Here's a hard copy in case the above site times out ( 7days?)
Madenta hits the road to sell high-tech tools
To overcome a major obstacle in retailing products
to help disabled people use computers, Madenta has set up
its own distribution channel.
Tuesday, February 2, 1999
MONICA ANDREEFF
Special to The Globe and Mail
Calgary -- Randy Marsden designs and produces cutting-edge computer technology for severely disabled people. But until three years ago, he couldn't get his products to those who needed it most.
No one had set up a distribution channel for his kind of "adaptive technology," says Mr. Marsden, 35, president and chief executive officer of Madenta Inc. in Edmonton.
"It was a real ad hoc, mishmash way of selling and an industry-wide problem, which was affecting us."
Madenta's products help people with quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis or other disabilities to use computers and gain access to the Internet.
But in the mid-nineties, it was nearly impossible to get his products to market. After trying some direct sales options, including telephone marketing, Mr. Marsden took the step of setting up his own retail channel.
After investing more than $500,000, Mr. Marsden says it's starting to pay off. "Our distribution channel is becoming our biggest asset," he says, predicting it will soon account for half Madenta's business, with the rest from direct sales.
It has helped Madenta boost sales to $1.3-million last year, double the level of two years earlier. The company is almost breaking even, Mr. Marsden says. He is talking about doubling the business about every 1½ years. "I don't think that's unrealistic when we start to get this channel really working."
For a small company with 16 employees, setting up the distribution system was an aggressive move, says Edward Silver, a professor of operations management at the University of Calgary's faculty of management.
"To go out and line up retailers like that is fairly unusual from my perspective," Prof. Silver says.
Mr. Marsden's approach to the challenge was hands on: He hit the road in major cities across Canada and the United States to demonstrate his products to would-be vendors. He signed up and trained 75 dealers, mostly wheelchair retailers who were looking for higher-margin items to round out their stock.
One of those dealers is Charles Maxey, owner of Adaptive Technologies of Elizabeth, Colo., which provides hardware and software to people with disabilities so they can work.
Mr. Maxey started carrying Madenta's products four years ago. "They were one of the companies early on that was on the forefront of developing hardware and software products to service disability companies," Mr. Maxey says.
Among the products Mr. Maxey distributes is Madenta's Tracker, which substitutes for a desktop mouse, track ball or even a joystick for people who cannot use their hands. An infrared light signal bounces from a camera on top of the computer to a reflective sticker on the user's forehead, then back to the camera.
Madenta also offers a wireless integrated sip and puff switch that controls mouse clicks. And Telepathic, a word predicting program, monitors what's being typed and estimates the most likely words to follow.
While Mr. Marsden's sales are stronger, the distribution channel has also caught the eye of overseas companies that want to tap into North American markets.
Last October, Madenta began distributing an environmental control device for a French company through its 75 dealers. Mr. Marsden is also negotiating with a company from Israel that has designed a computer screen that can be read by blind people using their fingertips.
But he's found that maintaining the network from Edmonton is time consuming and difficult. Even if he personally visited one dealer a week, he still wouldn't see all of them in a year -- and phone support doesn't quite cut it.
So Mr. Marsden has signed up one district sales manager and is recruiting four more to oversee five geographic zones. He has also steered sales that came directly to Madenta back to the dealers and handed over 40 per cent of sales margins.
Mr. Marsden, a soft-spoken native of rural southern Alberta, has been a trailblazer. As a third-year engineering student at University of Alberta, he and a colleague developed a computer aid to help a severely disabled friend communicate by touching a switch with his lips when, for example, he was thirsty or tired.
With that, Mr. Marsden and his partner garnered awards, professional recognition and job offers from large technology companies across the United States. While his partner headed south of the border, Mr. Marsden stayed in Edmonton to establish Madenta in 1989 and eventually bought out his colleague's interest.
Funded initially by provincial programs and more recently by private investment, Madenta went public on the Alberta Stock Exchange more than a year ago.
Mr. Marsden has a licencing deal with Microsoft Corp. to provide a scaled down version of its onscreen keyboard with Windows software -- either on Windows 98 upgrades or on the coming Windows 2000.
But any future success for Madenta is closely linked to an efficient distribution channel, he says.
"The ultimate indicator for this network is we're selling a lot more now," Mr. Marsden says. "I don't think we've reached near its potential, but time will tell."
Monica Andreeff
Randy Marsden
management
company profiles
Madenta Inc
|
