New US Country Manager at Columbus Brings Renewed Focus on Growth

Keld Jersild Olsen took on the role as US country manager for Columbus in May 2015. He brings a clear corporate goal for the country - strengthening the team and its performance through growth.

As a company, Columbus has been through a period of positive earnings (increase of 13.2% in EBITDA and 142.5% growth in after tax net results in 2014) and it is now embarking on a new path in 2015.

"Growth is a priority in the US," says Olsen. "It goes to the larger Columbus story."

Olsen joined Columbus in 2014 as senior vice president for services after sixteen years at HP, where he held roles in the Nordics that included country manager, services director, and outsourcing director.

Whereas the company already has high market share in smaller markets like the Baltics, Denmark (his home country), and the UK, Olsen says he is struck by how large the US opportunity remains, even with the company's focus on Dynamics AX, GP, and NAV. Columbus has made two recent US acquisitions, and there should be more to come to serve different purposes. The acquisition of InterDyn BMI closed in February 2015. In July, it acquired Arizona-based Sherwood Systems.

The US acquisition strategy will have two components. For the SMB market, acquisitions will focus on geographic coverage, so SMBs can be served by local Columbus teams. Sherwood Systems, for example, is based in Arizona, expanding Columbus' market share in the US southwest.