Ahead of last Friday’s #AVAwards in London, before everyone had too much to eat and drink, I had a chance to catch up with Damon Crowhurst, Interim Vice President, Scala EMEA.
How’s it going in your new role?
With the team we have and the success we are seeing this year in Europe, it has actually been a very easy transition for me, although I am sure my wife would say that she would not mind seeing a little more of me!
I’m enjoying the role and most importantly the support of our vibrant team ensures it’s more fun than challenge.
How is Europe performing for you?
EMEA are currently tracking at 29% up year on year and I expect us to finish even more strongly as we close out the year. Highlights have been the Norsk Tipping lottery win in Norway, doubling of revenues in the UK under Darren Cremins’ leadership, continued strong growth in Russia and Germany, and some fantastic wins in Retail finance, including Lloyds Banking Group, Unicredit Bank, Banc Intesa and a number of others.
The continued adoption of Scala Analytics within our retail client base has been rewarding to see, as we invested early in our offering in this regard, and I think that first to market push is now reaping rewards for us within retail.
What changes have you implemented since taking on the role?
We have recently strengthened our UK sales team bringing on Rob Britt (previously at projection Design who then were acquired by Barco) to support Darren, as well as bringing on Olaf Bujard to work alongside Klaus in Germany. Natalja Boehm has picked up additional responsibilities and is now responsible for Austria and Switzerland in addition to the CIS region.
This focus on investment in Germany is a response to the growing activity levels, the scale of the projects and our belief that they will be able to match the UK markets accelerated performance over the next 18 months.
David Neyes, our new head of Services starts in October and will have the pleasure of joining us when we move into our new offices in Sittard in mid-October. Our need for more space as we have grown the past 18 months became critical, and we are all looking forward to larger training facilities for our partners, as well as better ways to showcase our solutions.
What’s coming up for you?
Damon: Once we have completed the office move, it’s all hands to the pump for what is historically our strongest quarter, and starting preparations for #ISE2015 of course.
Also Damon mentioned that he’ll be in Dubai for GITEX week in October, looking at exploring new partnership opportunities for the region. GITEX is the go-to ICT event there, and with 140k+ visitors is nearly the size of CES in Las Vegas, ie big. Anyone wishing to meet him whilst he is out there can reach him at: damon.crowhurst@scala.com
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