Monday, July 16, 2018
Magnitude Software's Chris Ney: Creating Austin's Next Enterprise Software Giant
Not too many people outside of the enterprise software market are aware of Austin-based Magnitude Software (www.magnitudesoftware.com), led by CEO Chris Ney, which has quietly been creating an enterprise software giant, with very significant revenues, and over 600 employees across 11 offices. We caught up with Chris to learn a little bit more about Magnitude, it's success in integrating a significant number of acquisitions, and his enthusiasm for Austin's technology industry.
First, for those who aren't familiar with Magnitude Software, talk about your business?
Chris Ney: The best way for the layman to understand our business, is we're building a family of companies at Magnitude, that are both innovating organically, and if we find the right companies, we'll purchase them. To make it simple, as I'd explain to someone visiting over dinner, is we have an internal innovation roadmap, and are maniacally focused on bringing great data to executives of large companies. We're building tools for the office of finance, which allows CFOs, the VP of Finance, the Controller, and everyone else working in that office of finance, to help them understand what their business is doing. We take disparate data from all over the business, whether it's on-premise, in the cloud, in Marketo, in Concur, or in an ERP system, or Salesforce.com, and even from heavy-iron. If you think about the office of finance, they have to know where are all of their products, what's selling well, what's not selling well, pricing trends, and they have all of this data captured for decades. What Magnitude is building--and we're well on the way there--is the ability to gather all of that data through our patented connectors, drivers, and our analytical master data management applications, and bring it all into one repository, where it can be sliced, and diced, and dashboarded, so that the company can understand the business and base decisions on accurate data.
How many other companies have you taken this approach with?
Chris Ney: I would like to focus on this particular platform. I've been fortunate to work with two other great teams, and Magnitude is our third platform. We have a great team and platform. We've done seven acquisitions so far. The first was Noetix, the second was Kalido, the third was Datalytics, fourth was Simba, the fifth was Agility, the sixth was Innowera, and the seventh is EveryAngle.
How do you handle acquiring that many companies in an efficient manner?
Chris Ney: In roundabout terms, with this acquisition of EveryAngle, I've worked on about 41 acquisitions. We've got an incredible M&A engine, which is finding companies that are a strategic fit, and we also have a separate team that is dedicated to the due diligence and process prior to close. Also, we have a team working on integration post-close, and that integration team also works on-site at that new acquisition, as boots-on-the-ground, on-and-off for four to five weeks, with a very thoughtful post-close integration in the first 30,60, and 90 days, plus we have a 12- 24- and 36-month success and integration roadmap. We've got a very detailed playbook for this.
Given you're acquiring companies everywhere, why Austin as your headquarters?
Chris Ney: I'm a Texan. I grew up in Houston, and spent some time in New York with Lehman Brothers and Paine Webber, and had success in the investment banking world. In the late 90's, I wanted to start a family, and I chose Austin because it was a real growing, tech-boom city, if you will. It's the center of Texas, and it's the center of the nation, and it's got great people. I didn't know that 20 plus years ago, but when I came to Austin, I discovered the people, the industry, the weather, and what an incredible place it is to be, and the people are just so smart and energetic, and level headed. You don't always see that on the coasts. We've had a great time here, and haven't had any problems with recruiting people. As a matter of fact, we just recruited Rik Thorbecke here, to be our world class CFO, who had been in the bay area. I love Austin, and I love Texas.
Finally, what's the biggest lesson you've learned over your career that makes a company successful?
Chris Ney: That's a great question. Funny, that's exactly what we talked about with our launch and presentation with EveryAngle. The lessons we've learned, and what we've improved over the last decade or two. I would have to say, you have to understand that the people in Magnitude are number one. Employee success is paramount to customer success. You have to understand you have to be thoughtful every day with your current team, and also with the acquisitions ahead of you. You have to have some passion, put yourself in their shoes, be very transparent, and very forthright. That's probably the biggest lesson we have learned, is to be very transparent. If you are going to buy a company and integrate that company, its products, and teams, you have to have a plan, and you have to go ahead and socialize that plan, and be prepared for questions, and to hit those questions head on. That's the best way to say it. People are adults, and you have to understand that, and not leave them in the dark.
Thanks, and good luck!