PLATFORM FOR CREATING, AUTHORIZING, SIGNING, AND MANAGING CONTRACTS

Growing does not always mean that you have to accelerate. Sometimes it starts with consciously taking a step back. That was also the case for Mochadocs, a developer of software for creating, authorizing, signing, and managing contracts. CEO Rob Postma talks about the eye-openers that formed the start of new growth.

The Mochadocs platform ensures that entrepreneurs can create, sign, and manage their contracts more easily. It arose from that last part. “We had set up a study on the challenges surrounding managing contracts,” says Rob. “That resulted in a top 3. In third place was managing the contract based on content. The small print, liability - that kind of thing. The second biggest challenge was the question of where the contract was. Apparently, many entrepreneurs could not find the contract at all. But the biggest challenge turned out to be monitoring the end dates. That is why we developed software that greatly simplifies that process. This gives entrepreneurs control over every type of contract. We went live with it in January 2013 and by the end of that year all Dutch embassies worldwide were already using our software.”

Initial growth

That growth initially went well. Soon, various companies joined as customers, from municipalities to large DIY stores. After a large project in which 11,000 contracts were implemented, they discovered that one in five contracts was incorrect. “For example, the contract would start on the date of signing, but then there were three signatures with three different dates. So you don't know what the start date is.” Rob saw an opportunity there. He deployed his team to make it possible to also create and sign contracts within the platform.

“Then I thought: ‘Wow, if you have to deal with those kinds of people, I can definitely work with them.’”

Global rollout

By focusing on online findability, Mochadocs is not short of customers. But that growth does pose challenges. Rob: “Managing contracts is not part of the core business of companies. However, creating, authorizing, and signing contracts does affect the core business. So that requires a different approach.” The way of selling had to be different, with partners who are experts in Contract Lifecycle Management and could sell Mochadocs to their customers. “We achieved results with that in Norway. But rolling it out worldwide is a different story.”

Pressing questions

At that very moment, Rob received an email from Rens Dommerholt about the GROW program. “That tickled me,” said Rob. “Novel-T offers support for scale-ups without linking it to a commercial approach or a profit motive. I thought that was super important because it means that you can get to the core. Good support is not about paying invoices. The core is about how you can help each other.” Rob went to the information meeting with COO Huib van der Struik somewhat skeptically. At the end of the evening, they were still not convinced - until they spoke to Tim de Kraker. “He started asking all kinds of pressing questions and that went faster and deeper. Then I thought: ‘Wow, if you have to deal with people like that, I can definitely work with it.’”

“The entire GROW program has given us much more discipline and more focus, which means you have more time.”

From 1 to 12

After a bumpy start, the company joined the program. “In the first session, we already discovered that we don't have one product, but twelve,” says Rob. “Gijs van de Molengraft from Gritd told us that every product has its own life cycle. And we offer four packages for ‘create’, ‘sign’, and ‘manage’. Do the math. That was the realization that we had to do it completely differently. That gave a lot of clarity.” The organization has defined key results that have become the common thread throughout the company. “The entire GROW program has given us much more discipline and more focus, which means you have more time left.”

One in a thousand

And that is the goal for Rob. He works according to the no-labor model for the highest possible efficiency. “Our employees have a task, responsibility, and authority. So the management comes from the organization itself, and our bigger goal: to become that one company out of a thousand that makes it big. That goes hand in hand with a lot of fun on the job, but we also have to remain realistic. For example, we had to downsize to be able to grow further. That was uncomfortable at first because you grow from day one. But it had to happen. After six months of downsizing, we are now growing again and tapping into new markets."