Case study: BMS looks for international appeal

Osborne Park-based software company, BMS Solutions, will next month release an upgraded version of a software program that assists organisations monitor and improve their business processes to achieve greater corporate sustainability.

But marketing the package to a wider market, particularly the company’s growing list of international firms,  required a fresh, more strategic approach.

 Established in 1994 by current chief executive, Angela McQuillan, BMS’s unique software toolset is designed to measure client’s activities across a number of business areas, including health and safety, environment, quality and reliability.

Boasting major global mining, oil and gas and construction companies as clients, the company also services a number of local utilities, engineering and mining services companies.

In 2003, the company opened a regional office in Houston, Texas, tapping into the opportunities presented by North America’s oil industry hub. The office has since grown to 25 staff.

BMS has also just opened its first European office in Paris, which will serve as a regional centre for their global clients’ neighbouring operations.

During the past three years, the company’s main focus has been the development of a new version of its software, which has been made available to clients since January but will be officially launched on July 1.

With assistance from the federal government’s AusIndustry R&D grant scheme, along with sales revenue, BMS has developed ‘Cintellate’, its new advanced software program.

Cintellate is designed to measure and manage all the activities associated with managing an organisation’s corporate sustainability, in a way that promotes individual accountability and facilitates continuous improvement.

Managing director Mike Moore said the software drew on a broad spectrum of disciplines, across business divisions and geographic areas.

“It’s looking for trends, lessons learnt. It cuts across so many aspects of the business,” he said.

“There’s nothing else like this in the market, that we know of, that covers such a broad area of processes.”

With the new product ready for market, the challenge was on to effectively promote Cintellate on an international scale.

BMS hired Claremont-based brand development specialists BrainCELLS to develop a branding strategy, incorporating new logos and promotional material that would appeal to an international market.

“Our focus has changed over the past few years. As the product has matured, and going international you have to have a more sophisticated approach to sales and marketing, than dealing just within Australia,” Ms McQuillan told WA Business News.

She said the international marketing push focused on a number of key strategies.

The company targeted large organisations with global operations who were better equipped to make significant investments in this area.

“Going into international markets we focused on securing large well-known clients, which is a tough marketing strategy but is very effective,” Ms McQuillan said.

In addition, BMS recruited highly experienced sales people at both its US and Australian offices, and worked with local service companies based in the US to help develop targeted brand and marketing messages.

While organisations had become increasingly aware of the importance of addressing key social and environmental KPIs as a result of more stringent corporate reporting requirements and governance regulations, the concept was sometimes too overwhelming for some organisations to get a handle on.

Ms McQuillan said the process of re-education was vital, particularly in areas outside Australia.

She believes organisations here are generally more innovative in this area due to their isolation, and are driven more by good practice than by legislation compared with other countries.

“To add value to your business you have to manage the process, and your reporting will fall out of that,” Ms McQuillan said.

“We believe compliance is a by-product of good business.”