Here I am again with another link to Seth Godin, which now makes me an official groupie. In this article, Seth Godin talks about a brand’s persona as a created entity, drawing a distinction between brand behaviors and the other disingenuous approaches used in technology marketing. Some might call this, “false authenticity”, I am with him on this concept. A company’s culture is a product of the intent of its principals and the conduct of its employees.
A company’s brand equity is the result of conveying its values and consistent behaviors to the market. Mess your band persona with a mixed message or unclear value propositions, and there will be no need to worry, because in time you will be out of business. What does this have to do with the highly technical EDI communications business?
The EDI Communications industry is being reformed. The prohibitive leaders in the sector are far too comfortable in market position and brand persona(s). In other words, simply because a company is large and well financed (for the moment), does not guarantee a continuing presence in the market, or that accumulated brand equity will be retained. Giants can and do fail. I will not bore the very few readers here with well known historical footnotes of companies that once occupied their sector’s most exhaled leadership positions who later collapsed spectacularly.
Damage to brand equity is often preceded by a toxic brand persona – a company that once was a swift, unrelenting, and fast competitor, and a resourceful leader, became (wittingly or unwittingly) ruthless, greedy, and destructive; there are countless stories and many such marques in the technology sector that have shown a blatant disregard for the larger issues driving an industry’s processes of innovation and evolution. During the telecom era, amidst the travails of consolidations and divestitures, a monopoly fell, and then previously unknown innovators became the driving conscience of the entire sector. An era of new technological birth – the Internet Era, was not brought to us by the old AT&T, but by companies who cast themselves in the mold of an AT&T Bell Labs, with Purity of Intent, Intellectual Rigor, and tireless devotion to their client’s; such are the hallmarks of great companies with great brand personas.
So, rather than allude to the failings of selected EDI sector giants, let me ask the question right here, “What is the Brand Persona of Loren Data Corp?” Or, “What are the core values driving the company?”
I have found, from my initial observations (as an outside analyst) of Loren Data Corp, that the Company can be described as such:
1) Focused – Todd has maintained the company’s mission as a premiere, technology centric B2B messaging service. He never stops improving the network, the machinery, or the user (developer) facing software and toolsets (API).
2) Ethical – The entire team is charged with creating real, enduring value while operating above board in all client relations. Loren Data has never locked a client in, and has never vacillated when answering tough questions.
3) Innovative – Todd wrote the software that is ECGrid and ECGridOS, the industry’s ground breaking API. Though small, Loren Data Corp operates a 24×7 network used by a who’s who of ecommerce B2B service providers. As the Only EDI IAAS with a real, substantial API offering, Loren Data’s technological acumen and thought leadership is simply unique, and way out in front of the field.
4) Partner Driven – Loren Data Corp, Todd’s company since 1984, has operated ECGrid continuously as an EDI message routing infrastructure since 2000 (with less than ten hours of total downtime cumulative over 11 years), the company and its staff members are totally dedicated to their mission of “serving the EDI Service Provider with the best, bar none, EDI messaging backbone network” – period.
Loren Data lives, breathes, and survives upon successfully meeting the needs of B2B innovators in the vanguard of on-demand, cloud-based supply chain and ecommerce communications services. If the term, “Commerce Cloud Applications“, means anything to you, then you must be aware of the challenges inherent in servicing thousands of EDI network clients, and tens of thousands of network ID’s.
ECGrid is a real, mission critical, fault tolerant, EDI network with real traffic. ECGridOS is the flexible API grammar for building EDI Networks (VANs) able to be called by any program, allowing full customization of the ECGrid EDi Network to the service provider’s requirements. There is nothing else like ECGrid and ECGridOS in the EDI industry, regardless of the size or stature of any competitor you care to name.
So, we can sum up the brand persona of Brave Loren Data Corp in a few words carefully borrowed with full credit given to its author, Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, (we may not use AWS, but we admire its innovation), ”
‘Invention Is in Our DNA and Technology Is the Fundamental Tool We Wield to Evolve and Improve Every Aspect of the Experience We Provide Our Customers.’
Nothing could be more true for Loren Data Corp, the company founded by EDI network expert Todd Gould, and operated by his hand-picked, dedicated team of network operations experts.
I now work with Todd and his intrepid crew, and I could not be more pleased to be able to watch the fascinating journey of this remarkable, efficient, creative, and innovative company.
