Forterro has announced the appointment of Andrew Foster as its new Vice President of Sales for Northern Europe. Foster will lead the sales team across the UK and Sweden. In the UK, Forterro owns several ERP brands, including 123Insight and OrderWise. In Sweden, it owns one of the most successful ERP vendors, Jeeves ERP.
Foster takes over from Bo Johansson, who was previously GM of Jeeves ERP and may now have resumed that role.
A new emphasis in Northern Europe
Over the last few years, Forterro has grown significantly through acquisition, with recent acquisitions in the UK, adding a significant presence here. The company is backed by Partners Group and Battery Ventures. The latter sold the company to Partners Group in June 2022 but then reinvested a few months later.
While some Forterro solutions are moving to the cloud, the company has also developed Fortee, a cloud-based, affordable ERP solution built for small manufacturers and industrial start-ups. Foster is now in charge of an experienced team from across its brands and will aim to drive growth and deliver digital transformation to its customer base. There is already momentum for Foster to take advantage of, with an increase of customers moving to the cloud in 2023. Cloud and subscription revenues rose 35% in the last year.
Foster commented, “I’m incredibly excited to be joining the team here at Forterro. With years of expertise behind it, Forterro is well placed as the partner of choice for customers on their digital transformation journey. I’m looking forward to contributing to our customers’ success and helping Forterro continue on its upward trajectory.”
Forterro is well poised for expansion. The company has over 13,000 customers across Europe with over 40 offices. Foster will lead that growth in Northern Europe as the company expands its sales leadership and hones its focus.
Steve Fearon, President of Northern Europe, Forterro, commented, “Forterro is transforming from a collection of acquired businesses into one unified organisation, combining its resources and accelerating its investment in cloud. Andrew will unite the sales teams across the region and help us meet the demand from customers looking to strengthen their operations. We are delighted to have him onboard.”
Who is Andrew Foster?
Foster joins Forterro from Bentley Systems, where he was Director, Enterprise – Northern Europe. There, he led the Northern Europe Enterprise Account Management team. He was responsible for some of the largest global and Northern European accounts.
Prior to Bentley, he held sales leadership positions at Synetri Europe. Foster spent nearly seven years at Excitech before its acquisition by Symetri Europe in 2020. He was a board member, sales director and manager of a large team that spanned all sales disciplines. He previously worked in Sales and Sales management roles at companies that included manufacturing and thus understands the industries that Forterro sells into.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This is a significant hire by Forterro. Foster has the experience to help grow the sales team within the company and experience of working internationally. Based in the UK, he has experience working across Europe that will be a huge benefit. Forterro is a sleeping giant of the ERP sector. It will be interesting to see how Foster enables the firm, especially with Fortee, to capture a bigger share of the cloud ERP markets in the Nordics and the UK.
