Lawson Software have appointed Axel van der Smagt as Director of professional services across Australia and New Zealand. In his new role, Smagt will focus on expanding the Lawson Software professional services division by delivering software implementation services to customers.
Prior to this appointment, Van der Smagt was the director of partner engagement for Lawson Software, where he was responsible for selecting and training partner organisations across ANZ for the purposes of extending their market reach.
Van der Smagt has 20 years of enterprise software industry experience. Before joining, Lawson Software, he was with SAP from 2006 to 2008 as Managing Principal Mid-size Enterprise, where he managed partner delivery engagements with SAP partners across ANZ. Before this, he held a position with JD Edwards/PeopleSoft/Oracle from 2003 to 2006 as Services Director Northern Region, where he was responsible for services sales and delivery to customers and partners.
From 1988-2003, Van der Smagt acted as a Director of Consulting for KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers/IBM, where he was responsible for the sales and delivery of enterprise software solutions with Baan and PeopleSoft (KPMG), and subsequently JD Edwards (PwC) and Oracle (IBM). From 1988-1996, Van der Smagt was also the founder and managing director of the Implementors where he delivered implementation services for Baan software.
In his new role based in Sydney, Van der Smagt will report directly to Trygve Slette, Lawson Services Director for Asia Pacific and Japan. He will be responsible for the provision of services to Lawson Software’s customers in ANZ in industries including manufacturing and distribution, equipment service management and rental, food and fashion. Van der Smagt holds a Business Information Technology degree with Fontys Hogescholen in the Netherlands.