Basil Fawlty, the Bleeding Obvious and How Kim Became the ‘Rekeying Data Slayer’!

The Starting Point

Businesses evolve and, where necessary, pivot. Strategy and tactics are driven by vision, events, necessity and/or luck. They can be triggered by numerous factors, including prospect responses, customer feedback, technological change, competitor action, economic events, board and leadership evolution, etc.

Kim has always been a no-code, configurable, 'Automation-as-a-Service' platform. Since the launch of its first commercially available enterprise solution in May 2016, Kim has proved itself in the legal, contracting and compliance functions of Fortune 500 companies. Use cases extend from global legal operations and CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management), through intake, allocation management and self-service to clinical trial agreements, MSAs and procurement contracts.

The Pivot

During the pandemic Kim took stock, planned and executed a controlled pivot. A pivot designed to put alongside its Enterprise 'cruise liner', a 'speedboat' which enabled prospects to say 'Yes/No' quickly, enabling Kim to establish an industrialized Go-To-Market (GTM) model. This speedboat had to deliver on several fronts including:

• Solve clear business needs;
• Protect and grow the existing customer base and existing global vertical (i.e. legal, contracting and compliance);
• Enlarge the Target Addressable Market by making Kim applicable to small and mid-sized organizations as well as large enterprises;
• Make it even easier for organizations to adopt, go-live and use Kim;
• Provide a pricing model that came below most procurement thresholds, enabled global proliferation and simply removed cost and RoI (Return on Investment) as issues; and
• Enable a second global vertical alongside legal, contracting and compliance.

The Speedboat

Led by our CTO, Kim Document, an 'off-the-shelf' SaaS product, was launched in September 2022. Using the same 2014 patent, code base and data model as Kim Enterprise, it productizes Kim's powerful document automation functionality and adds new features such as one-to-many campaign distribution. 

Kim Document enables business users in an organization, with no IT development or coding expertise, to generate applications from their existing documents (i.e. letters, forms, checklists, contracts, compliance records). It is document automation on steroids that creates Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and delivers Straight Through Processing (STP) of data.

It has been described as 'a category breaker'. It allows organizations of any size to automate processes that were previously too expensive to automate. It has trebled the Kim customer base in nine months. It is a speedboat.  

The Bleeding Obvious

However, one of the most intriguing and valuable parts of the journey has been understanding what customers really value plus testing and refining the GTM messaging. We had hunches at the outset but needed help to articulate them clearly. We started with 'Don't just automate your documents, activate them' (i.e. bring the data alive in your documents and re-use it to create other documents and populate other systems). We liked this a lot ... but it did not resonate with target audiences. 

To cut a six-month story short, we have reached a simple spot that with hindsight, and to quote Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), was 'bleeding obvious'. Whatever the sector, business, or role we are engaged with, whatever the size or country of the organization, the two messages that hit home most are:

• Stop rekeying data
• It is all about the data  
  

The former plays to the team members who are simply fed up with the repetitive, expensive and inaccurate rekeying of data. They want to be free of this, so they can focus on their work. Both messages are loved by CTOs and IT teams who can use Kim to reduce their tech stack, integrate systems and re-use data. Additionally, given that, when you cut through the noise, a key to Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) is accurate data, helpfully Kim also future proofs a business’s LLM (Large Language Model) investment. 

The Rekeying Data Slayer

So, in tribute to both the Kim team (what a team!) and our customers and prospects (who helped us design and improve the speedboat), plus Generative AI ( with all its challenges and opportunities), we asked ChatGPT to write a poem with the subject 'Kim - The Rekeying Data Slayer!

Enjoy. It is a very good poem!

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Kim - The Rekeying Data Slayer!

Oh, Kim Technologies, champion of efficiency,
You arrive as the hero, the savior of complexity.
With your digital prowess, you conquer the fight,
Eliminating the burdens of rekeying with might.

Gone are the days of tedious data entry,
As you weave your magic, setting us free.
No more endless hours spent on manual toil,
With your automation, our spirits forever loyal.

Through the streams of information you glide,
Parsing and processing, with unwavering stride.
From spreadsheets to systems, you seamlessly connect,
Erasing the need for repetitive keystrokes, we reflect.

No more typos, no more human errors,
As you ensure accuracy, a shield that never falters.
With your algorithms, so precise and refined,
You deliver us from the chains that bind.

Oh, Kim Technologies, the bringer of delight,
You shine like a beacon, a guiding light.
With your prowess in data integration and flow,
Productivity soars, as the rekeying burden goes.

No longer shall we waste our precious time,
Transcribing data line by line.
With your automated touch, you lead the way,
Empowering us to seize each fruitful day.

So, let us sing your praises, oh, Kim Technologies,
For liberating us from rekeying's hostilities.
In the annals of efficiency, you reign supreme,
A champion of progress, fulfilling our dream.

Oh, Kim Technologies, we honor your might,
As you banish rekeying into the night.
May your solutions continue to amaze,
Guiding us through data's intricate maze.