Thriving in challenging times

What did you want to be when you grew up? For David Forsyth, founder and MD at Document Data Group, his dreams were pretty much in line with most young boys.

“At first, I wanted to be a footballer, or a golfer, or an F1 driver, like everybody else my age.”

However, for David, realising that this wasn’t a feasible method of making his way in the world was a rapid wake-up call. Moving into sales was his first big break; this is where he learned the skills that would eventually see him succeed on his own. Setting up a business is always a daunting prospect but, at the young age of just 28, he decided to go for it.

Although this venture started life as a subsidiary, David bought out the company five years later, and Document Data was born. In the past ten years it has gone from a headcount of just five employees to 36 today, and is still on a growth trajectory.

Growing the business hasn’t always been easy, and David admits to his fair share of mistakes in the past. Central to this was trying to do too much too soon, and steering away from the core business of what they are good at. “We have to say, ‘Let’s just take a step back; what are we really good at?’ - and what we’re really good at is print, IT and document management - with software in between - and we are really good. We’ve got a team built-up for it.”

As much as we were all sold on the paperless office in years gone by, there is still very much a need for print - even now David’s company handles some 65m prints per year! And that’s not all that Document Data Group handles; it now specialises in software, IT and document management - diversity in solutions is key as far as David’s concerned. “In general, if we get a new client, after the initial sale we then talk to them about what else we can do in other areas of their business to add value.”

This holistic approach has made Document Data more than just a print management company. To its clients it has an impressive amount of agility to seek out solutions to problems business owners didn’t even realise they had.

Surviving Covid

Despite describing the pandemic as a ‘seismic rock,’ David says that Document Data has been incredibly stable throughout the crisis. He puts much of this success down to keeping his cool, avoiding the news and not getting caught up in the social media storm.

Nevertheless, lockdowns did have an effect on the business, although maybe not as much as some of his competitors - indeed, he explained that the positive, can-do attitude of his team served to win new business when rival companies were struggling. “We’ve never had to make anyone redundant; we’ve never had to do anything that way, we’ve put the pedal on the metal and, from that, we’ve found opportunity. A lot of suppliers were struggling with service delivery…a lot of people getting really poor service, and we were picking up business on the back of that.”

Putting customers first is at the heart of everything David does in his business, and that’s served him well through the years. His mantra is simple. “There are two things you need to do in business and that’s make profit and keep your customers happy. Pretty much everything else follows those two things.”

Sticking to that ethos has brought great results and a rapidlygrowing customer base. Despite adding new customers week in, week out, Document Data retains a huge number of past customers too. “We’ve stuck by them, they’ve stuck by us. We offer a good service and we retain over 96% of our customers.”

This growth has been augmented through various mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the past couple of years. As a naturalborn salesman, David didn’t wait for these opportunities to come to him; rather, he went out to get them. “I’ve worked hard on the business. We’ve done three acquisitions, one just before lockdown and two last year; it’s a nice way of building up.”

The company is very much focused on IT as a growth area but, despite its rapidly expanding customer base, David has made sure that it still retains that personal touch that keeps clients coming back time and again.

Managing A Broad Mix Of Clients

Something Document Data does very well is managing an incredibly broad range of clients. A brief perusal of the many case studies on his website reveals clients in industries as diverse as industrial machinery, human resources, housing, banking and even pre-school nurseries.

David sees an ideal client as an experienced business with legacy systems or a fast-growing startup that is yet to think about the back office. Today, Document Data Group has around 1,500 clients and growing, and David attributes that to the passionate team he has built up who are always looking for new opportunities and have a can-do attitude to all the challenges that may come their way.

David’s team keeps abreast of all the industries they are involved with because it makes good business sense to do so. For example, a simple legislative change was affecting one of his clients and, by being in the right place at the right time, he was able to source them a software solution that took all the pain out of compliance.

Looking Ahead

While the worst of COVID is, happily, fading from view, 2023 has brought with it its own set of unique challenges. So far, David has weathered supply chain issues fairly well, but he’s clear that there are still obstacles to be tackled, from the war in Ukraine to Brexit to the cost of living…but, as is his character, he remains incredibly positive.

“The agility we’ve got, and that we’ve shown you just need to be positive and say, ‘Listen, if we’ve got through that last couple of years, then look at what we can do.’”

Still, David sees plenty of opportunities going into 2023, and is keen to maximise the value available to his firm. Aside from direct sales, David is keen to explore more opportunities in relation to acquisitions and selective partners, should they present themselves. He also wants to bring in more people, with a focus on promoting from within and then getting trainees to back-fill vacant positions.

Despite clearly having a lot on his plate, he applauds the worklife balance both he and his management team enjoy. “We’re pretty content, and we’re happy, but we’re constantly looking at growth, constantly looking at new business.

“I think, as long as we’re doing that, we’re going to do okay.”