Article

Gifted With Ubiquity
By Karine Fortin, PME Magazine, May 2000

Considered as the Academy Awards of software in the United States, Tenrox has just won a prestigious Codie Award. The company was considered as a  finalist for the " Best Enterprise" category, and won the 1999 Grand Prize of Exportation. The company's product is time tracking software that has been exported throughout the US, Europe and Australia. Between 1995 and 1997, Tenrox invested significantly in the development of Tenrox Time & Expense. Bt the time it was market ready, resources were extremely limited Time was of essence. "Paying $50,000 for an add in specialized magazine was out of the question", remembers Ludwig Melik, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of the Montreal based company.

"In order to reach the big organizations who are potential clients, we decided to focus exclusively on the Internet." Some fifty different domain names related to its mission and product have been registered to make sure to come up frequently on search engines. Tenrox has also established partnerships with providers of complementary products showcased on the Web. " We then managed to captivate the attention of the people who visited our site by making them stay longer and come back often" , says the marketing vice-president.

Tenrox has put up on line hundreds of informative pages, as well as decision-making tools. The customer service department constantly receives data that allows for effective tracking.

The strategy has been fruitful. Three years later, Tenrox sells 80% of its products outside Quebec. And almost all of the sales are generated by the company’s Web site. Just last January, nearly 500,000 people visited the site! " Our Web site is at the heart of all our marketing activities in Quebec as well as internationally, affirms Ludwig Melik. It requires continuous observation and adjustments. But the growth of our company shows that the game is worth the candle."