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Visma

Visma – A Leading Software Company In The Nordic Region And Europe.

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Visma is a computer software company that is owned by a group of private equity firms. The company was founded in 1996 and it is based in Oslo, Norway. The Visma management only owns 6.6 percent of the company and the other owners include Hg and co-investors (major ownership), Cinven, Immediate Capital Group, and Montagu. Back in 1996, Company was formed by the merger of multiple companies are Multisoft, SpecTec, and Dovre Information Systems.

About The Company

Visma is a Nordic software company that mainly provides business software, IT consultancy, and related services. The main market of Company is spread across the entire Nordic region and also in Central and Eastern Europe as well. Some of the countries where the Company has offices are Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Romania, Hungary, United Kingdom, and many more. Currently, Company has around 900,000 customers out of which the majority are from Northern Europe.

The CEO of the company is Merete Hverven and there are 12,500 employees working under her supervision. Visma is a big organization and it has been divided into five groups for different operations. The five divisions are Visma SMB (software division), Visma Enterprise, Visma Custom Solutions, Cloud Infrastructure Services, and Commerce Solutions. The revenue generated last year by the company was 18.68 billion NOK.

Visma
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History of Visma

The company started its operations officially in 1996 and it got listed on Oslo Stock Exchange and started operating as a public company. The companies that today form Visma were merged in 1996 and together as a single organization rolled out three key products, SpecTec (marine), Visma Logistics, and Visma Business. In 1997, the company faced some financial crisis as the investment company planned for the growth of the company exceeded the company’s resources. In order to survive this turmoil, the company was restructured, and hence most of the management team and board of directors were replaced. A new CEO was hired for the company but at the same time, there were several layoffs.

Two years after reorganizing the company, it started expanding overseas. In 1999, the company opened offices in Denmark and the UK. The company started to prepare itself for the launch of Visma Business e-commerce, developed its web, and WAP extensions for all the applications of Visma. In 2000, Company decided to sell its Marine ASA’s operations. The deal was confirmed with a Dutch company called Station 12 and the cash Visma received was used to offer both software and outsourcing services within finance and payroll.

Growth and Expansion

In 2001, Company acquired a Swedish company called Spcs which was followed by acquiring a Finnish company called Liinos. Through the acquisition of Liinos, Company strategically entered the Finnish market. In the later years, Visma entered into the Norwegian and Danish market and also into the public sector through the acquisition of Møre Datasystemer. In 2003, the company also started a collaboration with Norway’s largest bank (DNB) and the national postal service. By the time the company was growing steadily, it established Visma’s Management Trainee program. In 2006, Company entered the Dutch market after it acquired AccountView, a software company. During this time, the ownership of the company changed as Visma became a private company with majority of ownership going to HgCapital.

Visma as a Private Company

After the change in ownership, the company established its retail IT division. In 2009, Company completed the construction of its new headquarters in Oslo and also became the second-largest accounting firm in Finland. In 2010, Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts acquired 76.9 percent ownership of the company and after this transaction, the valuation of the Company became 11 billion NOK. In the upcoming years, Visma acquired some more companies and rolled out products for medium and small-scale businesses. Last year, the company acquired Yuki, a Dutch company that provides a bookkeeping software platform.

Merete Hverven – CEO of Visma

In 2011, Merete Hverven joined Visma as HR Director and after two years she became the Chief Human Resource Officer. Last year, she became the CEO of the company and she has been awarded several prestigious mentions for her leadership, influence, and passion in tech. In 2019, she became one of the top three most influential women in technology by ODA Award Woman.

Neusoft Corporation

Neusoft Corporation – A Chinese Software Company Founded By The Northeastern University Professors.

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Neusoft Corporation is a famous company in the IT industry known for mainly software development and designing medical equipment and systems. The company was founded in 1991 and back then it was known as Shenyang Neu-Alpine Software Co Ltd. Liu Jiren and Li Huatian are known as the main founders of the company. Both of them were professors at Northeastern University and worked in the Computer Software and Network Engineering Research Laboratory. Since the professor of Northeastern University founded the college, the company was named after it and Neusoft is the acronym of Northeastern University Software.

About Neusoft Corporation

Neusoft Corporation is a very famous company based in China. Its headquarters is located in Shenyang, China. It is a publicly-traded company that is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The current CEO and Chairman of the company are Liu Jiren, one of the original founders of the company. Last year, the company was the largest enterprise in China for providing IT services.

Neusoft has several subsidiaries spread over various countries. In the US, it has offices in Michigan, Santa Clara, California, North Carolina, etc. In Asia, the company has entered the Japanese market and some of the other subsidiaries are present in Switzerland, Germany, and Romania. In 2012, Neusoft was the biggest IT outsourcing firm in China. Today, the company has approximately 20,000 employees across various continents.

Neusoft Corporation
Image source: www.massdevice.com

History Of The Company

Before officially establishing the company as Neusoft Corporation in 1991, it was first a research laboratory in the campus of Northeastern University. The two founders founded this computer research laboratory in 1988 and initially consisted of only three computers. The company started off with three people including the co-founders working in the lab. After two years, the laboratory expanded and became the NEU Computer Software Research and Development Centre. Next year, the NEU Centre established a joint venture with the Japanese company, Alpine Electronics and it was renamed as Neu-Alpine Software Research Institute.

Expansion

Software outsourcing became one of the main services provided by the company and Alpine became its first customer from overseas. In 1993, the company was renamed as Neu-Alpine Software Co Ltd. From the very beginning, Leu Jiren became the CEO of the company and all these developments took place under his jurisdiction. In the mid-1990s, the development of the Neusoft Park began and it was also entering a new market of the healthcare sector. Neusoft established the NEU Computer Imaging Centre and took interest in CT scanning and other medical technologies.
In 1996, the NEU Software Group Ltd was established. Until then it had only Alpine Electronics as one of its collaborative partners. But after the NEU Software Group was established it started partnering with multiple companies and one of them was Toshiba. The same year, Neusoft filed for an IPO and it became the first software company in China to get listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In 1998, the company entered into a partnership with Boa Steel which strengthened the investor base of the company.

In early 2000, a new consolidation of investments took place which led to some changes in ownership of the company. The major investors of the company including Alpine Electronics, Bao Steel, and Toshiba became the shareholders of the Neusoft Group. With a strong partnership with multiple companies, Neusoft expanded very rapidly and by 2004 it had a total of 40 offices in China and 6,000 employees working there. The company, though became the largest outsourcing company in China, is still behind Indian giants like the Tata Group and Infosys. The main market of Neusoft is in China and Japan.

About The Founders

Liu Jiren is famous as the CEO and Chairman of the largest software company in China. He is a visionary and his exceptional knowledge about industry transformed a small business founded on a college campus into a multinational conglomerate. In 2019, he received Ernst & Young’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year Alumni Award for Societal Impact.

Li Huatian was an electrical engineer with immense contributions in the computer science fields. He is one of the oldest and earliest computer scientists from China who has significant contributions in the field. He was a professor both at Dalian University of Technology and Northeastern University. He passed away in January 2007.

Software AG

Software AG – Story of One of the Largest Enterprise Software Company in Germany.

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Software AG is a German-based enterprise software company founded in 1969. The company was founded by six young enthusiastic employees of a consulting firm called AIV. The headquarters of the company is based in Darmstadt, Germany. Software AG has more than 10,000 enterprise customers spread across 70 countries. In India, the company has offices in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad. The strongest and broadest market of the company is in Europe with several subsidiaries and offices.

The main products of the company are digital transformation and internet of things software, integration and API management, and business analytics. Around 50 percent of the total Fortune 500 companies use the software of this company. Software AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is the seventh-largest software company in Europe.

Origin of Software AG

In 1969, six employers of AIV decided to establish Software AG and help other enterprises with their business management by harnessing the power of tech. One of the team members was the famous mathematician Peter Schnell who later became the Chairman of the board. After two years, the first product of the company, ADABAS was launched. This product was a very high functional database management system (DBMS). Peter Page was also one of the co-founders of the company that launched Natural in 1979.

After the first product of the company rolled out in the market, the company started opening other offices in different regions. This includes North America in 1971 followed by Japan, UK, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and Saudi Arabia. By 1987, the company had a total of 500 employees working across 50 countries. In 1999, the company became a publicly-traded enterprise and after getting listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange released two new products, Tamino Information Server and Tamino XML Server.

Software AG
Image source: pbs.twimg.com

Expansion and Acquisitions

Software AG eventually started acquiring many companies and expanded into newer markets both tech-wise and geographically. In 2005, the company acquired Israeli-based legacy integration vendor Sabratech Ltd followed by SPL Software in March 2007. The same year, Software AG also bought a company called Jacada which was the foundation of AG’s R&D in Israel. The company also acquired one of its rivals in the US market, webMethods for $546 million. And, after this acquisition, Software AG became a leading company in the business process management sector. It also became a leader of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) product domain.

In 2009, Software AG acquired a German-based company called IDS Scheer which fully became a part of the Company in 2010. The company also bought a leading company of master data management, Data Foundations in October 2010. Next, Software AG strategically acquired companies that provided cloud services and mobile applications. For example, it acquired Terracotta Inc which was a leading provider of in-memory technology for both high-performing applications and cloud services. It also acquired Metismo Ltd which was known for building a very flexible and versatile platform that helped to build device-independent mobile applications. In April 2012, Software AG acquired a British company called My-Channels which helped it gain access to universal messaging technology.

Next, in 2013, Software AG acquired many companies. First, it acquired a US-based company called LongJump which was a cloud platform provider followed by a leading software provider called Alfabet. Alfabet specialized in “enterprise architecture” and “IT Portfolio Management” which broadened the IT landscape of the company. The same year, the company also invested in a mobile software company called Metaquark. In recent years, some of its acquisitions include CONNX Solution, Zementis, Cumulocity, Trendminer, and Built.io. The company’s last acquisition was in November 2018.

Sanjay Brahmawar – CEO of Software AG

Sanjay Brahmawar is an Indian-Belgium software and business executive. He was born in India and pursued his studies at Delhi College of Engineering and MBA from the University of Leeds. In 2003, he started his career at IBM and worked for several roles. Before he left IBM, he was the general manager for global revenue at IBM’s Watson IoT. In 2018, he joined Software AG as the CEO.

Nuance Communications

Nuance Communications – A Leading American Company Developing Speech Recognition Software.

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Nuance is an American-based multinational software company that is well-known for speech recognition and artificial intelligence software. The company’s headquarters is based in Burlington, Massachusetts. Nuance Communications was originally founded in 1992 which was then incorporated as Visioneer. After a few years, Visioneer merged with ScanSoft, one of its prime market competitors which were followed by a couple of more mergers resulting in the establishment of Nuance. Currently, Nuance Communications has more than 6,500 employees developing quality solutions for its clients. The solutions provided by Nuance are incorporated across many industries including healthcare, financial services, telecom, retail, government, and many more.

History of Nuance Communications

The company, Nuance Communications has its roots back in 1992 when Visioneer was founded by Pierre-Alain-Cotte. When the company was founded it was a privately owned company that developed a sheetfed scanner called PaperMax. Visioneer started selling its different business divisions to other companies which included hardware business to Primax Electronics and spinning off PaperPort, Visioneer’s proprietary software. In 1999, Visioneer decided to acquire ScanSoft from Xerox and the newly formed company was known by the brand name ScanSoft.

The history of ScanSoft dates back to 1974 when Raymond Kurzweil founded a company to develop the first omni-font optical character recognition system. This company and the technology were sold to Xerox in 1980 which later became famous as ScanSoft. After the acquisition of ScanSoft by Visioneer, the newly formed public company focussed on looking beyond just designing desktop imaging software. So, in 2001, the company entered the speech recognition market after acquiring Lernout & Hauspie. After entering into this new sector, the biggest competitor of ScanSoft was Nuance Communications. In 2005, ScanSoft decided to merge with its competitor and thus acquired Nuance for $221 million. The merged company was named Nuance Communications.

Nuance Communications
Image source: forbes.com

Technologies of Nuance Communications

Nuance uses cutting-edge technologies to provide advanced solutions across a wide range of industries. In 1996, the company launched a product called PowerGrid which was the first clinical speech-to-text automation product for the healthcare industry. This product helped in cutting the transcription cost by 87 percent. On the other hand, Dragon Systems which was a part of ScanSoft (since it acquired Lernout & Hauspie) made some major breakthroughs. In 1997, Dragon NaturallySpeaking was rolled out and it became the first speech detection system in the world for commercial use. In 2012, Nuance became the first company to enable mobile EHRs with speech recognition systems which helped the doctors to document medical records on the go. The two companies Nuance and ScanSoft (Dragon Systems) gave each other very strong competition, so the merger of the two companies created an even more powerful conglomerate in the speech recognition business.

After the merger till recent date, Nuance Technologies has rolled out many impressive products with ensured quality and protection. In 2015, the automatic speech recognition technology of Nuance was combined with a major television network provider for delivering a remote-controlled voice interface to the customers. In 2017, Dragon TV bagged the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for “Contextual Voice Navigation for Discovering and Interacting with TV Content.” The customers of Nuance have been recipients of many prestigious awards for the enhanced quality of work they produced by using Nuance solutions which helped the company win the Technology Partner of the Year award.

Acquisitions and Mergers

After ScanSoft merged with Nuance, the merged company acquired many companies from 2006 till date. The first acquisition was for $357 million in 2006 when it bought Dictaphone Corporation. Nuance acquired companies from a variety of sectors which helped it expand to biometric solutions, healthcare documentation, etc. In 2011, Nuance acquired Noterize, a company that developed software for Apple iPad. This year, Microsoft has offered to buy Nuance Communications for $19.7 billion but the deal is still pending.

Mark Benjamin – CEO of Nuance Communications

Mark Benjamin is the CEO and President of Nuance Communications since 2018. Even after the deal is successfully closed with Microsoft, Mark will stay as the CEO of the company. Before Mark joined Nuance, he served as the President and COO of NCR Corporation. Mark completed his graduation from the University of Miami and has a rich working experience of more than 20 years across 100 countries.

OpenText Corporation

OpenText Corporation – A Software Company That Was Once The Largest In Canada.

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OpenText is a company based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The founders of the company are Tim Bray, Gaston Gonnet, and Frank Tompa. This Canadian company was established in 1991 and it specializes in developing and selling enterprise information management (EIM) software. OpenText Corporation achieved success rapidly and expanded over time making it the largest software company in Canada in 2014. In 2016, the company was also recognized by Mediacorp Canada Inc as one of the top 100 Canadian employers.

About OpenText

There are various kinds of software applications that are developed by OpenText Corporation. This software helps large enterprises to manage and structure a large amount of unstructured data and helps in proper management. Apart from large enterprises, the software of OpenText is also used in many government agencies and professional service firms. OpenText also develops applications for mobile and online experience management.

Some of the main products of the company include Enterprise content management (ECM), Business Process Management (BPM), Customer Experience Management (CEM), Information Exchange, cybersecurity software, and many more. OpenText has more than 14,000 employees spread worldwide working to solve digital business challenges.

OpenText Corporation
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The Early Phase Of OpenText Corporation

OpenText Corporation started off as a university project when the University of Waterloo and Oxford University partnered for this new journey. Both the universities joined hands to build the first online Oxford English dictionary. After the project showed positive results, OpenText Systems Inc was incorporated in 1989. But, eventually, the founders spun off the product from the University of Waterloo and OpenText Corporation was established in 1991. And, the company began shipping the product in September of the same year.

As the first online-based product of OpenText hit the market, it helped Yahoo! To search every word from every web page. An innovative product like this gained much popularity in the market and OpenText eventually became popular in the software industry. In 1994, Tom Jenkins joined OpenText as COO and was later made the President and CEO of the company. In 1996, the company held its first IPO and it got listed in NASDAQ under the name OTEX. Earlier in the next decade, OpenText crossed 1,000 employees and made $147 million as its annual revenue. By this time, OpenText also established 31 offices both in Canada and overseas.

Expansion And Acquisitions

As the demand for the products of OpenText increased, Gartner named the company as the global leader of ECM for the first time ever. It still holds the position as one of the leading companies which specialize in ECM. In 2014, the company decided to expand its market by adding B2B integration services and cloud-based fax services. OpenText achieved both of these when it acquired GXS for $1.06 billion. The company also became a market leader in content services when it acquired Dell EMC’s Enterprise Content Division including Documentum. The deal was closed for $1.62 billion in 2017.

The series of acquisitions continued for OpenText and so was expanding into new sectors every year. In 2019, OpenText acquired a company called Carbonite to enter the cybersecurity sector. Acquiring this company ensured cyber resiliency for customers along with an end-to-end platform offering data protection, digital forensics, etc. This deal was closed successfully for $1.45 billion. The acquisitions made by the company are made strategically to enter new markets and eventually become global leaders in those sectors. But, OpenText is yet to become one of the best companies in the cybersecurity sector. Last year, the company crossed the $3 billion mark of annual revenue.

About The Founders

Tim Bray apart from being a software developer is also an environmentalist and political activist. He studied mathematics and computer science for his bachelor’s degree. In 1987, Tim joined the Oxford English Dictionary project at the University of Waterloo, and before that he had working experience at Digital Equipment Corporation and Microtel Pacific Research.

Gaston Gonnet is a well-known computer scientist and entrepreneur. He became famous for his contributions to Maple Computer Algebra System. Gaston completed his education at the University of Waterloo. Apart from founding OpenText Corporation, he also co-founded Symbolic Computation Group.

Frank Tompa graduated from Brown University followed by the University of Toronto. He served as a faculty member at the University of Waterloo for some time. Frank is famous for co-founding OpenText and he was also awarded Queen Elizabeth II, Diamond Jubilee Medal, for his services to the country.

sage group

Sage Group – Story Of One Of The Largest Software Companies In The UK.

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The Sage Group was founded in 1981 and is one of the leading enterprise software companies in the UK. After Oracle and SAP, Sage has taken the third position in terms of becoming the largest supplier of enterprise resource planning software. The founders of the company are David Goldman, Paul Muller, and Graham Wylie. Sage Group is currently based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK. The product of Sage has its usability in all types of industrial sectors worldwide. Today, Sage Group has more than 13,000 employees that serve millions of businesses in both the UK and overseas. The company is spread across 23 international markets in Latin America, North America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe. Steve Hare is the CEO of the Sage Group and Sir Donald Brydon is the working Chairperson.

Foundation of the Sage Group

The origin of the Sage Group and the idea behind it dates back to 1981 when David Goldman wanted to create quotes for his print business and keep track of his account. He wanted a very impactful solution for this and started working with a team at Newcastle University. While working, he was assisted by Dr. Paul Muller who was a computer expert working with NASA, and also a student, Graham Wylie who took a summer job writing code for an accounting firm. David and other members of the team realized that the solution that they were building can be beneficial for other businesses as well. This idea led to the foundation of the Sage Group which aimed to develop accounting software for small businesses.

Today, the solutions of Sage include account management, payrolls, HR, assets, construction, estate, enterprise systems, etc. Once David and other team members started to develop the product, he hired more employees. The first product of the company was called Sage Accounts and the code was written by Graham Wylie, the student who was hired for a summer job at Campbell Graphics (the print business of David Goldman). After developing the first product successfully, Sage started selling the software to other printing businesses and eventually expanded its network. Impressed by the work of Graham and Dr. Paul, they were brought on board as a part of Sage.

sage group
Image source: wikimedia.org

The Success of the Company

After developing the first version of the product and selling it to other print businesses, the demand for Sage increased. In 1984, the company developed Sage Software, a product that was built for the Amstrad PCW word processor. The same year, the sale of the Sage Software increased by ten folds from 30 to 300 each month. After a few years, Sage got listed on the London Stock Exchange and became a publicly-traded company. In the 1990s, Sage expanded overseas and established an Irish division of the business in Dublin. The company also opened Sage’s professional Accountant Division and entered FTSE 100. Sage eventually entered the mid-range business software market by the end of the 20th century.

In 2001, Sage Group entered the contact management market after acquiring Interact Commerce Inc and next year bagged the “Business of the Year” in the National Business Awards. The company also became famous as the Sage shares performed the best in the 90s compared to other UK businesses. Sage also sponsored £6 million for the new music center in Gateshead which is now known as Sage Gateshead. After two years, in 2003, Graham Wylie retired from the company and there were new members joining the executive team of Sage. Steve Hare became the CEO of the company in 2018 and before that, he served as the CEO of Sage since 2014. The Sage group currently has 6.1 million customers spread across the world from Africa to the Middle East, from Australia to Asia focusing on management solutions as well as engaging in non-profit works.

Steve Hare – CEO of Sage Group

Steve Hare is a famous British businessman who joined Sage with a rich industrial experience. He worked at General Electric Company in many roles including serving as the CFO of the company. He also worked at Spectris plc and Invensys and was a partner at Apax Partners. Currently, he is the CEO of the Sage Group and he was named the best CEO of the UK by Glassdoor during the pandemic.