Sanjay Brahmawar has been Software AG’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for four years. It is therefore a perfect point in time to discuss four questions and answers about the past fiscal year and his plans for the future.
Sanjay, 2022 was the fourth year of the Helix transformation, the journey to making the Company more customer-centric, sustainable, and profitable. Was there a moment that stood out to you?
Looking back over the last four years, there is a lot we can be proud of–that I am proud of. What we have achieved, especially with the challenges we faced, has created a lot of “stand-out” moments. We have transformed our Company to a growing recurring revenue business, taken all our products to the cloud, put service and people at the center of our agenda, and launched our first sustainability strategy. My personal highlight though was the acquisition of StreamSets and integrating our new colleagues. Their fast growth, combined with technology that fits perfectly with our existing hybrid integration portfolio, has enabled Software AG to enter the adjacent market of cloud data integration–a market estimated to have a 21 percent compound annual growth rate.
Transforming a +50-year-old company is not a stroll in the park. What were the main challenges last fiscal year, and how did Software AG deal with them?
Software AG continued its multi-year transformation by shifting to a subscription-based go-to-market model driven by the land, adopt, and expand approach. This required adjustments to incentives, metrics, and resources and upskilling our teams to support customer adoption and expansion. It’s a journey we are still on. Alongside this shift, we continued to modernize our cloud portfolio, recognizing that competition doesn’t sit still while you are transforming, so continuous innovation was and will continue to be at the top of our agenda. Despite macroeconomic turbulence, Software AG persevered and maintained forward momentum, embodying the spirit of tenacity and resilience. We remain committed to adapting and evolving in an ever-changing business landscape–because every step counts towards achieving our long-term goals.
Chief Executive Officer
In 2022, Software AG gained backing from the strategic investor Silver Lake. How has the partnership evolved?
It has been really exciting to have Silver Lake on board. Their level of industry and M&A expertise, vast knowledge base, and strong networks have provided us with a constant source of support. Christian Lucas and Jim Whitehurst, with their software industry experience, have been great additions to the Supervisory Board and having their advice and support has proved invaluable to me as CEO. In fact, I would describe the partnership and how it has evolved as trustworthy and dependable–whenever we need Silver Lake, they are there, and this is positively impacting how we are shaping the next phase of our transformation.
What will the next phase of the transformation look like and what will it mean for customers?
In the next strategy phase, we will intensify our focus on application and data integration and simplify our business operations even further to drive productivity, efficiency, and profitable growth. In parallel, we will continue to be laser-focused in driving financial discipline throughout the organization to mitigate the continuing impact on our cash flows and drive margin expansion. Software AG will double down on cloud, expand the ongoing shift to subscription and SaaS sales, and increase sales specialization to serve our customers even better. This will allow us to present a more powerful product proposition to our customers.
