Precision & Flexibility: How we built a process automation company

An interview with Arnold von Bueren, CEO & Founder, TCG Process

You’ve been in the document management industry for many years. What was the driving factor behind the TCG purchase and your ultimate goals for TCG’s solutions and team?

When I bought this little software company doing invoice capture and recognition, I had just left Dicom/Kofax where I had been for many years as CEO. I felt too young to buy a Porsche and too young to retire (laughs). Switzerland’s business network is very close, and most people know one another in this industry. As a [then former] competitor, I knew TCG was doing good things with invoice capture at the time.

Whenever I buy things for my home life, I often delay purchase until I’m able to afford a high quality version of the product I’m sourcing. The original TCG product was written in a way that I knew would not offer the same level of quality to our customers - and would create long-term support problems for the TCG organization. So, I set out to change that problem.

I know that often when organizations get acquired, the investor strategy can be to kill innovation, investment and creativity, but I wanted this to be different.

There were two primary things I could draw on from my career experience to help the organization at a minimum:

• knowledge on the principles of good software development, and
• experience in using the channel for scalable customer growth.

At the time, we were a seven-person company with 3-4 developers, and we decided as a team to make this a more viable, repeatable and scalable software. Everyone worked to apply improved software development principles, and remove the “spaghetti code”, as I call it, from the product and customer deployments.

That must have been a ton of effort, and a challenge as you were already supporting customers. How did you start to turn the ship, so to speak?

Well, first we had to decide on a platform - and we had a good, heated discussion on the pros and cons between Java & Microsoft. Our decision to move forward on Microsoft meant we actually lost one developer. Then we decided on a components strategy: we would create components of client functionality and remove the spaghetti code, little by little.

In the beginning we were in survivor mode, our product was mostly written for invoice processing - as were many similar solutions at the time. Though we were spending quality time on redevelopment, we also honed our skills in application development. It helped us to see how this process-based application could be used to solve complex challenges far beyond invoice processing, able to address almost any process that needed information to be captured at the start.

It sounds like you thought the technology being delivered to the market had some opportunity for improvement for document process automation handling but needed a modern architecture approach. Were there new technologies or deployment options considered for inclusion?

Yes, it’s true. When I considered the larger, already successful software organizations in the space, I knew their CEOs didn’t know exactly what the market needed next. I have chosen to stay very close to our customers and the projects, deployments and development as a way of continuously listening to what the market is asking for from its software partners.

“Early on, we at TCG realized a strong need to create a very flexible product to address a large variety of market needs.“

We made a decision then to pursue a process-based application environment and a platform approach, which immediately became a huge differentiator for TCG over the competition. This still holds true today. Additionally, DocProStar’s no/low code application engine was a strong combination with the application environment - most customers we spoke with were frustrated because they typically had to use scripting in these solutions. That amount of scripting also made customer support tough work -- it was much too personnel-dependent.

In addition to remaining flexible to our customer needs, it helps us still today to remain open to changes in the market. TCG can easily respond to new approaches, technologies and solutions that may arise and need integration or inclusion in the platform.

You have an impressive list of customers in Europe. Are the majority of your customers in a couple of specific industry verticals? What types of customers were the first customers and how has that grown over time?

The very first "vertical" was really invoice processing, and today it remains an important part of our business … but our platform and people are so much more than just invoice capture.

Once we introduced the customers to this new flexible platform, we started to address other potential capture challenges in their organizations. Like most software companies, in the beginning we were a hungry start up - we tried to do anything (everything?) with the product. In a way this was good, as it reinforced our flexible approach and required us to remain adaptable in projects.

And this is really how we grew, how we expanded our customer base was by expanding within the customer base. It was something somewhat unexpected for me - I hadn't really experienced that with Kofax. And as we acquired these new customer projects, we started to build those processes and integrations into the platform as well. TCG’s customers were adding processes onto existing implementations, at a rate of several per year.

Wow, that takes a lot of good work and good people. Once the TCG team recognized how customers were using the solutions, how did you decide to expand internationally?

On a personal level, I had really enjoyed the travel and global operations aspect of my work at Kofax and wanted to continue to work with other cultures and types of organizations. And our customers needed support beyond Switzerland; while they may have purchased solutions in our market, they had operations in other countries. But first I wanted to be sure the solution was viable beyond our borders.

Our entry into South America proved that the product worked in a different document landscape, a different time zone. The success of the expansion validated the robustness of the platform and our ability to support it internationally. Our South American CEO, Sixto A. Suñé had a banking technology background; with his expertise and the platform’s viability, TCG has been very successful in that vertical.

“If a product can survive in Germany, it will survive anywhere!”

And then we expanded to Germany, as there is no more discerning customer than a German one. If a product survives in Germany, it survives anywhere! Otherwise, TCG’s expansion has been opportunity-driven based on customers and market conditions. Having subsidiaries in Switzerland, Germany, USA, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Chile and Canada gives us the ability to support large global customers and large global partners the right way, by being in the market there with them.

What made you feel the timing was right now to expand into the United States?

We have seen, and the analysts have confirmed, that large, enterprise companies are looking at the second generation of capture and process automation products. They’ve realized that the legacy solutions are difficult to upgrade and/or expand their use. Many times legacy products are simply in maintenance mode from the supplier. Customers want to replace them with a modern, service-oriented product, and a flexible processing platform that gives them the ability to do more.

"As robotic process automation (RPA) and other technologies started to capture market share globally, it became evident that all organizations have a need for front-end capture with process capabilities – not just simple capture."

And TCG realized we had a unique opportunity with our technology. The US is a high volume market, and no one deals with high volume processing as well as the TCG platform. We know that at 150M pages on one system in one year, our competitors with legacy applications struggle to be successful. This is an area of opportunity for TCG.

I consider myself a “little bit” American, as I spent five years in California during my time in business. I learned then the need to hire a strong American team to address this market effectively.

Great software companies are only as good as their people. What type of people did you seek out to start TCG and then to expand globally? How did you communicate your culture and corporate values to ensure there was a fit with team members?

In our expansion to South America and Germany, I relied on my network and personal relationships. Now, with the success we’ve had, people are approaching us in different countries to discuss expansion under the TCG name. This US expansion was the first time we went out and recruited to find the right person to lead the effort. Our management team agreed that to be successful, we need to focus our best resources to support the US market as it is an established market. Therefore at this time, we’ll delay any expansion into other large markets like the UK and Asia, for example, to make sure that our US customers and partners are successful. Additionally, strategically we have decided to avoid a “parachuting” approach; TCG values having in-country expert resources and supporting and servicing clients with a local organization.

Every country is different in terms of the types of people we need to be successful. In South America, for example, our CEO doesn’t necessarily hire people that are “in the business” with capture or process experience. This affords that organization lots of fresh thinking as they plan and consider how to process information for companies. Because of the product architecture, employees and customers are able to create solutions to process problems due to the platform’s unique what-you-see-is-what-you-process (WYSIWYP) approach. We can do this while still limiting personnel dependencies, because the product can stand on its own no matter how it is applied to a process.

TCG has enjoyed a high retention rate of its people in all countries; our employees like the product and the way it looks, the way it works. When the employees love the product as much as our customers do, it means fulfilling work for the worldwide TCG team. I have heard from some of our newest team members that they can see how our organization takes great pride in the quality of our product and this commitment to perfection for our customers; it’s a large part of our culture.

We have grown to 100 people worldwide, and about a third of the organization is in Switzerland. I expect relatively quick growth in the next few years, growing in every country where we currently do business. This expanded growth is well calculated and planned as our company is in good shape due to the amount of recurring revenue from happy customers on subscription and rental licenses as well as on annual maintenance contracts. This combination of positive financial results along with a proven product for new markets gives our employees stability and excitement for our future.

Speaking of the employee base, would you share an anecdote that would give customers and partners insight into the unique culture at TCG?

In our headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, we installed a very large (>1000 liter) saltwater aquarium near the coffee station in the office, where people congregate. It is a living, non-technical feature and people love it. There is a true emotional bond between the team and those fish, of which there are around 40. Everyone has a favorite fish and many have actually named their favorite fish in the tank.

Nemo found a home at TCG Switzerland.

An interesting thing to note about it: since the aquarium has been in the office, everyone we set out to hire has agreed to come on board and join us. It is a better recruitment tool than LinkedIn.

And finally, what do you like to do in your free time?

I still have two young boys, and I enjoy spending time with my family. I love wine and therefore like to tend to the wine cellar. I love food and cooking - especially what I consider the three greatest cuisines on earth: Japanese, Italian and Thai. My time spent cooking is mostly focused on Italian-influenced dishes, as I like the simple approach where good outcomes mean you need fresh, high quality ingredients and often dishes can be quickly completed.

Outside of my family life, I enjoy biking. Weather permitting, I ride almost 20 miles each way to and from the office.

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