Industry Veteran to Build on Strong Foundation as KANA Adds to its Sales and Customer Support Organization
MENLO PARK, Calif. - February 5, 2003 — KANA® (NASDAQ: KANA), a leading provider of customer-centric eCRM applications, today announced that Tom Pesut has been named Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Mr. Pesut is a seasoned software executive with more than 15 years of executive sales experience in enterprise software and networking. His background includes a solid track record of driving global revenue growth with strategic sales and service partners. In his new role, he will be responsible for managing KANA’s global sales force and leading the company’s worldwide customer support operation.
“As KANA moved into 2003, we sought to add to our leadership team by bringing in an executive with a proven track record of driving enterprise software sales, successfully meeting aggressive quotas, selling into the largest organizations in the world and leading a team in providing the highest level of customer support,” said Tom Doyle, COO of KANA. “In Tom we’ve found an executive with all of these qualities, and we are confident that he will help KANA continue to build on its world-class sales and customer support teams and meet our company objectives in 2003 and beyond.”
Prior to joining KANA, Mr. Pesut was senior vice president of field operations at MERANT, where he managed global sales and support operations for the company’s enterprise infrastructure software. He was previously vice president of global accounts for a $600 million business unit of Equant Network Services. Earlier in his career he served as vice president of worldwide sales at PictureTel, where he led the global field operations that achieved an eight percent gain in worldwide market share and $500 million in sales. Prior to that, as vice president of Americas sales at Novell, Mr. Pesut led an increase in revenue from $600 million to $1.1 billion, while growing revenue from enterprise connectivity products 50 percent and building an industry leading partner sales and service channel. In previous positions at Novell, Mr. Pesut was the Eastern Area director and general manager of Novell’s Canadian subsidiary.
“Joining KANA provides me with a great opportunity to put my experience to work in helping to lead an already stable and innovative sales and customer support organization and take it to a new level of success,” said Mr. Pesut. “KANA has an unmatched combination of world-class eCRM applications, successful and profitable partnerships and a global customer base from which to build upon. I look forward to adding my expertise to KANA’s high-performance sales and customer support strategy and helping to take the company to new heights in the years to come.”
KANA provides eCRM applications optimized specifically for the telecommunications, financial services, healthcare, high technology, retail, government and higher education markets to drive better relationships through effective, efficient interactions with customers at all points of contact (self-service, Web collaboration, phone, e-mail, live chat) and throughout the enterprise. KANA’s industry-specific applications and customizations address the unique needs of Global 2000 organizations in these markets, giving businesses a competitive advantage and increasing their ability to service, market to and sell to their customers. More than 1,300 companies worldwide benefit from KANA’s customer-centric approach to managing customer relationships, which combines sophisticated analytics with thin-client Web architecture to deliver extraordinary customer interactions that decrease costs and drive revenue.
About KANA
KANA (NASDAQ: KANA) provides industry-leading customer-centric eCRM applications to the largest businesses in the world, helping them to better service, market to, and understand their customers and partners, while improving results and decreasing costs in contact centers and marketing departments. Through comprehensive multi-channel customer relationship management that combines the best-in-class KANA iCARE Architecture with enterprise applications, KANA has become one of the fastest-growing providers of next generation eCRM technology. The company`s customer-focused service, marketing and commerce software applications enable organizations to improve customer and partner relationships by enabling them to productively interact when, where and how they want - across all touch points, including web contact, web collaboration, e-mail, and telephone. KANA`s eCRM applications are successfully deployed at Global 2000 organizations in the financial services, manufacturing, high technology, communications, retail and services markets. ADP, Chase, E*Trade, GAP, GM, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Sony, United Airlines, Verizon, and Williams Sonoma are among the industry leaders that have implemented KANA`s eCRM applications. KANA provides industry specific eCRM applications for Healthcare, Financial Services, High Technology, Communications, Retail and Government/Public Sector. KANA has locations in 22 countries worldwide, in addition to an extensive global network of channel partners. For more information, please visit www.kana.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
Information in this release regarding KANA’s forecasts, projections, expectations, beliefs, and intentions are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include statements about KANA’s expected revenue, operating results, EBITDA, cash flows, long-term success, new business and market position. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to KANA as of the date of this release, which may likely change, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: competition in our marketplace, including introductions of new products or services, or reductions in prices, by competitors; risks associated with lack of market acceptance of KANA’s products or services; inability to enhance and develop our products and services within budget and on schedule; inability to attract and retain qualified employees, to manage cash and expenditures or to expand sales; inability to manage our business in light of recent personnel reductions; KANA’s history of losses; the effect of potential military action and terrorist activities; and slow economic conditions, particularly as they affect spending by our prospective customers on eCRM and similar enterprise software products. These and other factors are risks associated with our business that may affect our operating results and are discussed in KANA’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.
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NOTE: KANA is a registered trademark, and KANA Software, KANA iCARE, KANA Contact Center, KANA IQ, KANA ResponseIQ, KANA Response, KANA Marketing, KANA iCARE Analytics and the KANA logo are trademarks of KANA Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Jessica Hohn
KANA
508/598-3356
jhohn@kana.com
Jason Ouellette/ Renee Miller
PAN Communications
978/474-1900
kana@pancomm.com
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