Exton-based Scala sees 20% growth in 2011, fine tunes leadership team for future growth

Tom Paine

Exton-based Scala, a leader in digital signage software solutions, closed 2011 with its revenue up about 20% for the year, CEO Tom Nix told me in a phone interview. He declined to give a revenue figure. Nix, who joined Scala in 2010, was named CEO this past September.

Earlier this month Scala announced new leadership appointments which appear to be largely a vote of confidence in the existing management team, although several will take on different roles:

Oscar Elizaga becomes Senior Vice President, Americas. He was previously Vice President, EMEA, India & Latin America for Scala.

Jeff Porter, who formerly led the Experts Group at Scala, becomes President of Scala’s SignChannel division. SignChannel is Scala's entry level, self-service SaaS offering for the small & medium-sized enterprise (SME) segment.

Peter Cherna is now Senior Vice President, Technology. He was previously VP, R&D at Scala. Peter leads development in areas such as predictive analytics, social media, and mobility.

Dave Palermo, who joined Scala earlier this year, is Vice President, Global Marketing. Dave was previously with
SunGard Availability.

Also, Frank Larsen is the new Vice President of EMEA.

These are the first major changes Nix has made since taking over as CEO. In October, Marcy Patzer joined Scala as Senior Director of Retail Strategy. reflecting an increasing emphasis on this segment. Nix expects retail to grow from about 20% of Scala's revenue to 35% over the next few years.

Other priorities for the year include mobile apps: one example is to make it possible for users to interact
dynamically from their smart phones or tablets with larger digital displays. Scala may look to bring in some mobile app development talent this year. Also, Scala plans to introduce its CxO Dashboard offering for the enterprise software market in the Spring. Another important growth area is helping advertisers manage the delivery of their messages via digital signage.

ABI Research shows spending in the global digital signage market, including software and hardware, is expected to grow from $1.3 billion in 2010 to $4.5 billion by 2016. As hardware costs have declined sharply, a major barrier to deployment has eased and leading software providers like Scala are left in a potentially strong position.



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