Over the past decade, through a combination of organic growth and M&A, Micro Focus has grown precipitously. Today, the company has thousands of employees in 43 countries worldwide, and is one of the largest pure-play enterprise software companies in the world.
Yet, despite this size and growth, and likely because the company is headquartered in a quiet part of the UK and has more than 300 products across many different domains, I have found myself answering two questions with some regularity when I meet with people who aren’t software insiders:
1) What does Micro Focus do?
2) Who does Micro Focus sell to?
So, what exactly do you do Micro Focus?
A few days ago, the company made a bold statement about what we do, when we publically discussed for the first time our laser focus on the four core elements of digital transformation. The market response has been very positive, so our announcement has proven to be a good first step in addressing the question on what we do. Be looking for more from the company that will add to, and further define, this strategy in the months to come.
OK, got that – but who to?
With an answer well in hand to the first query, my attention today turns to the second. At 40,000 customers in total across the globe, the short answer to the “who do you sell to” question is a lot of organizations. But there is more to the story than just the sheer number.
Deep Vertical Expertise and a Loyal Customer Base
Micro Focus has built its reputation by putting our current customers at the epicenter of our R&D universe. This is unique in the software market, where seemingly all development dollars are focused on the next-best thing – even if that leaves current customers behind – as they chase new logos and adjacent markets with a gold rush mentality.
At Micro Focus, our mentality is to make sure we continue to support, and add new value to, the deployments we’ve already made. This customer-centric innovation is probably why we have such a high percentage that remain year over year, and why so many large organizations with complex challenges trust us to be their long-term partner – at last count, we have 98 of the Fortune 100 companies as customers.
What’s equally notable about Micro Focus’ customer base is its breadth. Often, software vendors grow by penetrating deep into just one or two verticals. This segment-specific specialization gives them an edge on certain competitors at first, but often that edge diminishes over time. We believe the mark of a strong software vendor is the ability to listen and deliver over the long run. Again, armed with a playbook that emphasizes getting close to our customers and delivering on their unique needs and use cases, we have been able to develop a customer base that spans the largest organizations across many verticals.
Below is just a sampling of the verticals in which we are trusted and proven by the world’s largest and most-complex organizations:
* Source Forbes 2000 list, 2018
The common thread among them is that each segment requires a level of precision, transparency and stability in their software in order to be successful – and failure is not an option in each of these cases, when the stakes are so high for them and their downstream customers.
Answering the Final Question: Why Should I Care?
It’s with this context that we get to the final question, which often sits in the back of people’s minds, even if it’s not articulated out loud: why should I take notice?
It’s certainly not uncommon for a software vendor to grow, to share a vision, or even to demonstrate its success in more than a single segment. What sets Micro Focus apart is how we have grown (with customer-centric innovation), our unique ability to execute on an aggressive digital transformation vision, and that we have a dominant position as serving the largest companies in multiple, highly complex verticals. With these fundamental building blocks already in place, and a highly motivated and laser-focused team behind it, we expect good things for years to come.
Learn more here: What is Digital Transformation?
To learn more about Micro Focus and its recently announced digital transformation strategy, go to: microfocus.com/DT or to talk to me directly and find out more just find me on Twitter.
