Ottawa-based systems integrator Maplesoft Group announced new leadership late last month, under Paul Butcher, a former Mitel Networks Corp. (NASDAQ: MITL) executive who will now take on the role of president.
“I’ve certainly got a strong sales and marketing background,” Butcher said. At Mitel, where he served as president and chief operating officer, he oversaw major international sales and that experience will help him in his new position, he said.
Mitel is also a Maplesoft partner, so Butcher had a built-up familiarity with his new company. “I was attracted to work with these guys. I’ve always been impressed with what they’ve created at Maplesoft.”
“Their business is growing very rapidly,” Butcher said, and the executive team decided bringing on a sixth partner would be beneficial.
“Maplesoft has been expanding their footprint from an Ottawa-based company,” he added, by recently moving into the Toronto area, Calgary and Montreal, with an upcoming Halifax office to be opened soon. The company currently has 35 government clients and 350 private sector customers globally.
“The vast majority of the revenues are in Canada,” he said. Within the next six months, Butcher said he’d like to expand into the U.S., where he has many useful leads. Butcher spent a decade at Mitel, where he gained many important relationships that will be useful for Maplesoft’s expansion, especially into the U.S., he said. He will also be an integral part of overseeing Maplesoft’s future mergers and acquisitions, according to the company.
Butcher is also looking to expand the company’s software solutions. “Maplesoft had been a strong Oracle hardware partner for many years,” he said. Now, the company is moving toward using more of the vendor’s software offerings as well. Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) has been “very focused on getting the sales organization up to speed with their products,” Butcher said, and supportive with the clients the two companies have won together.
However, Butcher said he’d like to expand. “Where Oracle is very strong is in the medium to large enterprise space,” he said, which is where Maplesoft targets as well. Maplesoft is also well positioned to go after even larger customers, he said.
“I think we need to expand the portfolio with some other software tools to fill in some of the gaps from Oracle,” he said, including business reporting and business intelligence tools. “We’re reviewing a number of different vendors as we speak.” Maplesoft also has a strong relationship with HP, which he said he could see expanding.
“I would always look to the vendor to really step up and make an investment in ensuring Maplesoft is capable of representing them,” he said. “There has to be a demand in the market. If you find the best technology but there’s no customer demand for it, that’s not a recipe that will work.”
