Moving to electronic distribution gave their customers immediate access to their products and services, provided effective worldwide distribution and reduced distribution costs.
Well, these days many large companies now completely distribute using electronic downloading. But to distribute software or content electronically worldwide the distribution process must be able to handle peak volumes – without a solution that can handle peak volumes, clients experience severe server and bandwidth performance issues and crashes. This results in poor customer service or lost revenue.
At least four options are available to a company that wishes to handle peak volumes – the first option requires the company to increase its infrastructure power and bandwidth. This can result in high costs, and typically provides a “North American” solution only.
The second option is to use a third-party content and software distribution network. This requires a long-term contract that entails a high dollar commitment, but many companies and organizations that have limited distribution requirements and cannot justify the commitment involved in either in-house or hosted distribution.
A third option is “cloud computing.” Companies such as Amazon and OpSource provide the ability to kick start a company at very low initial commitment, but there are real issues with this option when used to distribute product. Security, performance and costs are real challenges here.
The final option is provided by Data Bridge Digital, a local Lead To Win company, which allows companies to distribute electronically while solely paying for distribution services used.
There are many benefits to electronic distribution:
1) Many online purchases are impulse buys.
2) Distributing updates and patches electronically enhances customer service and reduces costs.
3) Time to market is reduced.
4) Reporting is improved.
5) Distribution overhead is removed from in-house servers, allowing for unlimited worldwide growth.
Data Bridge Digital offers this option to organizations that have limited electronic distribution capability in-house, and wish to experience the same customer service enhancement, revenue growth and cost reductions enjoyed by larger companies.
Data Bridge Digital allows customers to pay only for distribution services that they use. Their customers’ customers benefit from fast and reliable access to software and content.
The company has teamed up with one of the world's leading data distribution providers to give their clients and their clients’ customers the best worldwide distribution possible, while reducing or eliminating the need for clients to make a significant upfront financial commitment.
Glenn Carley and Dave Burden, the company's founders, both have considerable experience in both physical and electronic media distribution – Glenn operates a successful media duplication and distribution company, while Dave spent many years heading up Cognos' media distribution and download service.
While at Cognos, Dave moved the company’s media distribution from physical to electronic distribution with considerable service improvements and a large return on investment.
Teaming Data Bridge Digital’s electronic distribution capabilities with Glenn's existing media production and distribution company allows it to satisfy the complete spectrum of distribution needs, from USB drives to CD/DVD to printing, data distribution, streaming video and mobile device distribution.
Tony Bailetti is an associate professor at Carleton University and the head of Lead To Win, a vendor-neutral business ecosystem. This column is the latest in a series on Lead To Win companies and the markets they've targeted.
