Kim Crawford Goodman wants Smarsh to be the undisputed worldwide leader in data communication capture and intelligence.
It’s a vision for which she sees a clear path. The Portland digital archiving company already has meaningful market share within the highly regulated financial services and the most advanced technology, she said.
“We want to win not just in what we capture and store, but win based on tools and analytics and machine learning we apply,” she said.
Crawford Goodman is the new CEO of Smarsh. She took over company in June. On Thursday she is the featured speaker for the Portland Business Journal Power Breakfast, where she will be in conversation with PBJ Publisher Candace Beeke.
Crawford Goodman was not familiar with Smarsh before she was recruited for the top role. She has spent a career in payments, most recently as president of payments and risk solutions for financial services software maker Fiserv. The compliance and regulations in that world are slightly different than what she is focused on now with Smarsh.
However, as she was recruited and has dug into the job, she saw relevant similarities to her prior roles around compliance and risk reduction. She also found a business that already provides tremendous value to customers but one that could add even more.
“I’ve been in tech my entire career. I’m a Stanford trained engineer. I’ve seen the rapid evolution of technology,” she said. “Where we are today for business-to-business (technology) moving to more modern architecture. Moving to cloud-based systems and building the technology that is flexible, scalable and reliable — Smarsh technology is at the forefront.”
The company has made several acquisitions over the last five years starting with Actiance, which doubled the size of the company and helped advance Smarsh’s cloud storage system. It has also added new ways to capture mobile communications and made a big step into the intelligence space with the Digital Reasoning buy in 2020.
“We have a very exciting future using these capabilities not just for compliance but in a way that draws intelligence out,” she said. “We see so much opportunity in data communication.”
Those deals have been strategic and opportunistic, and Crawford Goodman said she expects the same will be true moving forward. She plans to balance organic growth and acquisitions.
Smarsh is continuing to hire and has several roles posted on its website. As the economy shifts, Crawford Goodman said the company has a level of resilience since its business is based on compliance with regulations that aren’t going away.
“We are still cautiously optimistic,” she said. “We’re being vigilant on investing in the right things, investing in areas that make sense and get the most for every dollar.”
Smarsh has more than 900 employees globally and several key offices around the world. Crawford Goodman is based in Atlanta, where the company has modest sized office. She is frequently traveling to the Portland headquarters, the company's largest office, as well as sites in New York, where many of the company’s clients are based, and the Bay Area.
Smarsh, like other companies through out the last two years, has offered flexibility in its workplace strategy and where employees work. But, Crawford Goodman noted that in-person collaboration is still meaningful.
“As we go into 2023, we will be looking to balance the needs our people have with flexibility, with hopefully a greater degree of collaboration, and strategy on what that looks like,” she said. “We will continue to thrive and grow in Portland and beyond.”
