USU is taking Aspera into the US market
· Aspera’s new US location in Boston is further boosting its market leadership
· Software license management is a dynamic growth market
· Services and expert on-site consulting by a knowledgeable and experienced management team
Moeglingen/Aachen, Germany, April 3, 2012 – The USU Group is intensifying its international involvement. In future the USU subsidiary Aspera will supply the US market with its established software license management products and solutions from its own branch in Boston, Massachusetts. Its American customers, such as Jacobs Engineering, Axa Equitable, General Dynamics, Denver Water and Texas Instruments will not only reap the benefits of German software quality, they will also find matching technical expertise and services on their doorstep. Software license management and the demand for suitable solutions are a rapidly growing market, particularly in the USA, and now Aspera can also offer single-source provision of the entire globally renowned ITIL-compliant USU portfolio for IT service management acclaimed by analysts such as Gartner and Forrester.
In recent years, Aspera’s direct sales to the USA showed growth rates of over 30% p.a., and opening this local branch will serve as the basis for further expansion. The US team, under the leadership of Christof Beaupoil, an internationally experienced, ITIL-certified license management specialist who is also one of the founders and directors of Aspera, will be operating under the name Aspera Technologies Inc.
“Aspera is a solid leader in the market for entitlement-centric software license management tools and services(…)Adding a company-owned office and staff in the U.S. in 2012 will not only increase its international presence but also its credibility with U.S.-based customers”, is the positive verdict of Steven Russman, analyst at US market researchers ECPweb.com and founder of the International Business Software Managers Association (IBSMA).
Increasingly stringent compliance guidelines have made sublicensing a major risk factor for companies. Failure to comply can result in hefty sanctions up to and including fines and imprisonment. At the same time, optimized license management can also provide enormous cost benefits. In this area of competing interests, managers need to reduce the drastically increased costs for managing software licenses – substantially, sustainably and compliant with all requirements. The cost of implementing a license management system can normally be recouped within 12 months. Among others, Aspera’s portfolio includes the premium market product SmartTrack and the SME solution Licensum. And more than 120 customers worldwide already rely on Aspera’s software and services.
By founding this new subsidiary the USU Group is reinforcing its own profile as a global player. In 2011 the Group’s earnings outside of Germany increased by around 60% to over 5.4 million euros, bringing the proportion of foreign business up to 12% of Group revenue. Before very long, by utilizing international partners and foreign subsidiaries to expand its worldwide presence, the USU Group aims to increase that figure to at least 15% of overall revenue. Other portfolio topics, such as knowledge management solutions, will increasingly also contribute to this.
USU. The Knowledge Business Company
The USU group is the leading European vendor of IT and Knowledge Management software. USU solutions enable customers worldwide and in all sectors of the economy to apply the added value of IT, to become more flexible, to save costs and to minimize business risks. The USU Group consists of German and foreign subsidiaries, including USU AG, Omega Software GmbH, LeuTek GmbH and Aspera GmbH. USU Software AG (DE000A0BVU28) is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the German Stock Exchange in Frankfurt as well as in the Gate-M trading initiative of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange.
With Valuemation®, USU offers a powerful and feature-rich integrated suite of tools for Knowledge-based Service Management all from one source, This modular suite, which is recognized by leading international analysts, comprehensively supports all ITIL® disciplines. Customers use the USU KnowledgeCenter technology either in the form of an integrated research and navigation system or as a portal solution to activate all of an organization’s knowledge.
USU was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Germany. Further information is available at www.usu-ag.com
Contact
USU Software AG
Corporate Communications
Dr. Thomas Gerick
Tel.: +49 (0) 7141 / 4867-440
Fax: +49 (0) 7141 / 4867-200
E-Mail: t.gerick@usu-software.de
USU Software AG
Investor Relations
Falk Sorge
Tel.: +49 (0) 7141 / 4867-351
Fax: +49 (0) 7141 / 4867-108
E-Mail: f.sorge@usu-software.de
