Anderson has a 21-year history of executive management positions behind her, including 16 years with Lucent Technologies and its predecessor AT&T Corp, plus spells with early-stage companies.
Initial attention is focusing on her Lucent experience, where she was president of the CRM solutions business unit, in the context of the knowledge she can bring to bear on Onyx. There appears to be little overlap between Lucent and Onyx’s CRM experience because most of Lucent’s efforts were geared towards providing the telco side of CRM to call centers with complementary service and sales functionality but no marketing functionality. Although the product set was broadened out under Anderson, it is still limited it scope when compared to Onyx’s broad-based CRM capability. However, Onyx has been gearing recent development and marketing activity as the call centers area so Anderson’s Lucent connection could pay off in that area.
Brent Frei said that Anderson’s primary asset is not her CRM experience, which Onyx already has in house, but her ability to define and execute in specific markets and drive up revenue and market share. At Lucent revenue more than doubled under Anderson’s leadership, international revenue increased by 35% annually and she was responsible for setting up partnerships and investments in new markets for Lucent in Asia, Europe and South America.
Anderson’s primary objective is to drive up Onyx’s failing revenue stream. Although she was not in a position to talk about go-to-market strategies it is clear that she is looking to build Onyx’s presence in difference geographies including western Europe and particularly Asia. Over the next few years I expect the Asian economies will start to stand up and be counted and we intend to be there, she said. In addition to geographies, the intention appears to be to pick specific market segments too, so far unspecified.
Frei said he intends to remain with the company on a full-time basis as a member of the board and will be assisting with the transition. Thereafter, his role has not been determined but he said he has no plans to leave.
