Challenges for Qumas
Qumas's application was specifically focused on the pharmaceutical industry's requirements-most of the other providers were marketing more generic products into a wide range of sectors (see Fig.C3.1). Ultimately, Qumas was looking to become leader in the regulated market, satisfying 100 per cent of the IDM needs of 100 per cent of the customers in this segment.
Qumas identified its main strengths as follows.
Focus: Qumas spoke the language of pharmaceutical quality and regulation, directly to the managers who understood and were responsible for the area. Unlike other players this was not just one of several markets; it was the company's sole focus.
Cost of ownership: the Qumas team had built a product that matched, and in many cases exceeded, customer needs. More than just the functions in the product, it had developed a solution that could be installed quickly and cost-effectively—it did not involve large one- to two-year projects with expensive products and installation fees to consultants. In some cases, competitors' customers were spending four times as much on consulting as they were on the products. With Qumas, however, it was regularly less than one-third of the cost of the product. The larger, company-wide solutions, being implemented by competitors, typically took much longer to specify, implement and operationalize. This meant that specific areas, such as regulatory control, might have to wait years for solutions that addressed their requirements.
Specific features: in reviewing customer feedback and product income over the past three years, it was clear that there was one area of the Qumas portfolio that customers valued more than any other. The analysis showed that the document revision and control module accounted for 90 per cent of sales. For buyers, this met their most pressing and complex needs, tracking large documents across complex organizations with multiple contributors and users. Qumas was solving this real problem quickly. In product terms this appeared to be the primary source of competitive advantage.
• Service: clients simply liked the Qumas approach; they felt they were dealing with people who were working to solve their specific problems, not a large organization where queries and requests could just 'disappear' anonymously. The words 'flexible' and 'responsive' were consistently used, and had been key to winning increased business with existing customers.
Future success required that Qumas build on these strengths. Its direct sales approach needed to be managed carefully. Although shorter than that of its competitors, the company's sales cycle tended to be relatively long and protracted. This reflected the importance and value of the purchase to the client company. The timescale, from initial contact to receipt of order, could be anything from 6 to 18 months. It typically necessitated a high level of interaction with the client, both at a technical and sales level. Many of the key staff within Qumas were actively engaged in the process. This usually involved various presentations at departmental and plant level, leading to a detailed proposal and final corporate presentation. After an order was sanctioned, lawyers from both sides had to agree contracts. Becoming a qualified supplier was a tough business.
Qumas had been building up an impressive client list (see Table C3.1), but knew that it could expand its business through a network of industry partners. This was a strategy that had long been pursued by competing companies, most obviously Documentum. However, strategy in this area needed to be carefully balanced. While recognizing the potential for partnerships, Qumas was keenly aware of the need to maintain direct relationships with customers-the key to the company's previous success. It was therefore, reluctant to hand over sales and marketing responsibility for any territory to a third party. Potential partners included leading international IT consultancies such as Andersens and PricewaterhouseCoopers and specialist Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) sellers such as Base 10; MFG Pro and BPICS, who specialized in the pharmaceutical and related regulated market segments.
With limited financial and human resources, Qumas's achievements in the US and European markets had been considerable, but some key marketing decisions were needed to ensure ongoing success.
