Exstream's CEO, Richard Troksa, Talks with WhatTheyThink
By Gail Nickel-Kailing, Senior Editor
December 13, 2007 -- Ranked among the world's fastest growing technology companies by Software Magazine, Exstream Software, LLC was founded in 1998 to provide enterprise software solutions to streamline document creation and to produce more relevant communications for delivery through print/mail and online channels. Richard Troksa joined the company in February 2004 as VP of Business Development after 19 years with IBM, and was named CEO in October this year. Today we talk with Rich about his background, Exstream's technology, and where he thinks the automated document solutions category is headed.
WTT: Would you describe the path that you took to get to where you are today? You spent nearly 20 years with IBM, how did that prepare you for taking the leadership at Exstream?
RT: My professional career started in engineering school, which provided me with a means to work at IBM. My degrees are in Engineering: a master's in Engineering Management from Colorado State University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue. I'm on the technical side; my degrees are more focused on computer engineering.
When I started at IBM, my first jobs were working on pure hardware: chip design, logic design for ASIC chips, and those types of things. Then in the late 1980s I shifted to the software side of the company and I eventually managed about 100 software developers. In the mid-1990s, I worked at IBM's headquarters right at the time Lou Gerstner came on board as Chairman and CEO. It was a very exciting time to be there!
Later I moved back to Colorado to work on the business side in the printing division, where I managed all of IBM's production printing systems worldwide. In one of my previous jobs I also ran the software and services for that division. The people who were developing the AFP architecture reported to me and we were writing the code that implemented AFP across IBM's software and hardware portfolio.
So my background includes hardware, software, and services, as well as development and executive management.
As you move to electronic delivery with TransPromo documents, you have documents that can be more interactive with the recipient.
WTT: "TransPromo" is a pretty hot buzzword these days. It really appears that we're talking about a continuum that reaches from bills and statements (transaction documents) to marketing collateral and direct mail (promotional documents). It's in the middle of the continuum where things seem to be shifting around; sometimes documents are more transactional with some promotion messages and sometimes they are more promotional with the message built around a transaction.
RT: Yes, it really is a continuum. It's remarkable that when Exstream first entered the market back in 2000, we were implementing a TransPromo model. It was just that no one knew what to call it.
Early customers, even in 2000, used our technology to create statements or direct mail pieces, and some were developing what we now call TransPromo documents. Over the last eight years or so the technology has improved and people are moving from viewing these documents from a cost perspective to understanding that they truly add value by providing more effective, targeted communications.
WTT: What happens as more people start to receive their bills and statements online? Do you see using the same technology to create a different form of output? One that is online, rather than printed?
RT: I believe there are two things that are going to happen. First, you can use the technology we have today with our Dialogue software to create output that is presented on a screen or printed; whatever you want. Then, if our TransPromo documents suddenly had to be distributed electronically, all you would need to do is make selection in the software and you would have multiple output streams without changing the application.
Second, and even more interesting, I think, is that as you move to electronic delivery with TransPromo documents, you have documents that can be more interactive with the recipient. An electronic document might include cross-sell or up-sell functions, for example. The real advantage here is for the recipient to have the ability to modify how the information is presented in both a printed format and in future electronic formats.
In the interactive space it is possible to have ultimate individualization where I can edit the document and change it on-demand, in real-time, as I interact with it. One simple example might be changing a pie chart to a bar chart in a 401(k) statement; or to allow someone to drill down into a single bar on the bar chart to find out more information. If I want to see my international funds first, for example, then my US funds, I can make that change. Perhaps I want to compare my Roth Fund to the general market. All of those things can be enabled by the technology Exstream has now.
As much as we talked about TransPromo as far back as eight years ago without ever using the word, we're doing the same now in the interactive sense. The ability to actually interact with a document will have significantly more impact in the marketplace going forward.
Regardless of the ways in which technology changes over the next 10 years, the need to communicate effectively with the customer will always remain. The power to utilize the content and data, whatever format it takes during the next evolution, will be the key going forward.
WTT: Let's move along the continuum to the promo side. In 2005, I received a Christmas card from Exstream that was personalized. All you knew about me was my address, but you were able to individualize it in a way that really added value to me.
It was a sort of "Over the River and Through the Woods…" kind of card that said, "We've included a few travel tips for your journey." For example, a tip for traveling by airplane identified the nearest airport as the Seattle –Tacoma International Airport. That's the airport I use. Next was a tip for traveling by rail that listed Seattle.
But the tip that really got my attention was the one for traveling by car!
"If you're traveling by car, fill your heart with cheer and your tank with cheap gas. Prices at the ARCO station at 3201 20th Avenue W (at W Dravus Street, Interbay) in Seattle averaged $2.29 a gallon in November."
Heavens, we'd like to see $2.29 a gallon again! That was – and still is – absolutely, positively the cheapest gas within miles of my house!
RT: Let's talk about that card for a second. Is that a TransPromo document or not? The way that I view it, any time you're taking transactional data and using it in some form of customer communication, you are into TransPromo.
What we did in 2005 with that card was to take data from multiple sources and link them together to create something that benefited, informed, or instructed you as an end user. The holiday card that you're looking at is one way that obviously adds immediate value. By taking relevant data about where you live and matching it with data from a company that aggregated gasoline prices geographically, we created something effective, with added impact.
The next level, obviously, is how do you make that interactive so that it changes into something that's even more valuable to the recipient?
WWT: What I see here is that you are merging internal data and external data; you are not dependent on the data you have about your customers and prospects. You went to other sources.
RT: You're right; it's changing people's frame of reference. More important is leveraging my data with other pieces of information to provide different context that adds real value beyond what I could have done with my own data.
It's even more interesting in a corporate context where a company has a business information system, an ERP system, and a content management system. Those different silos of infrastructure don't necessarily communicate together. There is great value to the enterprise to look at the amount of information they have across their different systems and determine how to better link it all into a creative customer communication piece. They can then take full advantage of the power they have in those systems.
WTT: Let's talk about the future; how about putting on your forecasting hat? We can look back almost 10 years to Exstream's beginning and 15 years to when TransPromo probably began; what do you think ten years from now looks like?
RT: I think 10 years down the road we will see a big change as to what actually constitutes a document. Eight or ten years ago, the definition of a document was significantly different than it is now because of the changing technology that has come about. We can't really predict what will be the next technology to evolve.
What we can predict is that it will be probably significantly different from what we have today. Regardless of the ways in which technology changes over the next 10 years, the need to communicate effectively with the customer will always remain. The power to utilize the content and data, whatever format it takes during the next evolution, will be the key going forward.
When we look at the evolution of one-to-one communication, the discussions we had 15 years ago are starting to come into being through a variety of applications, such as TransPromo, correspondence, forms, etc.
I believe that over the next eight years, we will make it possible for each person to have relevant, targeted documents that they will be able to interact with. Documents will change according to the recipient's current perspective, their current needs, and the demands of the environment in which they function. Once we get to that phase, we will have moved another step along this continuum of one-to-one marketing.
Having accomplished the delivery of the communication, the next step will be to track all the interactions that occur between a company and its customers and prospects. That information can be used to add value to the next communication that will be sent. Companies are moving from just being able to personalize customer communications to end user interaction. That then begs the question, how does the end-user interact with it? How do I get additional information from that interaction that I can feed back into my database for more knowledge? How do I approach the customer the next time with additional information that I've gathered and repeat that cycle?"
So you're going to see an evolution from just a push technology to an adaptive communication technology.
WTT: Thanks, Rich, it will be interesting to see where the technology takes us!
Please offer Gail your feedback! She can be reached at gail@business-strategies-etc.com
Gail Nickel-Kailing is a senior marketing and strategic planning consultant experienced in marketing technology-based solutions and services. She provides business counsel and marketing assistance to companies seeking to increase profits and revenues and reduce costs through business process improvement and implementation of information or workflow management systems. Through Business Strategies Etc. she offers services such as marketing planning and management, business and product development, and other support services for national and international clients.
Representative projects include:
· Development of channel marketing and collateral distribution programs incorporating electronic and print-on-demand documents as well as traditionally printed promotional materials and direct mail, for manufacturers offering a wide range of products, including commercial exterior lighting, recreational vehicles, water treatment products, and others.
· Detailed mail systems analyses resulting in recommendations for operational and procedural improvements to capture cost savings completed for companies in the following industries: insurance, banking, catalog and direct mail, specialty printing, and government.
Gail has also held executive positions in companies such as Printable Technologies, Firstlogic (formerly known as Postalsoft and recently acquired by Business Objects), CAPVentures (now InfoTrends) and ImageX, a provider of B2B print procurement software and services (acquired by FedExKinko’s in 2003)
Ms. Nickel-Kailing is also an author, journalist, and nationally recognized speaker regarding printing and mailing, including web-to-print, variable data printing, and direct mail. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire WI. She can be reached at gail@business-strategies-etc.com.
