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ATEMPO CASE STUDY
"Boston Communications
has opened my eyes to how public relations
can make a powerful difference to strategic
marketing goals. In my various CMO positions,
I’ve worked with many of the most
recognizable PR firms. BC stands out
from them all as a pathbreaker in bringing
business strategy into public relations.”
Mike Harris, CMO
Atempo, Inc. |
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Business Strategy
The France-based data protection company, Atempo,
wanted to launch into the U.S. market. The company
had outstanding technology and 12 years of experience,
but it had no U.S. customer base, massive entrenched
competitors, and zero name recognition outside
of Europe. Further complications to Atempo’s
desire to break into the US market came in the
form of solidly-entrenched perceptions about the
company best articulated by leading industry analyst
and pundit, Jon Toigo:
“I have been
sketchy in my coverage of this company,
not because of its French roots, but because
they were originally targeting the overcrowded
backup/restore market with yet another backup
software product (yawn). They nearly got
their butts kicked back to France in 2002,
but a few guys thought hard about re-spinning
some of the more unique aspects of their
technology into an ILM yarn.
When I heard about
this a year or so ago, my reaction was,
“Wow. Just what we need. Another vendor
butchering the concept of ILM.” Even
if the accent was French, and the narrative
was “like wiping your ass with silk,”
I had pretty much had it up to here with
ILM marketecture.”
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Positioning
Through interviews with top Atempo executives and
customers, market analysis and perception analysis,
Boston Communications helped Atempo articulate its
points of differentiation and competitive strengths,
summed up in its new positioning as a leading provider
of “Trusted ILM”, a data management
framework that automatically matches the level of
data protection and security to data’s value
over its lifecycle, and put a plan in place to drive
that positioning into the market to change market
perceptions about the company.
Leveraging the PR Channel
Boston Communications has helped Atempo win substantial
coverage from leading analysts and media. Analysts
writing about Atempo include 451 Group, Clipper
Group, Enterprise Storage Group, Evaluator Group,
Gartner, IDC, META Group, Progressive Strategies,
Robert Frances Group, and Sageza Group. Major technology
press routinely covering Atempo are now InformationWeek,
eWeek, Computer Reseller News, Computer World, Network
World, InfoWorld, Byte and Switch, Dow Jones Newswires,
the San Jose Business Journal, and the San Francisco
Business Times.
Business Outcomes
Atempo’s revised positioning has achieved
pervasive buy-in from key influencers, in the words
of leading analyst Steve Duplessie, Founder
of Enterprise Strategy Group:
“Atempo’s
timing in expanding its US market presence
couldn't be better. The market is on fire,
and so are the problems. Having a lengthy
history of supporting multi-national customers
with all the hot-list features talked about
today should find them a welcome audience.”
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In a span of 12 months, Atempo has gone from
an unknown French company to a company seen by
analysts as being poised to shake up the U.S.
market. Among our achievements: Atempo is has
made it onto Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and
is now considered one of the Big Four data protection
companies
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