European PSA Company Planning U.S. Move

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Headquartered in Finland, Severa has roughly 6,000 users primarily across Europe. The company’s software is offered strictly through a SaaS (software as a service) model. Although Severa has yet to launch a U.S. reseller program, a source close to the company says Severa is formulating those plans now. The company apparently has North American offices in New York City and Ontario, Canada.

Severa enjoyed 1,304% revenue growth from 2004 to 2008 — but I caution readers not to look too much into that figure, since the company was founded in 2004. If first-year revenues were negligible it’s not shocking to hear about quadruple-digit revenue growth rates. Also, I believe Severa is privately held so it’s difficult to determine if Severa is profitable or nearing profitability.

My big question: Will Severa target (A) MSPs and resellers as users or will Severa (B) seek resellers to promote its SaaS applications into SOHO and small business organizations? It sounds to me like Severa will more aggressively pursue option B.

Crowded Market

If and when Severa enters the U.S. market, the company will face fierce PSA competition. Entrenched rivals include ConnectWise (which offers its PSA software through SaaS, hosted or on-premise approaches), Autotask (purely SaaS) and Tigerpaw Software (on-premise).

Of the major PSA software providers, ConnectWise appears to be the only one that is evangelizing a hybrid strategy. “We’re the Burger King of PSA — have it your way — SaaS, hosted or on-premise,” quipped ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini to me during the recent Kaseya Connect User Conference in Las Vegas.

Roughly 10 percent of ConnectWise’s customers embrace the company’s PSA software in a SaaS or hosted model, with the other 90% running the software on-premise.

If Severa makes a U.S. move, plenty of competition awaits. And on the flip side, the major U.S.-based PSA software providers have been pushing deeper into Europe lately. So the PSA industry has rapidly gone global.

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