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Industry Interview:
Matt Shanahan, VP International
Operations, Documentum
By Alex Rahaman,
Contributing Editor
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Documentum provides enterprise content management software solutions,
that allow 1,500 of the world’s largest businesses to intelligently
create and manage all types of content - documents, Web pages, XML
files, and rich media - using one common content platform and
repository. Documentum was founded in 1990 and now employs more than
940 staff in 30 offices around the world.
Matt
Shanahan used to be VP Product Marketing and e-Business Operations, but is
now based in London reporting to the CEO, David DeWalt, and European GM,
Jean-Claude Broido. |
He has been in Europe
for the past two years tasked with improving profitability through
operational improvements. Market opportunity has never been an issue in
Europe. During the last 2 years, Matt has lowered the expenses of
localising a product whilst increasing the number of languages available
and decreasing the time to availability. Additionally, Matt has helped
improve integration of Corporate and Field operations resulting in
increased efficiency.
Contributing Editor, Alex Rahaman, speaks with Matt about Documentum's
strategy in Europe.
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Q. Could you give us some
recent Documentum Highlights in Europe?
Europe makes up a
significant part of Documentum’s global revenue (40-45%) and has been
expanding at over 20% annually, even in recent years.
Documentum has been
expanding recently in Spain and Italy and also within Eastern Europe.
Documentum has a Tier 1 zone of direct presence, Northern Europe making up
50%, Central Europe (basically German speaking) 25%, and Southern Europe,
including France, 25%. There is also a Tier 2 of distributors in the rest
of Europe.
|
The growth in impact of regulatory and compliance
legislation has forced companies to take document management
seriously and not reduce spending in this area. As such, the key
growth driver is company’s fear of non-compliance. |
Q. To what does Documentum
attribute its success in a tough economic climate?
I think that there are six
main reasons:
-
Targeting Premier
Customers – One of
our mottos is that Documentum is a ‘Global Company serving Global
Customers’. The focus on global companies allows Documentum to partner
with some of the industries leading companies. Nestle, a new account,
was won in Munich but is a global account. Additionally, this focus on
global customers ensures an on-going relationship. Indeed, 60-70% of
new revenue comes from existing customers.
-
Broad Solutions –
Documentum's competition provides point solutions, which means a company who would
rather deal with fewer vendors than many, prefers to work with Documentum.
-
Compliance – The growth
in impact of regulatory and compliance legislation has forced companies
to take document management seriously and not reduce spending in this
area. As such, the key growth driver is company’s fear of
non-compliance.
-
Enterprise Value Chain – Documentum’s solution can manage all the assets shared across all parts
of the enterprise value chain; from Product Development through
Manufacturing including integration with SAP, into the Siebel Call
Centre to the Web Site and on to the Sales force.
-
Simultaneous Releases –
Releasing in 8 European languages ensures that all existing customers awaiting a
new product can purchase it. This is particularly important with the
Government sectors who are large clients.
-
Documentum 5 – This new
product has sold very well due to its enhanced ease of use, security
features and deployability improvements.
Q. What is Documentum’s
M&A Strategy?
Documentum is looking to develop its offering across multiple data types.
For example, physical documents relate to web content, which relates to
digital assets that fit closely with a business' fixed content (email,
images, invoices etc). Documentum's rationale for acquisition is to extend
their expertise in parts of this chain of documentation management, such
as digital assets.
In the past 12 months
Documentum Inc has made 4 acquisitions, but prior to that had not made any
for 4 years. After having raised some capital in 2001, they acquired 2
companies in Canada (True Arc a records mgt company) and Bulldog, a
digital assets company. The further two were in Massachusetts: Boxcar and
Eroom, which has over 1m users of its collaboration technology and had
been planning to IPO.
This last acquisition of
Eroom demonstrates Documentum's strategy for purchasing not just technology but
broader assets which have had some level of market validation. This
validation could come from level of profitability, a customer base or
channel, or industry analyst support. The acquisition needs to be cost
effective with minimal integration overhead. Documentum is currently
integrating these businesses but would not rule out further acquisition
activity in Europe also.
Q. What was your Lucky
Break?
Meeting
the founders of a 25 employee company, Documentum, in 1992 as an Andersen
Consulting Senior Manager.
Two years later Matt joined and has not looked back since.
For
more information on Documentum, see: http://www.documentum.com
