While software giants such as IBM Corp., Oracle Corp. and SAP tend to attract professionals with decades of experience, an Italian corporate-performance management software company with an office in Stamford is targeting recent college graduates.
Tagetik, which has a presence in 30 countries, plans to move its Stamford staff of 30 employees from 1055 Summer St. to 9 W. Broad St. and plant itself in the city”™s financial center to attract young urban professionals in finance and technology. By January, Tagetik”™s Stamford office space will be 50 percent larger growing from 4,000 square feet to 6,300 square feet. The construction cost is estimated to be $315,000.
“We”™ve outgrown our space, and we have significant expansion plans from a staffing perspective, said Dave Kasabian, senior vice president of product marketing and strategy at Tagetik. “We are building out a raw space that will house sales, consulting and marketing staff for Tagetik North America. Right now we”™re outside the corporate core in a more commercial area, but we”™ll be moving to the downtown where we”™ll be surrounded by more of the international corporate companies.”
Tagetik has been focusing its energy on doubling its staff in its Stamford office. This year, it plans to hire five to six. By next year, the company wants to hire between 15 and 20. Kasabian, who is looking to fill a product marketing position, said one of his lead candidates is from Norwalk, reinforcing the company”™s intent of hiring locally. He said that Tagetik has been recruiting college graduates from schools such as the University of Connecticut, Sacred Heart University and Fairfield University.
“We”™re looking for people with finance and IT backgrounds coming out of university to become junior-level consultants,” Kasabian said. “At the junior level, we have seven of them in this office, and five of them are from local universities. People we hired at local universities have done quite well. They have the right level of experience, energy and work ethic, and they like coming to work with a smaller company.”
The company, based in Lucca, Italy, develops software for corporations that generate revenues above $100 million. For companies struggling with the budgeting, planning and forecasting processes, Tagetik provides the software needed to help automate and manage them.
“We compete with big players like SAP, Oracle and IBM and smaller companies that are cloud-only or startup types with lots of funding,” Kasabian said. “Our market is very crowded, but we offer one product that can do multiple things. Our software does budgeting, planning, profitability, financial statement reporting, SEC reporting, while other companies do it separate. We do it all in one process so everything is integrated.”
The software product provides simple automations to complex financial processes, Kasabian said. From the executive level, it gives them more confidence of what is auditable and what they”™re reporting internally and externally, and it gets information into decision-makers”™ hands more quickly, so they can take action, he said.
Tagetik moved into Stamford seven years ago to establish a regional office because of the city”™s proximity to a young urban population and Manhattan. The company was founded in 1986 and has generated funding through White Bridge Investments in Milan, Italy. The investment company is a minor stakeholder of Tagetik.
The company recently received $36 million from White Bridge Investments in a round of funding to grow its international markets and to enhance the organizational and commercial structure of its offices and the development of industry software. The company has had 12 years of double-digit growth. It hit a record high last year with 25 percent growth in revenue and more than 100 new customers.
Kasabian, who used to be an analyst in the financial market, said the software industry has tremendously evolved since 2007 when there was a big round of acquisitions where almost all companies in the software space were acquired by IBM, SAP and Oracle. When companies got swallowed by the mega vendors, it created a market for newer companies like his to come into the market and compete by becoming more innovative, adaptable and getting products to the market more quickly, Kasabian said.
“There was a big backlash after those acquisitions of companies where they found themselves in an environment where they were not getting the quality of support, the newest products and stability that comes with working with a smaller vendor. That created an opportunity for us to come into the market and give customers our attention.”
Editor’s Note: In a previous version of the article, it said the construction cost was $50,000. That number is actually $315,000.
