A look at the people behind the numbers in area business:
ORRIN BROBERG APP DATA ROOM
Title: President and CEO
Age: 61
Veteran entrepreneur Orrin Broberg is pursuing several growth options for App Data Room, a St. Paul start-up that offers a mobile platform for managing and distributing sales materials and monitoring their performance.
The company has a small direct sales force, is growing organically and continues to add large enterprise clients, Broberg said. But the platform is mature enough that the company is looking at investing more in sales and marketing and other ways to increase sales.
"Partnerships, distribution, co-marketing, that's going to be the future growth," Broberg said, who said the company is working on such agreements with several organizations.
App Data room is available for Apple's iOS devices, Android and Windows 8 tablets. Users can set up the platform up themselves or have the company customize it for them, Broberg said. Customers include Caterpillar, Graco and St. Jude Medical.
App Data Room got its start in 2011, when St. Jude Medical engaged Meditech Communications of St. Paul to develop a platform to present sales media on the first iPads, Broberg said.
Broberg, joining his fourth start-up, became president and CEO when App Data Room spun off as a stand-alone company in 2013.
The platform also produces real-time analytics on the use of the app in sales calls, Broberg said. A feature called Lead Capture uses the iPad's internal camera to scan identification badges of trade show attendees and pair that with their product needs and interests, among other data.
Q: Why should a company use the App Data Room platform?
A: App Data Room is the easiest way to manage and deploy your marketing and sales materials to a widely distributed audience on a wide variety of mobile devices. It's successful because it's so easy to use and easy to manage.
Q: What's next for the platform?
A: Where we've been driving it very actively is integrating it with other systems around the sales organization and marketing that have to do with nurturing leads and prospective clients. We're also in the process of integrating with marketing automation systems.
Q: How does this product compare to others you've worked with?
A: This is the first product that I didn't have to spend an inordinate amount of time educating potential clients on the benefits of the product. Once somebody sees the product, it is very self-evident, the value that it offers organizations big and small. That is refreshingly new to me.
Todd Nelson
