INTERVIEW Q & A with Lisa Miles-Heal, GM

Q A &

Lisa Miles-Heal, GM & CTO, Unleashed

XU: Today we’re joined by Lisa Miles-Heal, CTO and General Manager of Unleashed Software. Can you tell us about Unleashed Software?

LM: Unleashed Software is a cloud-based inventory management solution for medium-sized businesses. We integrate with a number of best in class financial management, CRM, and ecommerce platforms, to provide a comprehensive solution for businesses that want to grow and scale without having to move to a expensive ERP solution. XU: Unleashed has grown from NZ roots to become a global SaaS business; what challenges have you faced in this process?

LM: Making sure we can accommodate our customers in their time zones is a key challenge. People are important to us, which is why we want to have good people fronting to our customers in real-time. However, that’s difficult to do on a 24-hour time clock as it affects the team’s work-life balance. What we’ve found crucial to overcoming this challenge is moving people from the main office to different geographies. We get to spread our knowledge and expertise, and in return we receive new in-market insights from working with customers.

XU: Recently, Unleashed secured an investment of NZ$7 million. How is Unleashed planning to use the funds?

LM: Unleashed started in New Zealand but in recent years we’ve seen consistently strong growth in the UK. Given the great product-

market fit in manufacturing and wholesaling/distribution sectors, we see a huge opportunity to expand into this market. We are using the recent investment to expand our UK focus and grow our in-market presence. We already have a Bristol office, and are working to grow the local team further. We also have plans to expand our significant partner channel; in areas where we don’t have an existing in-market sales presence, we’ve had excellent experiences working with partners. Lastly, we’ve got some exciting product extensions and features in the pipeline.

XU: Is expansion always the right strategy for a growing SaaS company?

LM: You don’t often like to talk openly about what didn’t work but you don’t always get it right. We had a physical market presence in the US before but we were missing the powerful combination of company knowledge and local market knowledge, and we grew our costs too fast. We’ve learnt that when expanding into a experimental approach is the best strategy.

XU: How does Unleashed decide which markets to build a presence in?

LM: We were global from day one and have customers all around the world who have successfully implemented Unleashed without a local market presence. Whether we choose to establish a physical presence in any market is subject to our research around the benefit to customers and partners. Before we expand we also consider a variety of factors but it mostly comes down to customer demand.

XU: What tips can you give to businesses who are considering expanding to a new territory?

LM: Always take people from your centre of excellence into the new territory. But also, as soon as you can, hire locally. This gives you a powerful combination of the localisation as well as all of the company’s culture and knowledge. It’s key for business leaders to visit the market, even if it’s just for short trips. This allows you to support the people you’ve sent in market, understand the customers, and show customers that you’re committed to expanding local market, the right hires and an

their territory.

XU: Cloud-based software is being adopted by a majority of businesses, but there are still businesses sticking to spreadsheets. What is the biggest obstacle businesses need to overcome to migrate to a cloudbased inventory solution?

LM: We need businesses to be aware of how much time they could save through digital operations. It’s also about overcoming concerns with data security and ethical practices. I think the industry has a Check out approvalmax.com responsibility to ensure customers feel their data is being wellmanaged and that we follow good business practices. SaaS users aren’t contractually bound, it’s easy to leave their current solution and there are many alternatives on the market so this ensures cloud suppliers like Unleashed continue to focus on providing customer XU: Unleashed Software is one of Xero’s first integration applications. What has been your experience working together with Xero?

LM: We think Xero’s done a great job in terms of educating the market and paving the way for lots of New Zealand businesses to operate on a global scale. This keeps us focused on making sure Xero and Unleashed work seamlessly together as we truly believe together we offer a powerful solution.

XU: You talked about how Unleashed integrates with many other apps to form an end-to-end solution for businesses. What does this mean for enterprise software companies?

LM: I think there will always be a place for enterprise software because enterprises are complex and this won’t change. However, I also believe that there are more smaller, faster players coming to market and providing a smart solution to customers’ needs. I think there will be a growing need for software like Unleashed that cater to mediumsized businesses who want an industrial strength solution at a medium-sized business price tag. If your business is changing and growing, then you need software that evolves as your business grows.

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