New Emarsys Chief Shares Vision, Growth Plans
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe new chief executive officer of Austria-based Emarsys, which has its North American headquarters in Indianapolis, brings a unique and historical perspective to the Indiana tech sector. Joanna Milliken was the very first employee hired by ExactTarget. The former Indy-based marketing analytics software company was acquired by Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) in 2013.
“It’s literally 20 years ago in August that I started with ExactTarget and just a mere 20 years later here I am CEO at Emarsys,” reflected Milliken on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick.
But Milliken is not content living in the past. Emarsys was acquired by SAP Inc. a year ago. Milliken says the parent is a top five tech giant global and acquired Emarsys to broaden its portfolio towards customer experience solution.
“And it’s just going to give us a lot more horsepower in the market and help us fuel our growth plans even more and faster than we could have on our own,” said Milliken.
Emarsys has developed an onmnichannel customer engagement platform. It helps marketers gather and collect data to personalize marketing campaigns across all channels.
“It’s a super challenging environment. It’s a tough time to be a marketer. The average tenure of a CMO (chief marketing officer) is the lowest it’s ever been,” said Milliken, who adds that the pressure in the retail sector provides an opportunity for Emarsys to help marketers.
“Emarsys has been growing on its own pretty significantly year over year,” said Milliken.
The company says it has seen a 10% year-over-year increase in new business sales globally since the announcement of the SAP acquisition.
“And, with SAP, we can supercharge that growth, but also it gives us an opportunity to expand our reach. We have an opportunity to extend into new industries, new geographies, and really bring our mission and bring that power back to the marketer more globally…than we already do today,” said Milliken.
Milliken succeeds Ohad Hect, who is stepping down after 12 years at Emarsys, including five as CEO.