive regulatory defense.
• Paisley have achieved great market penetration into a broad range of sectors.
• QUMAS’ have achieved great success in Life Sciences and Financial Services sectors.

Paisley wins because of expanded capabilities and enhances Paisley’s offerings:

We are excited about the expanded policy management capabilities that the DocCompliance solution will bring and how it will enhance the Paisley Enterprise GRC solution. The addition of this functionality will further support the GRC convergence efforts of our clients and extend the value of our solution to all organizational consumers of compliance information.

- Tim Welu, CEO of Paisley. Click here to read more.

QUMAS wins because of significant distribution channel and expanded visibility in a very broad market:

The QUMAS DocCompliance product offers significant complimentary functionality to Paisley Enterprise GRC. The Paisley relationship also provides a significant distribution channel for our solutions and expanded visibility of the QUMAS solutions in a very broad market.

- Kevin O’Leary, CEO of QUMAS. Click here to read more.

ALSO, QUMAS recently won Irish Software Association Collaboration Award 2008 based on the Paisley partnership. http://www.QUMAS.com/news-events/pr-111108.asp

Stacey and Tim Welu, Paisley	Kevin O’Leary, QUMAS

I compliment the vision of Tim Welu, Kevin O’Leary and their teams in Paisley and QUMAS.

Donagh Kiernan
Maidsfield Associates

“…delivering consulting services in Sales Generating Partnerships and Strategic Business Development …to established globally focussed technology companies.”

September 2008

After two years being CEO with Campbell Informatics, I’m back to pick up Maidsfield Associates. It’s been a great intensive two years with Campbell Informatics with many successes and many more to come. I spent much time building relationships and selling into the US Pharmaceutical market with Campbell Informatics and met many great people. I am continuing to support Cliff Campbell and the Campbell Informatics team as a Director on the Board and an advisor.

Maidsfield’s focus is on assisting globally focussed technology companies with Sales Generating Partnerships and Strategic Business Development support to the CEO.

Thankfully, things have taken a good start with reviving old client relationships and some new ones. I enjoy the constant learning experience and I revel in progressing and developing further and bringing this experience to my clients. In that vein, I was deeply honoured to have been one of the 32 Irish technology entrepreneurs to have been selected to participate in the Enterprise Ireland / Stanford University Leadership 4 Growth Programme over the past year. I learned so much and met so many great people.

In continuing with Maidsfield, I chose the focus of Partnering as it’s an area I had good successes in the past and when finding the right-fit can deliver great value to growing technology companies.

I chose Strategic Business Development supporting the CEO, as I enjoy it and can quickly understand the CEO’s visions and plans in developing their business and assist in their projects

Looking forward to it

Donagh Kiernan
Maidsfield Associates
info@maidsfield.com

I thoroughly enjoyed Jerry Kennelly’s talk last night at the it@Cork Summer Event in Murphy’s Brewery.

In StockByte, Jerry established a clear vision and opportunity early on and went after it fabulously and whole heartily with great success. That is $135M worth of success when Jerry sold his companies last year.

With the vision at the very start and quickly establishing that they were ahead of the market, Stockbyte established themselves as market leaders and acted accordingly. StockByte were innovative on business model, marketing, delivery of their offering and collecting feedback from the market.

I really really liked:
1) how they marketed the ‘personality’ of the business to set them apart.
2) the constant objective to drive more streamlined scaleable business across the entire business
3) the fast response feedback loop to generate new product directions
4) the focus on high quality, high value and premium service at a relevant high margin price
5) the fast pace
6) the fun of it all, constant innovation coupled with constant business growth, there’s nothing better!

Well done Jerry.

This story and how Jerry delivers it should be bottled and used by Enterprise Ireland as one potential model in building an international successful business. BUT it’s definitely a lesson that it’s well achievable with the right mindset to start with.

I’m going back to work.

also see great write-up on the event at http://www.waveson.com/itcork-and-jerry-kennelly/trackback/

To carry on the theme of certainty from a previous blog post, facing reality allows us to plan for making the best of it. Being more certain is about leaving less to chance or luck. Reality is the best basis to build our plans on. (Definition of Reality: When you stop believing in it, it’s still there)

Reality can frighten the life out of people. Courage is required. (Definition: Courage is not the absence of fear, but realizing there’s something more important). Ignoring realities leaves things to chance. Facing realities provides greater certainty.

You can only prepare for what’s to happen if you accept that it can happen, good and bad. You are more certain to make things happen for you if you face reality early and prepare.

- Understand the client need
- Understand how your offering solves that need
- Understand the buying decision and process, the decision makers, influencers etc
- Define how will implement your solution

When you face realities early you can appreciate possibilities and act fast.

We can always reap greater rewards if we are prepared for all the good things that can happen and conversely if we are prepared for the bad things we can manage it better.

The two sides of not facing reality are, probably, Over Optimism and Panic, whereby we are over-reacting to some information that may not be reality that brings us to bad decisions and missed opportunities to progress.

I am currently reading Jim Collins’ ‘Good to Great’. I really really like it.

In discussing the “Hedgehog Concept” in deciding your business direction, the question of ‘What you can be best at’ is raised. The question emphasizes taking a reality view based on facts, rather than based on a challenging aspiration. I think its probably a healthy balance of both facts based and aspiration as collecting all the necessary facts may be time consuming and costly. Gut Instinct should come into it also.

If you want to be a market leader then what would you do if you were leader? If its 5 or 10 years from now, how would your company look? What type of people are part of the team?
How would you act? How would you market? How would you sell? What partnerships would you have? How would you deliver your solutions? What does the market see and think about you?

You would no-doubt operate to a set of uncompromising standards.

Start today, act like it today, carry out all actions as the leader you have in mind.

Dress for where you’re going, not for where you’re coming from.

In the middle-ages, when people didn’t understand something they either put it down to an act of The Gods or superstition. As science explains more and more we seek to control more of what happens by being better informed.

In sport, we see the weaker teams leaving a number of things to chance rather than being better prepared and experienced to know that its not luck that wins games.

In Marketing and Sales, the more experience and knowledge we have of the solving the needs of a market then the more certain we can be in selling solutions to that market.

Its not chance that understands how to win sales with the least effort and in the shortest time. Its not chance that understands the market, how to reach clients and effectively progress the sales process.

All along the sales generation process there are many hurdles and they can be very different for different types of sales. New concepts and products bring their new challenges. These challenges are in understanding what it takes to generate optimum revenue, from defining the offering, making the sales and down to creating satisfied customers and building a track record.

I had a view ten years ago that so much of marketing and sales was about chance. Now I see that was totally incorrect and inexperienced. Today I have a view of what is certain with still many areas of uncertainty left a little to chance.

I’m looking forward, impatiently, to replacing chance and uncertainty with near certainty in marketing and sales as we gain more experience and knowledge of our market.

ShareIT is a free seminar for small businesses. Damien Mulley organised the first session for UCC last Saturday, with strong feedback from participants.

My powerpoint presentation on Sales Generation is attached here.

Don’t talk about what you’ve got.

Don’t talk about what you do.

Listen to what the customer needs. Understand what the customer needs. Talk around and all about their needs, even if you don’t provide all of it. You might refer them to someone to resolves some of their needs while you resolve others. Be a person their seek objective advice from.

Then talk about solutions, in order of the priority to the customer.

Customers want to know that you:
1) Understand, (be passionate about understanding the real pain and problems)
2) are knowledgeable in solving their needs (you know more that your customers on the topic as you solve it for the industry)
3) Have the capacity to deliver a solution
4) Take responsibility to “Make it Happen”
5) Deliver value for money, (providing greater comfort/guarantees commands greater price)

Damien Mulley has organised a Business Advisory for small businesses. see BusinessAdvisory.ie

Damien asked me to speak about Sales, while others are covering
-> Bootstrapping a small independent software vendor.
-> Effective communications
-> How to use outsourcing to grow a small IT business.
-> Marketing research for Tech Startups
-> Search Engine Optimisation for your website
-> Managing web projects.

see full session details on BusinessAdvisory.ie

Relatively speaking creating and implementing a technology solution is easy compared to changing peoples’ behavior.

If you are selling new or better ways of doing things present a baby-steps transition from the old to the new.

Don’t expect your customers to take the big-bang approach. It’s may just be percieved as too much of a risk.

“Make it easy for them to say yes.”, Larry Quinn at Enterprise Ireland Class of 2006 showcase.

“Brave was the man who bought the first fax”, ???

In running a business there are a number of stakeholders including Customers, Staff, Suppliers, Shareholders and Government Agencies.

What makes it all work is getting the balance right:

This list is not quite in the right order, but the measurements are interrelated and a balance should be sought.

We are driven or motivated by many things.

Have many times had you felt really good after a very satisfying days work only to ask yourself “What have I achieved today to put more cash in my bank?” Then you realise that you were happy for the wrong reasons.

We all love appreciation and are proud of ourselves when we do a good job. Your shareholders and/or employers are happy when you’re happy but they’re happier when you’re making money for the company.

Many people enter their companies or themselves for awards and seek to gain press time when it offers no value to their company’s objectives at all. So why do the do it?

They’re not all wrong reasons, but they may not be valid company reasons.

When you feel good about how you are progressing, then ask yourself is it reflected or recognised in how you are measured in your job?

There’s a saying: “Tell how I’m measured and I’ll tell you how I act?”

I had some initial troubles with dirt under the screen surface of my new Tecra. O’Neill IT replaced it promptly and I am very happy with my choice of machine.

I bought the Toshiba Tecra M7 Tablet PC because of supposedly productivity improvements and I’m simply an early adopter buyer.

Over the past week flying around the US, I got work completed in confined spaces on airplanes. I wouldn’t have had the room or the time otherwise to complete a time critical document. I am getting better at manipulating documents and writing in Tablet mode. The battery life was almost 3 hours. I do need to get a Toshiba Slice Expansion battery.

Its now 9:10pm, Chicago time.

Our 4:10pm flight to Indianapolis was cancelled, as were many others.

10:25pm was the next earliest I could get out on. I must check if its departing on time.

There are always a shortage of power outlets in airports, always.

I’ve seen it a number of times in the past few years where a company wrongly perceives another company to be a competitor. They are supplying into the same market sector and their message is not very different to yours. In reality they turn out to be ideal partners.

NOW, it’s happening to us (Campbell Informatics) and my gut is telling me that they’re an ideal partner but people in our market perceive them to be competitors.

We do indeed have some commonality in the problems we solve. We both also provide for other related areas that the other is not interested in solving, as I see it anyway.

I am calling them this week to seek to meet and discuss joint opportunities.

I’m looking for a construction project alert service for US and European based pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Protel is one for UK and Ireland. CIS Ireland is one for Ireland only….

Who does it for US and European wide?

We have launched a corporate blog for Campbell Informatics.

The management of facilities, systems, equipments and processes for Pharmaceutical/Biotech Manufacturers is bound for great changes and Campbell Informatics are at the leading edge of this change.

So read about the methods to implement Quality-by-Design, Process Analytical Technologies, Engineering and Quality Management and more in an integrated data centric manner.

Check out www.campbellinformatics.com/blog

I bought a Toshiba Tecra Tablet PC and am still getting up to speed with the tablet functions.

But now, it’s going back. I have a strange problem with the screen. There seems to be dust just under the surface of the screen gathered around the centre. It’s irritating.

I’m currently waiting for Toshiba to replace my screen.

My current Dell has served me well for over the past 3 years. Some of the keys have the letters worn off and it’s starting to be a little beaten in launching applications. Anti-virus, Anti-spyware, firewalls and elaborate screen desktop systems are taking their toll on my processors’ capacity.

I’m looking at HP, Lenovo and Toshiba models. I think it’s the Toshiba M7 series with the 14.1″ screen. The others only have 12.1″ screens.

“Why a Tablet?”, a friend asked me. I’m an early adopter and I believe there are efficiencies in a using and becoming used to using a Tablet PC…..

I’m just spec’ing and pricing, but we’ll see…

This is in response to, or to add to, Annette Clancy’s post “Costing and Pricing” about an exercise with artists.

But first, I enjoyed Jeff Nolan’s presentation on “Emerging Trends in Pricing & ROI” at the IT@Cork conference recently.

What is the relationship between how we price our product or service and what it costs us to deliver?

To point out the obvious: Price - Cost = Profit

So which is most appropriate for calculating the cost of your product or service?

1) Price = Cost + Margin (where Margin is % profit you decide to earn on each sale)
2) Price = The perceived value to the buyer adjusted according to competitive forces
3) Price = X% of Return on Investment - where X% might represent one year’s savings as a result of your offering

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