In the world of commercial imaging, the business development phase often involves the philosophical discussion around the mechanics of digitizing printed documents. End-users must grapple with questions surrounding the feasibility of handling the project internally, or making the financial commitment to sourcing it out to a partner. Obviously, there is an investment required regardless of the path the client takes.
Equally as obvious is the value in embarking on such an initiative. Can or will this data be monetized? Is the value in enhanced workflow and efficiencies? What are the other talking points beyond merely eliminating a ponderous load of physical assets, which in itself is not without merit?
As we continue this month’s State of the Industry overview of document/asset scanning, we’ve asked our dealer panel to provide insight into the sales cycle and targeting of end-users who may be ripe for the digitization process.
Dealers can help clients comb through all the philosophical considerations in hashing out where they currently stand, and what direction makes the most sense moving forward. It is the latter aspect that can push customers more quickly towards pulling the trigger on a scanning project, according to Jeff Osgar, solutions specialist for Coordinated Business Systems of Burnsville, Minnesota.
“Customers have the chance to reevaluate their process going forward and to possibly streamline,” he said. “It becomes a conversation about how we can digitize and create efficiency. For some (verticals), if documents are seven years or older, we don’t need to do the scanning process. As sales cycles go, it’s unique in that it can be long, but also very short as well.”
Osgar cited an end-user that is in the process of relocating its operations as an example of a deal that can be closed in short order. This is a case where downsizing alone can be a primary motivator, independent of whether the data can be leveraged/monetized for future use.
Better Understanding
Chad Lagrone, vice president of technical services for RJ Young of Nashville, Tennessee, concurs that the sales cycle tends to be “all over the board.” The new world of work, as Lagrone terms it, has been a catalyst for digitization. Thus, RJ Young has been emphasizing the importance of sales reps understanding the document lifecycle within each of their customers.
“Once we understand this cycle, it organically leads to an imaging and content management conversation,” Lagrone said. “What we have also found is that most of these projects include content management software, which is also a big focus we have right now and allows us to become very entrenched with our customer.”
IMR Digital, a division of KDI Office Technology in Aston, Pennsylvania, has different go-to-market strategies that can sway the sales cycle in either direction. Some can take a matter of days or weeks for clients who have done their research, understand the process and are amendable to the price structure. Many of the larger deals took more than a year and a half.
“When dealing with the government, it falls into phrases: they’re discussing it, planning it or they’re doing it or it’s done,” noted David Mielnicki, director of sales, conversion services for IMR Digital. “There’s nothing between those categories in 60% to 70% of the business we work in. It’s a matter of timing and finding out where you are in that sales process on the face of the clock.”
In many cases, the cycle can trends towards a longer span, notes Mari Martin, ECM and backfile specialist for Applied Imaging of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Factors include the amount of time required to do the discovery, potentially run test boxes and provide a proposal. When dealing with red tape intensive verticals, such as municipalities or school districts, a big process and board approvals can prolong signing off on a project.
“Our focus has been on specific verticals where information for the key decision makers are public information,” Martin said. “And then within those verticals, we target those decision makers in areas that tend to be more paper/record intensive. These organizations may or may not be an existing client. We provide information to ensure they are aware of our backfile scanning services, if they should have a need. Our sales teams in the field are also promoting this awareness with their existing clients.”
Seeing is Believing
Dawn Abbuhl, president of Repeat Business Systems in Albany, New York, notes that the cycle can take longer when multiple programs and applications are involved, as every business and workflow is unique and the steps need to be properly built for employees to “embrace their new productive day.” As for how the dealer positions commercial scanning in its approach with clients, it can be a conversation starter or more of a downstream proposition.
Quite often, the opportunity discovery can be made while discussing another solution. “It can be easier to do downstream because we’ll go into a client’s environment and see filing cabinets,” Abbuhl said. “When my son was in medical school years ago, he called me and said that his hospital is still using paper documents for patient information. So it’s a case where you can see the need.
“We had a customer that manufactured waterpark equipment, with a whole warehouse filled with documents that, in some cases, dated back 20 years. There were architectural and engineering drawings that were saved in case they needed originals to make fixes. A flood or fire would wipe them out, plus they would degrade, regardless, over time. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I would never have understood the magnitude of what they were trying to store and how important it was for them to have their documents digitized.”
