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Marina Totalca, iolo technologies

  

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Company: iolo technologies, Los Angeles, CA
Company Description: Crowned the Fastest-Growing Company in the U.S. in both 2010 and 2009 by American Business Awards, iolo technologies, LLC (www.iolo.com) produces award-winning software that repairs, optimizes, and protects Windows PCs. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Los Angeles, iolo has presence in 33 countries, more than 30 million users worldwide, and hundreds of awards from industry analysts and media.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: National Accounts Manager of the Year

Nomination Title: Marina Totalca, Channel Sales Executive

    Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

        With more than 6 years of retail experience, Marina Totalca is responsible for
managing all Canadian retailers and key U.S. retailers for iolo technologies,
LLC (www.iolo.com) a 12-year-old, privately-held PC tune-up company with more
than 32 million users and presence in 18,000 stores worldwide. This includes
driving revenue, growth, and maintaining partner relations.

        With her ability to develop and execute tactical plans for increasing brand
visibility and sales in the retail environment, Ms. Totalca was selected
Employee of the Year (2010) in the Stevie Awards for Women in November 2010 and
has achieved the following successes since July 2009:
1)    Increased market share: Increased iolo’s market share in the system utility
category in Canada from 75 percent to 98 percent, as measured by NPD – in spite
of the recent financial crisis, the continuing double-digit declines in the
software industry, and the sharpest PC sales declines in history. This dramatic
market share increase was achieved by Marina Totalca’s effective work in
maintaining relations with partners, distributors and retails and her skillful
efforts at driving revenue and growth, through creative and innovative
promotional retail campaigns, positive net bookings, extensive ROI analysis, and
detailed quarterly business reviews.
2)    Increased revenue: In addition to growing iolo’s overall market share of the
PC tune-up software category, Marina Totalca also led iolo to some of the
highest sales growth percentages in history. Canadian sales achieved 80 percent
growth in 2008 and added over 30 percent in 2009, roughly doubling iolo’s
profits in Canada last year alone. That means that iolo’s Q4 2009 sales were
242.6% higher than its Q4 2007 sales.
3)    New product launches: Marina Totalca also successfully – and single-handedly
– launched five new products in the Canadian market. The list of the
successfully introduced new products, which immediately showed impressive
sell-through numbers and became a key source of revenue for iolo technologies,
included: bilingual French/English packaging for four of iolo’s products,
including System Mechanic, System Mechanic Professional, DriveScrubber and
Search and Recover, as well as French language version of System Mechanic,
iolo’s flagship award-winning PC performance software.
4)    Awards: In addition to winning the prestigious Employee of the Year (2010)
award in Stevie Awards for Women in November 2010, Marina Totalca also received
“Vendor of the Year” (2009) award from Eurpac, one of the leading sales and
marketing service firms in the military market. This prestigious award is
coveted each year by hundreds of vendors that work with Eurpac, including many
large companies and well-recognized names in the industry. Winning the “Vendor
of the Year” award amidst such strong competition was testament to Marina
Totalca’s excellent management, professionalism and top-notch service, which
includes timely delivery, prompt restocking and help whenever needed.
5)    Key account growth: With effective management, successful relationships and
innovative initiatives, Marina Totalca grew iolo’s key accounts in Canada
exponentially. Under her management, sales in Best Buy, iolo’s second largest
retail account, grew by an impressive 65 percent units and 67 percent revenue
year-over-year. Fry’s Electronics, iolo’s fifth largest retail account, also
showed a dramatic growth of 47 percent in unit sales and 44 percent in revenue
year-over-year, in spite of the continuing challenging retail sales environment
across North America.
6)    Charity / environmental work: In addition to her sales efforts in Canada,
Marina Totalca also actively advocated various green and environmentally
conscientious campaigns. As part of the green initiative, iolo donates copies of
its software to non-profit materials reuse organizations to both help recipients
use their aging computers for longer and encourage donors to donate their PCs
without worrying about the safety of any sensitive data. These efforts
compliment sales in the retail channel and increase awareness of iolo’s products.

        In 2011, Marina Totalca is planning further market share and sales growth in
Canada, new product releases and an even stronger focus on vendor satisfaction
and awards, as well as green campaigns.

    List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

        List of top coverage on iolo and its products, incl. many award-winning reviews:
http://www.iolo.com/company/news.aspx

        List of top awards won by iolo in its 12-year history:
http://www.iolo.com/company/awards.aspx

        PC Magazine names System Mechanic 10 one of the top 80 products in its Best of
the Year 2010 awards, as the Software Utility category winner, 11/22/10:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372780,00.asp
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372802,00.asp

        CNet praises System Mechanic as a “Windows utility worth paying for” delivering
“fast, thorough system checks with only a couple of clicks,” 10/26/10:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13880_3-20020762-68.html

        PC Magazine awards System Mechanic 10 its highly respected and widely coveted
Editors’ Choice award and describes it as the “new PC tune-up utility champ”
that “bested all utilities in performance and installation flexibility,” 10/19/10:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371043,00.asp

        New York Times praises System Mechanic as easy to use and effective, 9/14/10:
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/an-easy-painless-way-to-keep-a-pc-in-shape/

        Exec Digital (UK) names iolo one of the five fastest-growing companies on Earth,
8/26/10:
http://www.execdigital.com/business/leader/fastest-growing-companies-earth

        Government Computer News names System Mechanic one of the Best Products of 2009
(the only software included on the list), 12/11/09:
http://gcn.com/Articles/2009/12/14/Lab-Best-Tech-Products-of-2009.aspx?sc_lang=en&Page=9

        Globe and Mail (Canada) highly recommends System Mechanic for achieving an
impressive 35 percent improvement in his PC performance, 9/17/09:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/controller-freak/how-to-get-a-35-per-cent-faster-pc-for-50/article1291754/

        PC World praises System Mechanic’s versatility and powerful tools, 7/24/09:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/169125/system_mechanic_9_digs_deep_to_improve_performance.html

        CNet recommends System Mechanic’s breadth and depth, 5/26/09:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13880_3-10248897-68.html?tag=mncol;title

        ComputerWorld says "System Mechanic remains the best bang for the buck. Norton
Utilities pales by comparison, which is too bad, given its illustrious history",
3/24/09:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Software&articleId=9129439&taxonomyId=18&pageNumber=3

        The Economist praises System Mechanic, 3/13/09:
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13307789

    Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

        As a channel sales executive at iolo technologies, a 12-year-old PC tune-up
company with more than 32 million users worldwide, Marina Totalca manages all
Canadian retailers and several key U.S. retailers in a two-tier distribution
model. Her responsibilities include maintaining partner relations and driving
revenue and growth, through promotional retail campaigns, positive net bookings,
ROI analysis, and quarterly business reviews, with the ultimate goal of
increasing market share and positive net sell through across the markets.

        Marina Totalca started her career at iolo technologies 10 years ago, and is
currently the longest tenured employee at the company after the CEO/founder.
Originally a part-time employee while a full-time college student, Marina
Totalca transferred to the North American sales department upon graduation.
After a year as a sales assistant, she was promoted to channel sales executive,
a post she has held for six years.

        Marina Totalca recently received the Employee of the Year (2010) award from
Stevie Awards for Women and the Vendor of the Year (2009) award from Eurpac, one
of the leading sales and marketing service firms in the military market. Born in
Portland, Oregon, Marina Totalca holds a BA in English Literature (cum laude)
from California State University, Northridge.