Locations: Bellevue, WA, Denver,Colorado,Montreal,Canada andHertfordshire,UK
Company Size: 57.3 Million, (NASDAQ: CAPA)
Company Description: Captaris Business Information Delivery solutions help organizations of all sizes automate the information and document flow throughout the information lifecycle (capture – process – archive – deliver). With a comprehensive suite of software and services, Captaris helps organizations to grow revenues and increase profits while meeting compliance goals. Through a global distribution network of leading enterprise technology partners, Captaris has installed more than 90,000 systems in 95 countries in companies of all sizes, including the entire Fortune 100.
Company Description: Information Management Research, Inc. is a leading developer of document management and record retrieval software. IMR software is trusted by thousands of organizations around the world to manage documents for regulatory compliance and records retention, and to provide business processes with fast access to archived documents.
Company Size: 15 M
Challenge: In 2004, the company launched a new healthcare management document product called RecordCare. IMR faced significant barriers in the process of launching their product as they had no reputation in the healthcare market, only beta customers for the new product, no collateral or supporting research to explain the significance and purpose of the product, and a sales team that was new to selling to executives, IT heads and business administrators in the healthcare industry. IMR needed a full scale strategic marketing communications roadmap, with detailed milestones including completion dates for a messaging workshop, a press release, collateral, a white paper, editorial coverage, a HIPAA-compliance Webinar and media/analyst tour. Ripple Effect was chosen as part of the company’s team (which included IMR executives, its advertising agency and its email marketing agency). Ripple Effect was chosen because of its reputation as one of the few agencies known for its strategy and road mapping of a company’s vision in the context of communications in the present as well as into the future.
Solution: Ripple Effect’s strategy was to prepare and fulfill the following milestones in order to reach the agreed upon objective – successful entry of the IMR product RecordCare into the healthcare market.
- A messaging workshop was set up with the goal of developing positioning, in regard to the product and company’s strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities in entering into the healthcare industry.
Results: The team developed a messaging guide and put together a roadmap that was even more granular than the RecordCare internal product marketing plan. The key message points were to be used to provide talking points for all media interviews and serve as a basis for internal communication.
- A compelling press release was written which would entice future customers and press to visit IMR at the AIIM 2004 show and see a live demonstration of the new product, RecordCare.
- A one-page product sheet and press kit were created to support the sales effort at the booth and they were also used by executives during media/analyst interviews. The IMR team chose Ripple Effect to complete these documents in time for the show.
- A white paper was published, written by IMR’ in-house healthcare expert under the guidance of Ripple Effect.
Results: Ripple Effect was able to get IMR’ white paper published in two of the top heathcare publications; Healthcare Informatics and Advance for Healthcare Professionals. In addition, the healthcare white paper was leveraged to initiate and facilitate a HIPAA-compliance Webinar, produced by Ripple Effect and hosted by IMR.
- Ripple Effect utilized the prepared literature to garner meaningful editorial coverage to maximize the visibility of the product.
Results: Ripple Effect was successful in securing coverage in several notable publications, including Advance for Healthcare Executives, Health Leaders, and
Health Management Technology as well as a mention in SearchCIO.com Webinar
on trends, solutions and technology.
- Ripple Effect produced a Webinar for IMR that targeted an audience that has buying power. The Webinar was successful at bringing buyers and sellers together in an environment that best allows information exchange and lead generation.
Results: Ripple Effect’s Webinar maximized return on IMR’ marketing dollars, informed large numbers of potential buyers of their product, delivered the company’s message straight to the buyers and influencers, strengthened awareness of RecordCare as a new brand and generated hard leads.
- Ripple Effect wrote a thought leadership piece on HIPAA bylined by IMR’ CEO.
Results: The thought leadership editorial was highlighted on Advance for Healthcare Executives’ Website and demonstrated IMR’ CEO expertise as thought leader in healthcare IT.
- The team conducted a media tour and an analyst tour. The media tour included such publications as CIO Magazine, American Executive, Business Week and The Denver Post to name a few. Before the analyst tour, IMR received a full briefing book with the analyst bios, backgrounds, beats, and recent reports. Dan Lucarini, IMR’ Vice President, went on to state,” the analyst and media already seemed to know the Ripple Effect team and had the background on our company before our meetings with them. This was very helpful to ensure IMR was to be seen in the most positive light and also ensure that we are included in all of the analysts’ upcoming research reports.”
The Big Picture
Objective Achieved: Due to the exposure to the Healthcare industry through the strategies of the IMR team and Ripple Effect, not only was the product RecordCare successfully introduced, but the relationship developed between IMR and one analyst group in particular resulted in the recent purchase of the IMR by Captaris, Inc. It was Ripple Effect that introduced IMR to the analyst, Robert Markham of Forrester, who in turn recommended to his client, Captaris,Inc., the idea of purchasing IMR. The transaction closedJanuary 1, 2005 as a cash purchase of $26.5 million. Ripple Effect Communication’s carefully established relationships with the media and the analysts certainly were beneficial for this client. The Webinar Ripple Effect produced for IMR, produced 276 hard leads in which 6% turned into immediate sales and the rest fueled IMR’s sales pipeline. It strengthened IMR and RecordCare’s brand awareness and helped the company maximize its return on its marketing dollars. This was accomplished without a large time commitment or need to travel.