Alan Eager

Biography

 

 

Alan graduated from the University of Leeds in the UK in July 1988 with a 2:1 BSc. honours degree in Computer Science and Management Studies.

After Leeds, Alan went to City University to study for an MSc. in Business Systems Analysis and Design.  This course involved the application of IT to business and how systems and applications can be effectively designed and implemented.  The course was very much like an MBA with an IT bias.  For his dissertation, Alan worked from June to Sept 1989 at Pitney Bowes in Harlow, Essex, UK as a Production Systems Analyst.  Here, Alan examined all the information and material flows throughout the production lines including goods inwards, QA and goods outwards.  Alan's paper analysed in detail the current status of the production material flows and recommended improvements to the production processes and systems.  These were then subsequently implemented by an undergraduate student whom Alan had managed during his time on the project and who then stayed on for the remained of the year.

After graduation, Alan starting life as a management consultant with KPMG in London, UK, Alan achieved an excellent grounding in Consulting and PC Applications programming.  Initially Alan worked for the Property and Construction group where he worked along-side many of the more senior management consultants in business led consulting work.  However as time progressed, Alan found his own niche in the development of PC applications using dBase and Clipper which supplemented many projects.  This then led to a period on working for Ford Motors of Europe as a C++ programmer.   This was at the time the biggest Windows 3.0 and C++ development projects in Europe.  Finally Alan was formally trained in the use of the UK government sponsored systems analysis methodology called SSADM (Structured Systems Analysis & Design Method).  Two major projects then arose from this which included the Department of Transport and London Regional Transport.  The latter project involved Alan as the Data Modeler in which he designed the data component of the Travel Information System which consisted of over 150 entities including things like Bus/Tube/Railway stops, places of interest, timetable entries, etc.

Moving on to Pilot Software, Alan then took the role of an Applications Consultant developing Executive Information Systems (EIS) using Windows development tools , Relational (RDBMS) and Multi-Dimensional databases (also known as On-Line Analytical Processing or OLAP).  This role as a consultant involved strategic design projects for major customers and the running of public and customer specific training courses.  Alan's experience in the products led him onto initially working with a new Data Mining product developed by Pilot.  Alan then moved into a Product Management role on a new OLAP product line which involved Relational database technologies.  This role involved liaising with the Development teams in the US and the UK to define the next generation OLAP product.  Alan then had his role extended to incorporate the whole Server range of products and to move into a Product Marketing role.  This now involved close liaison with corporate in Boston, MA in the US.  Alan worked out in Boston for a period of time with the corporate marketing function to produce the Marketing requirements and assist in bringing the new OLAP product to market.

After Pilot, Alan moved onto Hyperion as European Product Marketing Manager.  Here he was responsible for the newly introduced OLAP product line in the company.  Here, Alan was involved in the overall market planning in more aggressively promoting this product to the European market, along with close liaison with corporate HQ in Stamford, Conneticutt in the US.  Around 6 months after Alan joining Hyperion, the company then merged with Arbor Software, another business intelligence company with an OLAP product called Essbase.   Alan then became the Product Marketing Manager for the Server and Data Warehousing products for Europe.  Much of this work involved promoting the solution to new and existing customers, gathering market requirements, liaising with tactical marketing and field sales functions in Europe to ensure assist in local sales and marketing initiatives and provide consistency of messaging.  Other work involved planning for and managing new product releases and launches in Europe and managing the product migration program to switch existing customers of the old Hyperion OLAP product onto Essbase.  The highlight of Alan's time at Hyperion was in the new and major product launch of Essbase v5.0 which involved coordination with over 30 of Hyperion's technology, OEM, value-added resellers and consulting partners to assist in the launch for EMEA.  Alan also worked closely with the release teams on both sides of the Atlantic to ensure a smooth running of the Beta program with customer testimonials ready for the launch.

After Hyperion, Alan started at SalesLogix as Product Marketing Director for EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa).  SalesLogix is the mid-market CRM leader and currently in use by over 2,500 organisations worldwide.  The product is primarily sold through a re-seller and partner channel.  The company changed it's name to Interact Commerce because of the acquisition of ACT! in Dec 1999.  Alan was responsible not only for the SalesLogix CRM product, but also for the introduction of integrated internet and wireless technologies into both the SalesLogix and ACT! product lines.  These both because the .NET products in the product offerings.  During Alan's time at Interact Commerce he raised the company's profile from a marketing perspective with major strategic partners including Microsoft, Sage and Miller Heiman.  He also liased with the Channel partners to create a regular communication channel, instigate a customer referral/testimonial program and identify key marketing requirements and joint marketing funding initiatives.

  

After SalesLogix/Interact Commerce Alan joined Centura Software.  Centura were undergoing the start of a major transition and organisational change.  The company was traditionally known for it's SQL Base and Development tools, but the focus moving forward would be the newer m-business and embedded data management products.  This involved working closely with the VP of EMEA and the corporate management team to plan and execute the new market strategy for Europe.  In just 6 months, the company was split and the new products and company re-branded and re-positioned to enter the newly emerging m-business market.  Alan formed a new marketing team and re-focused the efforts into lead generation for new business and brand creation and promotion.  The company was re-named and re-launched on 28th Feb 2001 as mbrane.  This included a press event at the Science Museum in London which attracted over 30 members of the press for a mobile technology briefing.  This was momentous since Centura was hardly known for it's move into m-business and considered an un-sexy and boring company slowly dying a death.  

 

As well as the re-branding, the company selling strategies were transformed into Strategic account selling with a lead on Business benefits and ROI whereas the old company was focused on existing customers, channel business, small deals, technology and feature/functions selling/marketing.  Alan was instrumental in re-positioning and re-training the whole company into the new ways of the early adoption market of m-business.  Alan also created the majority of the new collateral pieces and sales tools such as the ROI calculator, the "Chalk Talk" and Value selling propositions.  Many valuable lessons have been learnt whilst at mbrane including a good understanding of the dynamics that will make up the emerging m-business market.  Alan's marketing team built a strong pipeline and were able to identify and right profile of companies and target positions to focus on.

 

Alan is now ready to take on any number of challenges.  His speciality is more about creating things from scratch whether they be new divisions or products of an existing company or a completely new company or startup.  The challenges that Alan has had to overcome throughout his career have not just been a blank piece of paper, but a "muddied"  sheet of paper where existing issues, culture and practices have needed to be overcome and transitioned to the new business model.