AXWAY SOFTWARE Russ Wiles, The Republic | azcentral.com 4:50 p.m. MST November 2, 2015
An unusual French-American personality, and reams of business customers, highlight the corporate culture of Axway Software. The low-key Scottsdale company is a big player in digital transactions.With nearly 2,000 employees, 11,000 global business customers and 1 billion daily transactions processed using its technology, Axway Software might be the largest Arizona-based corporation you've never heard about.
Some of the low visibility reflects Axway's multinational roots.
The company wasn't founded here but in France. Its newly installed chief executive officer, Jean-Marc Lazzari, is a French citizen who spends a large chunk of his time at company offices in suburban Paris. Axway's original corporate parent, and much of the current ownership group, is European. Most sales and revenues are generated in Europe, with most employees based there.
Nor do Axway shares trade in the U.S. stock market. Rather, they're listed in Europe and trade not in dollars but in euros. The corporation issues its financial statements in French and English.
It's one of Arizona's most global companies, too, with offices in 19 nations and business clients in more than 100. Customers range from Dignity Health and PayPal to Dun & Bradstreet and the Internal Revenue Service. Competitors include IBM, Computer Associates, Apigee, Mashery and Software AG.
Then there are Axway's operations, which also don't lend themselves to broad consumer visibility. The company focuses on providing software and services to businesses rather than to retail clients. Although its applications enable the increasing number and type of transactions that consumers conduct - in banking, health care, transportation and many other areas - most people aren't familiar with the company.
Don Dixon, Axway's new senior vice president of global marketing, uses the analogy of water that homeowners tap into when they turn on a faucet. What they often don't know about, or just take for granted, is all the plumbing and other logistical work that moves the liquid from river through pipelines and treatment plants to their tap. In terms of computer-based transactions, Axway, like a local water utility, provides
much of the underlying infrastructure through its software.
The company specializes in application-integration and security 'middleware,' software that connects an entity's operating system with end-user applications. Businesses use middleware to keep data flowing, both within their organizations and with outside parties, increasingly through mobile devices and the cloud.
Data flows are the foundation of the digital economy, the company points out, and likely will be hastened by the development of the 'Internet of things' - the growing network of appliances, vehicles, medical devices, sensors and other machinery linked through data exchanges.
Reach the reporter at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8616.
You can read the full article on the website of azcentral: http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/2015/11/02/axway-may-largest-arizona- company-youve-never-heard/74772428/
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