My name is Michael Zammuto and my passion is the software industry. I love building great software companies (Independent Software Vendors or ISVs) and I have served as an executive with several turnarounds and startups.

Enterprise software companies that require a turnaround (or at least reinvigorating) often have failed to find their 'second act.' Propelled by the success of a great first product, the ISV may not have felt the need to formulated a winning strategy. Driven forward by the talent and drive of the founders, the organization may not have learned how to innovate, build great leaders or how to focused on execution and results. These ISVs grew as their customer base purchased their first real software package. Leaders of the ISV often interpret a low client turnover rate as evidence that all is well instead of acknowledging the inherent switching costs of enterprise software and the lack of clear differentiation between themselves and mediocre competitors. Things seem fine for years, sometimes decades. But at a certain age or often somewhere between $ 40m and $ 75m in annual revenue or 250 and 400 employees the model stops working. It can take time for people to notice and years for leaders to accept it. More and more competitors pop up, the sense that the company is a 'family' falls apart, projects fail, products quality declines over time instead of stabilizes, clients and employees alike start to feel the pain, financial results stagnate and the bottom line starts turning red. Fixing this is my passion.

Last year, I joined Ontario Systems. With the help of the esteemed author and Stanford professor Dr. Benham Tabrizi and his 90 day Rapid Transformation process, a cross-functional team of people from across the organization rebuilt the strategy from the ground up and created a detailed operational plan for marketing, sales, products and human resources. As chief operating officer, I am responsible for the company's products, services and technology. In less than a year we have improved financial results, created world class partnerships, attracted world class talent, built successful professional services offerings and are about to release a major product offering that has become the buzz of our industry. We are off to a great start.

Prior to Ontario I served in a number of technology and operations leadership positions. I have served as a CTO for four organizations and as a CIO. I am formerly a vice president of ChoicePoint and the chief technology officer of Insurity. I was a manager at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington where I managed large scale product development efforts and helped create and implement technology strategy.

Before joining Microsoft, I founded the award winning ISV Sapago. Our RFID based technologies and products won the "CRN/Microsoft Best of Show" award at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference and was named one of "5 Gadgets Your Business Can't Live Without" by The Crafts Report. These products were featured in Internet Retailer, RFID Journal and Retail Bulletin, among others.

I served as chief technology officer of Ecometry Corporation which we successfully grew and then sold to Golden Gate Capital. That acquisition allowed us to start a string of acquisitions including GERS and Blue Martini Software that has created a powerhouse in the space, now renamed Escalate Retail. I have appeared on the CNN show, Global Office. That interview focused on the changing role of technology executives and their representation on corporate boards and planning committees.

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