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kCura

How to EnterCompany: kCura, Chicago, IL
Company Description: kCura are the developers of the e- discovery software Relativity, a web- based platform for the review, analysis, and production of electronic data. Relativity has more than 50,000 active users worldwide from organizations including the U.S. Department of Justice and 95 of the top 100 law firms in the United States.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Department of the Year - Computer Software

Nomination Title: kCura's Unique Sales Department

Tell the story about what this nominated department achieved since the beginning of July 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Relationships matter at kCura, and we pride ourselves on fostering deep
relationships with our customers and partners. When we entered this industry,
competing software companies made short-term revenue-share deals with their
channel partners who delivered their e-discovery software to clients. This
provided little incentive for partners to work through issues with the
software and build long-term commitments. We chose for our sales team to form
partnerships under multi-year subscriptions, while providing intimate
technical and sales support throughout.

In the past 12 months, we’ve doubled our enterprise client base to 50 and
added 23 new partners for a total of 120 in our global network—making our
partner group the largest global partner network of any litigation hosting
platform.

Our sales team is comprised of technology experts, collocated in Chicago with
the rest of kCura for knowledge transfer. They run their own demos and deeply
understand the software. After each demo, surveys are collected to ensure the
demo experience is always improving.

Our sales team is also high-touch. When we gain a new client, they send an
email to the entire company to share information about that client. We have
also stopped sending auto-generated emails and have focused our sales team on
support as a discipline.

“In all my years in the industry, I've never seen a software company so
committed to our success,” said Vincent J. Brunetti, President of RVM, a
hosting partner of our software, Relativity. “Whether sales or support, the
Relativity team is always willing to do what it takes to help us support our
clients."

We have one sales manager designated for every 10 to 12 accounts, and offer a
customer portal for constant sales support. These sales managers check in with
partners frequently and assemble plans to assist each partner in taking their
business to the next level, be it obtaining new materials to market Relativity
or uncovering ways to improve service for that partner. We’re proactive,
finding out the needs of our partners and meeting them before they have to
come to us.

We’re also operationally focused with a 100-plus page sales manual to maintain
effective processes. There are also no territories or commissions. The sales
team is paid based on the responsibilities they take on, which increase as
team members improve. Pay isn’t based on closing deals, but always acting in
the best interest of the end user and kCura.

“From my perspective, as a sales team member, the true barometer of our
channel focus is not solely found in the range of activities that we do to
support our partners—it’s really what our partners say about us to their
clients and peers,” Rich McBride, a sales manager at kCura, has said. “When
our partners are asked why they recommend Relativity, I’d like them to be
comfortable saying that one of the main reasons is because they’ve never
worked with a company so committed to their success.”

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://kcura.com/relativity/testimonials/service-providers
http://www.mspmentor.net/2011/06/08/e-discovery-best-of-breed-options-emerge-for-msps/
http://bit.ly/iIilKj
http://kcura.com/relativity/news/id/180/kcura-ceo-honored-in-fourth-annual-mspmentor-250-report


Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated sales organization:

Nick Robertson joined kCura in 2007 as the VP of Sales and Marketing. Prior to
kCura, Nick was the VP of Technical Services for Forensicon, a Chicago-based
computer forensics firm specializing in the identification and preservation of
electronic evidence. From 2003 to 2006, Nick served as a Senior Solutions
Consultant for Encore Discovery Solutions, a leading provider of e-discovery,
web hosting, and related services. Nick received a Bachelor’s degree in
Information Systems and International Business from Marquette, has attended
computer forensics training from Guidance and AccessData, and has been a
speaker on the subject of e-discovery.