AIIM Fellow Don McMahan: Still Loving the Game

Don McMahan has built recruiting programs for three companies (Kodak, Visioneer, and Fujitsu) that have pulled more than 5,000 resellers into the ECM market. In fact, in one year (from end of 2004 to end of 2005), Visioneer went from a single channel partner to 801. Don has also been an active AIIM board member, serving as past-chair, chair, vice-chair, and treasurer. Don is a passionate advocate for the ECM industry and freely shares his knowledge and expertise to educate the market.

Infonomics: You required your sales and marketing teams to take AIIM education programs. Why?
McMahan: I think everyone needs some basic training and the AIIM ECM course provides a great value proposition as well as a consistent baseline for myself and my other managers on core competencies. Plus, as a former board member and longtime supporter of AIIM, I think it is our responsibility as good partners to participate wherever we can as corporate members.

Infonomics: You’ve been tremendously successful at growing channels wherever you’ve been, how have you achieved such phenomenal growth?
McMahan: Relationships, trust, and consistency have stood the test of time for me. Our channel partners have seen my commitment to the channel over many years and know they can count on the same fanatic support of them and their business through good times and bad. It's impossible to replace that trust they have in me and I take the responsibility very seriously to protect and defend the model that I know works. It also helps that I can relate to them as a former VAR myself. I spent 12 years as a reseller in a former life and that usually leads to a more credible dialog.

Infonomics: What do you like best about what you do?
McMahan: I still love the game. I love to sell, I enjoy the customers, the VARs, and the interesting end user applications. I love working with salespeople and I am enjoying the long-term relationships all over the channel I have nurtured for many years.

Infonomics: Your passion for the ECM industry is mentioned by nearly everyone who supported your nomination. What about this industry excites you so?
McMahan: We are not boring, we are relevant, we are time saving, money saving, process improvers with a great story in any econonic environment and more so in our current one. I still think our best years are ahead of us and that potential for growth energizes me every day.

Infonomics: You’re a fairly busy guy, why do you take the time to participate in chapter activities?
McMahan: I really like to see what is going on at a local level when I have the time in my own time zone. I always meet interesting people and I always learn something, how can you beat that?

Infonomics: Where’s the capture part of the industry headed?
McMahan: Seems to me to be growing in importance, even as it’s often overlooked as not terribly ‘sexy.’ I will take issue with capture not being sexy, those of us who live it everyday think it is . . . Seriously, I see more functionality and greater ease of use being developed in both capture hardware (scanners) and the same thing for Capture Software. We know the feeds and speeds have improved dramatically over the past few years, but so have image quality, paper handling, and reliability. We all tend to take a lot of the improvements in stride, but spend a little time with the engineering team and get to know the development cycles and you will appreciate the difficulty of scanning 200 sheets in duplex per minute, running at rated speed in 300 dpi color and all the while not mis-feeding or jamming. Kudos to the engineering teams and thank you.

Infonomics: What does being named a Fellow mean to you?
McMahan: It is as they say, a great honor. I am humbled to be in the company of such a distinguished group of contributors to our industry, delighted to be recognized by my peers, and thankful for the opportunities that have made the accomplishment possible. I also see it as not just my award but as one of the very few "channel folks" in the Company of Fellows, I recognize it as an award and recognition of the value of the channel and all those who deliver the sometimes exotic goods and solutions that make this industry tick. I thank everyone who directly supported me and all those who played a part by being part of my very interesting career. It is good to be in such great company.