Former Oracle Sales Manager Daan Teunissen Named as Managing Director
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. - SavvionTM, a global provider of innovative automated business management solutions, today announced the opening of its European headquarters in Amsterdam. Former Oracle Sales Manager Daan Teunissen will oversee operations as Managing Director of Savvion Europe.
The Westaim Corporation holds a 22 per cent equity interest in Savvion.
Teunissen brings 14 years experience in sales, management, and business development to drive market acceptance of Savvion BusinessManagerTM throughout Europe. Savvion will first focus efforts to increase its European customer base in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, The Netherlands, and Southern Europe. In support of this strategy, the company intends immediately to open satellite offices in Rome and London, with offices in Germany and France to follow early next year.
“European business models are very process oriented, creating what we believe to be a high-opportunity market for automating operations across these extended enterprises using Savvion BusinessManager,” said Dr. Ketabchi, Savvion founder and CEO. “We believe Daan’s ability to develop strong teams and successfully implement high-growth strategies will allow Savvion to quickly strengthen our European position.”
“BusinessManager lets companies quickly implement new e-business models that are fully integrated with their existing systems and procedures. New e-selfservice applications, cross-enterprise process automation, and mobile services are expected to result in higher customer satisfaction and competitive power,” Teunissen said. “By quickly moving the business processes to the Web with Savvion BusinessManager, we believe organizations can more closely control and improve operations by overseeing and dynamically modifying the execution of automated processes.”
Savvion’s mobile capabilities are designed to provide additional flexibilities to European businesses, which have already embraced mobile technologies due to Europe’s GSM standard. Savvion BusinessManager lets employees access applications and managers oversee operations from any browser-based device, including personal digital assistants, such as PalmTM handheld devices and Web-enabled cellular telephones. As a result, European companies can develop more sophisticated, fully automated mobile solutions while integrating existing business systems. For example, with BusinessManager, a field service engineer can use a wireless PDA to order additional equipment from a parts database, with the order automatically being routed to the next available driver for delivery and related tasks being assigned to colleagues for immediate completion.
“BusinessManager’s combination of managed e-business and support for mobile devices will invite additional innovation in Europe’s advanced mobile strategies,” Ketabchi added. “We will continue to support our growing list of international customers – including 3Com, Cisco and Fujitsu – by maintaining a worldwide presence. Savvion’s European sales strategy closely follows our recent opening of a Japan office, in addition to offices in the United States and India.”
Teunissen formerly served as Managing Director of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) at Taviz Technology, an enterprise application integration company. While there, he opened sales offices and distributorships around the EMEA region and grew European business to 33 percent of Taviz’ worldwide revenues, with customers including Nortel, Honeywell, and Dell. Previously, Teunissen co-founded Redwood, an Oracle consulting firm in The Netherlands where he was able to leverage his prior five years experience as an Oracle Sales Manager. Teunissen holds a degree in Business Informatica from the Economics School of Amsterdam and holds degrees from the Dutch Institute of Marketing.
About Savvion
SavvionTM is a global provider of innovative business process management solutions. The company’s e-business platform, BusinessManagerTM, lets companies quickly move any business operation — from project management to order processing to supply-chain management — to an automated Web application that can be accessed and managed over intranets, extranets, and wireless devices. BusinessManager applications automatically route tasks to performers based on defined processes and give managers a real-time online view of the automated operations, including the power to dynamically modify their execution as business conditions change. Using BusinessManager, customers can manage their business operations online, streamlining interaction across extended enterprises of customers, partners, suppliers, and employees. Privately held, Savvion received $25 million in first-round funding in April 2000 from an international investment group including: Westaim Corp, HIG Capital, TransCosmos USA (Japan), D-Age (Netherlands), and Redwood Venture Partners. Savvion is headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, Calif. For more information, visit www.savvion.com or call 1-888-544-5511.
About The Westaim Corporation
The Westaim Corporation is a technology accelerator that launches exceptional technologies into the marketplace. In addition to its investment in Savvion, Westaim’s technology investments include Westaim Biomedical Corp., which has developed an infection control technology for use in the treatment of wounds, and iFire Technology Inc., which has developed a revolutionary low-cost flat panel display. Westaim’s common shares are listed on Nasdaq under the symbol WEDX and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol WED.
- 30 -
For more information contact:
Tony Johnston Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs The Westaim Corporation
(403) 234-3103
info@westaim.com, www.westaim.com
Don Nanneman
Savvion(408) 330-3496
nanneman@savvion.com
Steve Kleine
Spiralgroup for Savvion
760-325-3007
stevek@spiralgroup.com
You can reach Savvion’s European operations at:
Savvion Europe
Graadt van Roggenweg 328
3531 AH Utrecht
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 30 298-2214
Fax: +31 30 298-2215
The Savvion logo, Savvion, and Savvion BusinessManager are trademarks or registered trademarks of Savvion, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
Westaim Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and the Company can give no assurance that these expectations are correct. Various factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statements, including financial considerations and those predicting the timing and market acceptance of future products. The Company disclaims any intention or obligations to revise forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this Cautionary Statement.