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SimplyUp had been operating successfully in the Czech office market for more than 30 years under the name Print Partners. But with the coronavirus pandemic, the printing business collapsed by 80 percent. Owner Tibor Brunclík decided to partner with DocuWare - his willingness to learn and his enthusiasm for document management bore rich fruit. Platinum status was achieved in the third year.
Despite various successes, Tibor had long wondered how he could replace the dwindling revenues and margins from the printing business with alternative revenue streams. However, ideas never got beyond the concept stage until the pandemic of 2020 took its toll. As governments sent employees of all companies to work from home, printers across the country suddenly ground to a halt. Sales dropped 80 percent overnight. At that point, Tibor didn’t know if the company would survive. Concepts that had already been worked out were quickly pulled out of the drawer - first and foremost, the topic of "digital document management" as a natural accompaniment to the existing print offering. Besides DocuWare, Tibor Brunclík looked at two other solutions, but neither the product nor the sales concept convinced him. DocuWare, on the other hand, offered a highly functional yet simple solution and showed a clear path to success with product training, certification and a well-defined sales process. It sounded almost too easy.
The DocuWare partner manager, however, was sceptical. In their first meeting, he surprisingly suggested that Tibor first analyse his current prospects for success before signing a partner agreement. But Tibor didn't have time to get to know the company because he couldn't keep it afloat with the previous business model. He objected, signed the contract, but accepted the requirements: DocuWare was to be run as a business unit with its own marketing and sales, independent of Office Printing. Tibor also took other drastic measures: since it did not make financial sense to hire a DMS specialist, he quickly took up the helm himself and turned DocuWare Sales into an internal start-up. He trained to become a DocuWare Application Consultant (DAC) and handed over the management of the company to long-time trusted employees. Tibor was eager to learn - an ability that would contribute significantly to the company's success in the months to come.
"Digital document management was completely new to us. That's why we needed someone to help us, to guide us and to be at our side. That's exactly what DocuWare provided”.
“When we decided to become a DMS reseller, we didn‘t have time to experiment, we just followed DocuWare‘s path to success. Looking back, I see the partner concept as a complete solution for developing new revenue streams: training, marketing, sales and a software solution that customers love.”
Tibor Brunclík
Owner
One of the first activities was the implementation in their own company, where SimplyUp gained valuable experience and at the same time laid the foundation for successful sales. After all, you can only sell a software solution convincingly if you know it from your own experience. Tibor was confident that the first sales would be made in the first quarter. Lead generation at least worked well in the beginning: a large contact database was used to invite customers to webinars, which generated many leads. Due to limited resources and in order to gain experience as quickly as possible, the company initially focused on the most statistically successful use case, processing incoming invoices. However, getting started was difficult and involved a lot of trial and error. Tibor would often sit down with his partner manager to discuss each step of the sales process. Tibor realised that even a high number of customer meetings would not close the deal if he presented DocuWare as a product, without first understanding the customer's individual needs. Selling DocuWare is like going to the doctor: no prescription without an examination. The key moment was when Tibor gained confidence in the proposed sales concept and began to sell DocuWare as a solution. After 10 months, the first deal was closed. Tibor now understood all the finer points and knew which strategies to use to systematically lead his company to success.
"From the beginning, we were told that we could only be successful if we dedicated ourselves to the new business. Looking back, I can confirm this: If we had sold DocuWare as an add-on to the print business, we would have failed”.
The next step was to prove that DocuWare could actually make money. SimplyUp defined the proof of concept with 6 contracts including successful installations. Tibor and his partner manager continued to take a strategic approach: together, they defined KPIs and benchmarks, such as how many leads are needed for a customer presentation and how many of them lead to a deal. During this phase, there were many setbacks - "opportunities for improvement," as Tibor now calls them. Two major learning areas were the integration of general sales and the focus on customer value: First, Tibor could not scale the DocuWare business as a one-man show. So he trained his sales force to become DocuWare Sales Advisors (DSAs) to help him generate, qualify and follow up on leads. At the same time, Tibor realised how important customer value was to the success of a project. In DocuWare Sales, it's not just about how the customer translates their requirements into a digital solution, but also about the concrete added value they get from using it, as shown in the ROI calculation. Translating abstract benefits into concrete numbers is one of the most difficult, but important, tasks in DMS sales. Deals can only be closed quickly if the customer sees the cost of the solution in relation to the expected monetary benefits. This is why it was so important for Tibor to include the ROI calculation in every customer presentation.
"There is a lot of experience and wisdom in the individual components of the DocuWare customer presentation. It's not for nothing that this concept has proven itself on such a large scale and over the world”.
After the first 6 successful DocuWare projects, Tibor had gained enough confidence to take off. He developed a strategy for scaling the business and expanded the DMS team to a total of 8 people in marketing, sales, technical support and professional services. Success was not long in coming: In its second year, SimplyUp added more than 12 new DocuWare customers and became a Gold Partner. In its third year, the company achieved Platinum status, proving that even as a sales partner without existing solution know-how and in a market with limited purchasing power, it is possible to rise to the top of the DMS league in a short period of time - if you make the right decisions.
There’s a huge market waiting for you. DocuWare is profitable, stable and experienced — and the product boasts deeply proven success. Stop waiting. Start profiting.
