This role is part of a broader management transformation within Software AG. It reflects the company's desire to make the most of existing strong synergies and share best practices and expertise within the business across France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. The new appointment also coincides with the establishment of a new corporate value proposition based on end-to-end solutions designed to improve customer support.

In supporting Software AG's new go-to-market strategy, La Fornara brings with him 24 years' international ICT management experience focused on enterprise business transformation. He joins Software AG from Unisys, where as VP sales and GM, EMEA, technology, consulting and integration solutions (TCIS), he played a key role in developing a new global system integrator positioning for the company.

Looking ahead, closer collaboration between Software AG's sales and consulting services is also designed to grow sales in local markets. In these regions, the company aims to consolidate and grow its presence in major blue chip companies and acquire new customers in telecoms, manufacturing and finance markets.

"With the creation of a new Southern European region, we have established a 1,000-strong team of specialists sharing a similar culture and best practices," says La Fornara. "They all have the same aim, that of helping customers across defined sectors design and implement effective business process excellence (BPE) initiatives utilising our ARIS and webMethods solutions and consulting services.

"For the first time, we have also invested heavily in the skills, methodologies and solutions needed for our customers to take full advantage of new technologies and disruptive trends such as mobility, big data and the cloud. This will enable them to 'get there faster' in terms of improved operational processes and competitiveness."

Darren Roos, chief operating officer for EMEA and APJ, says: "Philippe's extensive industry expeerience will prove invaluable in enabling us to accelerate growth in this important region, based on proven solutions designed to meet the needs of our enterprise customers.

Complementing our BPE solutions suite, acquisitions in the mobility and big data space such as Terracotta and Nirvana will allow us to create innovative end-to-end solutions starting with the technology through to the business process and vice versa."