Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
“Scala’s business has been very strong to date in 2015, up 40% in the Americas, and more than 20% in the EMEA,” says Tom Nix, Scala CEO.
But while Nix is more than willing to talk about overall business growth, Scala’s new offices in the Netherlands and the even newer offices in Malvern, Pennsylvania, he clams up when asked about any potential sale of the company – despite ‘rumours’ of the company being shopped by Bulger Partners under the name Lumen and there was an alleged date for bids to be in last Tuesday.
He did say that the company has about 200 shareholders with the majority shareholder (Andreas Ugland) based in Norway.
“We don’t comment on any rumors or speculation regarding M&A activities,” says Nix.
So with that out of the way, we asked Nix what was behind the significant business growth this year.
“Four retail customers have switched their network to Scala, adding 11,000 locations to our inventory,” he says. At this time, Nix was unable to name any of the four, due to client requests, although he hopes to eventually identify them all in case studies.
We asked Nix about the company’s two new offices. In the Netherlands office in Bergerweg, where the company moved last winter and was settled in by April, he says, “It’s an amazing place to host customers and C-level executives. We’re also engaging customers in day-long workshops. And we are having thought leadership sessions to share ideas for businesses.”
The Netherlands offices were designed by Harry Horn, vice-president global marketing, and his team.
The two floors are quite neutral in tone with the use of a lot of ecofriendly recycled woods, steel and iron giving it all rather nice industrial feel.
With a mostly open layout, it includes custom-built furniture, and is considerably larger than the previous offices. It is located in an older, brick building, which helped influence the design.
In Malvern, where Scala moved its Americas offices in August, Scala was influenced by Bloomberg offices in New York, ie, no segregation, very open and transparent. Everyone has standing desks at which they can work sitting or standing. Scala red shows up on various walls and in decorative touches. (All photos with this article are from the Malvern office.)
Located on the third floor of a corporate office building, it does have big ‘classroom’ and six conference rooms, light floors as well as lots of windows. Although open concept, departments are segmented.
“And the most important thing is that we have great coffee with fresh, micro-roasted beans,” says Nix. “Great coffee is the key ingredient to great software.”
It goes without saying that both offices show digital signage everywhere.
“In Malvern, we have screens from every major manufacturer, a video wall at reception, digital menu boards in the cafeteria section, and have created retail environment,,” Nix says. “Employees can view weather, sports, all the usual, plus key performance indicators. And employee contribution to content is rampant.”
Outside of the new offices, from which Scala is focusing on retail, corporate and transportation, employees are actively working with partner events.
On Oct. 21, a conference and dinner is being planned in Dubai. Mindstec is sponsor of the event and is using it to launch a range of Scala powered retail solutions among others.
A small event is also upcoming in Cebu in the Philippines
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