Why start planning the export of your software now

The market you are in can keep you very busy. Initial plans for going abroad are often postponed due to priorities that come from the current market. But every chance has a closing window of opportunity. The next paragraphs explain what opportunities abroad there are and why it is needed to start planning the export of your software now.

Opportunities in the Dutch Market

The Netherlands is home to a total of 1.9 million enterprises. There are 8 thousand enterprises in the Netherlands with 100 or more employees. 20 of the 2000 largest companies come from the Netherlands. The Dutch economy is the sixth-largest economy in the EU, the fifth high average income in the word and the fifth most prosperous country in the world. Bloomberg names the Netherlands world’s ninth most innovative country.

The Dutch market is full of potential clients with a lot of money looking for growth and innovation. Do you have a good product with good potential for the Dutch market?

A Strategic decision

Grabbing the opportunities abroad can be a good motivator for going abroad. It can be a strategic decision as well.

The leading country of the industry you serve

Look at the industry you serve and aggregate from a country to a continent or worldwide perspective. Which country is the leading country for this industry? In which country is it all decided? For example, Germany can be considered a leading country for the automotive industry. Planning for Export means selecting the right country. Industry leadership of a country could be a selection criterium. Innovation, openness of the market could be to.

Risk reduction by taking opportunities abroad

Are opportunities abroad a nice to have or a need to have? In different countries the economic cycle of the industry you service can be out of phase. And this is a good thing. Potentially this means that while the economic cycle of the industry is going down in your country, it could be going up in another country. The foreign market could provide good opportunities and prove to be a life saver for your company.

There are several reasons why the economic cycle of an industrie can be different in two countries. For example: The Dutch tax law states that software can be depreciated in 5 years. In German this (Nutzungsdauer) is 1 year. Another explanation is trend like behavior of the market. When the industry you service is a competitive market, companies tend to react to what the competition does. “When they renew their software, we have to keep up”. This can lead to a trend like behavior of the market. It is very well possible that this trend is not going on in your current market. Especially when the foreign and home markets are not in contact with each other. Contact us to find out what trends are going on.

Takeover candidates: instant clients

A competitor abroad could have built up a good install base but meanwhile miss the development capacity or funds to renew their solution. Typically, this foreign competitor will be losing clients. In such a scenario the competitor could consider stopping further development of the old solution and starting the replacement of the solution with that of a foreign competitor. Their development team could be added to your team or focus on localizing your product and optimizing it for the market here. To get the most potential out of this option, it is important not to start too late.

Prepare for references

“Who are those guys? Never heard of them”. Exporting can be a humbling experience when you have no market share here and nobody knows you. When you start with exporting it will help to have clients that are famous in the new country. They could be references. It would be even better it these clients are present in this market. A different strategy for entering the foreign market it to help your client enter the foreign market. This way you instantly have a presence in the market. Planning for Export means looking for the right clients in your current market. We can help define which of your clients are known here.

Reducing the average development costs and free up development capacity

There are two ways of reducing the fixed costs per client of software development. One is to reduce the costs of software development itself. The other one is to spread the costs over more clients. Increasing the market abroad will open the opportunity to find extra clients. Partnering can be a way to reduce the cost of software development itself. The partner could even start selling and/or servicing your product. We can both help you find clients and partners and are experienced in a variety of partner models.

When a partner has the extension to your software available, development capacity can be used for other development. When the extension is used by solutions of multiple vendors the average development cost will be lower compared to the “make” option.
Some parts in software are identical to software that is used for totally different purposes. For example, a customer relation management module. Instead of two companies both developing their own CRM building block, alternatively they could join forces to free up capacity and lower the average development costs.
Like joint development with a partner there could be an option to do the development together with a competitor abroad. It will free up development capacity and lower the average development costs.

Product Development Roadmap

Know what adjustments to your product will be needed. Maybe give them a low priority in the development roadmap. But when a development is planned that could include the foreign aspect, do so.

For example; make the interface translatable to multiple languages using translation files that can be send to a translation burro. When an integration needs to be built, open the opportunity to easily add other integrations later. When a function for importing, storage and exporting of data is created consider the different types of data formats that are used in other countries ETIM, BIM, Edifact, S88, S95, etc.

When choosing a location for a datacenter consider how different countries will react to this location. For example, a datacenter on US soil is subject to US legislation, which provides intelligence agencies legitimacy to look at the data. There are stories told of very large deals lost due to an American competitor who miraculously was prices only 1% lower in the tender.

Innovation

In an innovative environment, different upcoming technologies arise, and it is not easy to predict which technology will be winning. For example, LoraWan or Z-Wave. It is a good practice to look at different countries before selecting. Some markets like the Dutch market are ahead of others and can be used as predictors for your home market.

Furthermore, The Dutch market is known to be used as a try out market. It is an open market with many technology enthusiasts.

Blue Ocean Strategy

The Blue Ocean Strategy method states that it is possible to create a value offering that is different compared to the competition by reinventing the borders and customs of the industry. It is likely that the industry in the homeland has a slightly different setup than the industry abroad due to which your offering stands out from the competition. As an example: Germany has 4,3 times the amount of people but 20 times more surface than the Netherlands. German companies tend to have more settlements and as a result software is more setup with these scenarios.

Put it in a system and copy the success formula abroad

When you can put it in a system it becomes scalable. The success formula can be copied to other countries with some adjustments here and there. But before it is put in a system you need to find the success formula. Planning for Export means you need to find the success formula and put it in a system. We can help you define that formula using different proven successful methodologies.

How can we help?

With our experience and knowledge of the proven methodologies “Crossing the Chasm”, “Blue Ocean Strategy”, “Eating the Big Fish”, “Hacking Growth” and “No Budget Marketing” we can develop a strategy for market entrée. Two key words here are “Focus” and “differentiation”. When you already have a formula for your success, we can execute it here in the Netherlands. We have been helping software, IT, OT companies with entering the market in the Netherlands since 2013 and have found clients, partners, technology partners and initiated a take-over. Typically, such a project starts of with a capacity of 1 day per week for 3 months to get a feel of the market and how we work. Our service is full service also known as Sales as a Service. More information can be found here: https://www.business-developer.biz/sales-as-a-service/

It all starts with a talk

Contact us and we can talk about your plans for going abroad and how we can help. You can reach us by phone, email or you can schedule a meeting online.