SELLIGENT APPOINTS NEW MANAGER FOR CENTRAL EUROPE AND OPENS GERMAN SUBSIDIARY


Strong commitment to this key market region validates Selligent’s ambition to become the leading European CRM player

Gosselies, February 4, 2002 – Selligent, a privately owned European CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and e-business software company, has announced the appointment of Rolf Perschbacher as Vice President Central Europe, based in Selligent’s newly opened subsidiary in Frankfurt, Germany. In his new position, Mr Perschbacher will have responsibility for the German, Swiss, Austrian and Eastern Europe markets.

Mr Perschbacher brings to Selligent a wealth of experience in starting up and growing technology companies to a solid financial base. Prior to Selligent he was Country Manager for QPASS, a provider of e-Commerce solutions for the Media Industry which experienced double growth rates under his guidance. Before that Mr. Perschbacher was VP and Managing Director Europe of Blaze Software, a developer of Java-based personalisation components for CRM applications acquired by Brokat in 2000. During his 30 years IT industry career he has built up extensive experience in selling high level software applications to leading German as well as key European corporate accounts.

“We welcome Rolf to the Selligent team. His appointment is a major step forward for Selligent as we fill in our European sales and support organisation according to our business plan.” said André Lejeune, Chief Executive Officer, Selligent. “For Selligent, Germany is the one market which is the most advanced in terms of verticalisation, while also being decentralised. Rolf is an experienced solutions selling operator with diversified experience and one of the best senior management profiles to guarantee our success in the Germanic countries. He is a great asset to our growing organisation.”

The new subsidiary will be incorporated as a Gmbh in Neu-Isenburg, Germany, and will recruit 5 people in the short term, immediately followed by 5 more staff before the end of 2002. Mr Perschbacher will be instrumental in putting this new structure into place.
“Selligent offers a wide range of technologies based on the needs of pragmatic German decision makers demanding a flexible system that adapts easily to changing market conditions.” commented Rolf Perschbacher. “ Selligent is strongly differentiated as a European product that is multicultural and embodies 10 years of experience. With the richness of this CRM solution we can satisfy the business requirements of the companies in our region.”

In November 2001, Gosselies-based Selligent closed a third round of funding totalling six million Euros to fuel aggressive expansion plans. 3i, Innovacom, Dassault Developpement and Technicom provided the investment.

Opening up the Central-European region completes Selligent’s plan to become the leading European CRM player. Selligent now has established operations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the U.K. and France, and has a new office in North America. Last year the company also began a Nordic region distributor network.

The CRM market is expected to grow in Europe between 30 and 40% over the coming five years. Selligent has recorded above average market growth during the last few years.
 

NOTE TO EDITORS

About Selligent
Selligent is an international company specialising in high-performance sales, marketing and customer service solutions.
The success encountered by the Selligent solutions amongst their users can be attributed to appropriate customer coaching during implementation and to the extremely flexible configuration features of the advanced web technology used. These two components guarantee a quick return on investment (ROI), a high user adoption rate and a reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).
As a consequence, Selligent has achieved a customer retention rate, which has been the highest in the CRM industry.

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