With a business mantra like start simple; go big the Canadian Digital Media Network’s (CDMN) Soft-Landing Program couldn’t have been a better fit for DLI.tools Incorporated. The company planned to take its cloud-based, click enabled, and secure Enterprise Content Management (ECM) framework, DOCOVA, to Australia, starting with a department of the Government of Victoria, based in Sydney.
Luckily, the assistance provided through the CDMN Soft-Landing Program via an initial relationship with Kitchener, Ontario-based accelerator technology hub, Communitech, enabled a three-week Soft-Landing in March 2013, which landed DLI.tools a deal for $30,000 right out of the gate—not to mention two partnerships for the licensing and distribution of DOCOVA in Australia—despite the many international challenges.
And it was the potential partnerships in Australia that held the most promise according to Gary Walsh, Managing Partner with DLI.tools.
“Our growth model is to go from $1 million to $3 million in revenues by going out and finding 30 partners…and that will mean hiring support people, implementation people, and development in Canada because we’ll be able to grow the business on a global scale. Our future Australian partner, who will go in there and do the work, has 40 or 50 customers who could use DOCAVA as well. Plus, the potential for it to go viral across the entire government of Victoria organization is a reality. I’d be really surprised if we don’t land three times that amount of business over the next year. The entire trip was akin to speed dating—you’re not selling to one customer directly, but getting the potential of all of your partner’s customers as well.”
However, conducting business in Australia is a challenge due to the distances involved and the resulting costs to bring on a lucrative partner even though DLI.tools already had a high probability deal.
“We felt that in order to establish a presence in this market we had to physically go to Australia,” explains Gary. “The CDMN Soft-Landing Program helped to reduce the overall costs and made this trip feasible.”
So while the goal of the trip was to land a software deal with the Government of Victoria, DLI.tools a local partner was vital to kick-start the distribution of DOCOVA as well as the sales, installation, training, and maintenance of the platform locally in Australia.
“It’s intimidating to do business in a country so far away,” says Gary. “The human interaction through web meetings, over the phone, and via Skype shows no investment. You don’t have any leverage with the person on the other end of the phone because they don’t know you. However, that changes as soon as they meet you, shake hands with you, and break bread over lunch. All of a sudden you have the leverage to get things done…and Australia is British influenced, so the culture is a lot more social, even in government and manpower organizations. We understand that now.”
“CDMN’s Soft-Landing program is gaining significant traction nationally as we help high potential Canadian entrepreneurs grow their business faster,” said Kevin Tuer, Managing Director, CDMN. “We’re enabling that human interaction and its producing results.”
Aside from the cultural challenges, DLI.tools also came up against a major challenge for a North American web-based company dealing with Australian technology.
“Internet was almost impossible to deal with in Australia, which obviously made communication a struggle at first” says Gary. “I had meetings set up, but the Internet at the hotel I was staying at was so out of date that I couldn’t even make a Skype call. We’re a web based system and you can’t put our software into certain parts of Tasmania because the web is slow that they couldn’t use it. The reaction time would just be too painful.”
Luckily, the physicality bridged by a Soft-Landing made it possible to find a feasible infrastructure alternative from a sales point of view.
“The mobile communications are incredible in Australia—they have 4G everywhere,” says Gary. “So I was able to buy a 4G plugin for mobile access. I got download rates better than I did in my Toronto office. I was able to run web meetings between LA, Sydney, and Indianapolis while sitting on a beach in a camper van.
The reality of the CDMN Soft-Landing Program was that it gave DLI.tools a presence via a local partner who will not only provide installation and training to Australian customers going forward, but also provide the international company with a valuable local presence.
“If we didn’t make the trip to Australia, I don’t think they would have given us the time of day,” says Gary. “The partners that we’re dealing with have been doing this for 20 years with similar technology. They know how to deliver that training. The other option was to get a person in Toronto on a Skype call between 8pm and 2am over a web connection to a country with poor internet, and that’s just not going to work. A local partner is absolutely necessary in order for business to run smoothly.”
Obviously the partnerships established during the Soft-Landing are just the tip of the iceberg for DLI.tools. Gary credits the more intangible benefits of the CDMN Soft-Landing Program for help establishing this new, more global presence for DLI.tools.
“Going to a country like Australia, just for the sheer distance, catches people’s attention and makes our company appear that much more global compared to going to a city like New York, where every startup goes. But for a small company with cash flow obstacles, our Soft-Landing was seamless—from our access to the $4,000 in funding to being reimbursed in a reasonable period of time to the very minor paper work and reporting, we were able to react without having to jump through too many hoops.”
The lesson taken in the end for DLI.tools is that physicality means something quite considerable to international business partners.
“It shows that we’ve taken enough interest to make an investment and learn about the country we’re doing business in,” says Gary. “That gives us credibility and leverage. Now I’ve been to Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, and the Blue Mountains. I know the lay of the land. I know the history and I know not to swim in the Northern part of the country because the jellyfish are plentiful and lethal—all because I’ve taken the time and effort to figure it out.”
Additional information about the CDMN Soft-Landing program can be found at http://www.cdmn.ca/soft-landing-program/overview/ or by contacting Lisa Cashmore, Soft-Landing Program Manager for CDMN, at 519-804-2980 Ext. 1075, or at lisa.cashmore@cdmn.ca.