The KDAB Group provides consulting, development, and training services to software companies that develop using Qt, C++, and OpenGL technologies. KDAB’s experts help their customers improve quality, productivity, and time to market of a wide range of software products and systems.
As Chief Commercial Officer at KDAB, Till Adam is responsible for the company’s market-facing functions. A key focus of his role is to maintain market awareness of KDAB’s expertise by linking its technical leadership to customer business needs.
Turning niche expertise into accessible knowledge
“Within the software industry, KDAB provides a niche service,” Till says. “We help companies with software issues they don’t have the capacity for, either due to resource constraints or a need for specialized knowledge.”
KDAB is fortunate to have many world-class engineers on staff who are eager to share their knowledge through blogs and white papers, core components of the company’s marketing strategy. The expertise of these engineers is very valuable to clients, but due to its inherent complexity often can’t readily be communicated. This is where Third Law complements KDAB’s marketing team.
“We turn to Third Law to create a bridge between our engineers and our audiences,” Till says. “Third Law understands the details and sees the big picture at the same time. They recognize the story to be told and can translate between esoteric engineering interests and the bigger-picture concerns of our customers.”
“Third Law is brilliant at teasing out relevant information from our engineers; they can quickly produce an excellent white paper from a few bullet points and a conversation.”
Bringing thought leadership to the fore
Don Tait, a senior member of KDAB’s marketing team, explains that the focus of KDAB’s marketing strategy is awareness. “Reputation has always been at the core of KDAB’s success,” he explains. “Thought leadership is critical for us, and we strive to remain visible by providing our community with valuable information.”
Don says that when KDAB’s marketing team needs support turning engineering concepts into strong marketing and thought-leadership content, they turn to Third Law. “Third Law is brilliant at teasing out relevant information from our engineers; they can quickly produce an excellent white paper from a few bullet points and a conversation.”
From white papers to technical brochures and blog articles, Third Law helps KDAB maintain a steady stream of valuable content to serve and stay connected to its community.
An added bonus, Don says, is that “Third Law also helps us present things to North American markets, which we have learned requires a different approach than here within Europe.”
“Without Third Law, we would be stretched to get out high-quality, in-depth white papers and technical marketing documents that really hit the mark.”
Integral to the team
The Third Law team has complemented KDAB’s marketing team over many years in numerous ways. They rolled out a one-day promotional training session across the US, improved the company’s website search engine, provided a brand-guideline framework, and developed a partnership program.
Most critically, Third Law has been able to bring together engineering and marketing functions. With combined credentials in both realms, Third Law has earned respect among KDAB’s engineers. “Our engineers actually trust Third Law and enjoy working with them,” Don says. “Third Law has the technical depth to understand complex technologies and can run with minimal input. They can then turn that input into something everyone here is happy with, which is also meaningful to a wider market.”
He adds: “Without Third Law, we would be stretched to get out high-quality, in-depth white papers and technical marketing documents that really hit the mark.”