Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - Hyland APAC VP on the company's recent acquisitions

The acquisitions of Alfresco and Nuxeo are reshaping the digital content management landscape. Highland, a global player in content services, has made bold moves in recent months, extending its reach and capabilities with these high-profile purchases. On a recent episode of 10 Minute IT Jams, Eugene Ching, Associate Vice President for Asia Pacific at Highland, shared insight into the company's strategy and where it's headed next.

According to Ching, the acquisitions are more than just commercial moves - they're part of a plan to boost Highland's growth, technological innovation, and market leadership. "First and foremost, the most important point is about our annual recurring revenue licence growth," Ching said. The shift toward subscription and platform-as-a-service models formed a central pillar of the company's reasoning. "These acquisitions basically help us increase our annual recurring revenue," he explained, adding that Alfresco and Nuxeo operate with strong subscription-based offerings and will therefore bolster Highland's core business going forward.

Yet the motivation is not purely financial. Ching pointed to upgrading Highland's technological edge as a crucial factor. "Acquiring these companies will really help us modernise our product, build more capabilities into our existing [platforms] and provide a much better offering to the marketplace," he said.

There's a larger tactical goal too: the expansion of Highland's addressable market. "I think Alfresco has been very good in addressing the IT and developers' market, which Highland is not as good as Alfresco at," Ching admitted. The acquisition, therefore, provides a "reach that we needed" and enables Highland to grow in new directions.

Market leadership is central to the company's post-acquisition ambitions. "Last but not least, this would really cement our position as the leader in the content services market space," Ching said. With a mix of Alfresco's developer-centric strengths and Highland's established market presence, the company is confident its offerings now stand "right at the top".

When asked about the future roadmap for Alfresco and Nuxeo, Ching detailed a strategy focusing on continuity, investment, and integration. "The key for us is to really continue to sell this product in the existing space that they are in - they are strong at," he explained. Highland is known for its focus on business line integrations and core applications, while Alfresco brings depth in developer tools and platforms. "We will continue to invest and we will continue to upgrade these existing products," he said.

Integration is not limited to products alone. Ching noted the company's intention to blend best practices: "We also want to incorporate some of the best practices and technologies into our existing products, and take technologies that we can incorporate into the existing product lines."

A significant benefit, Ching said, will go to customers still working with legacy enterprise content management systems. "One of the things that we would like to do is to really offer an attractive migration capability and option to existing legacy ECM customers who really are stuck with old platforms and want to migrate into much more modern, more intuitive as well as more integrated systems that we're offering today," he said.

The impact of these acquisitions is already evident in the company's operations and market engagement, Ching asserted. "Fantastic - I think what we are seeing is a lot, a lot more opportunities that Highland can address today with Alfresco as well as the Nuxeo," he said. Since the deals, there has been an uptick in prospective clients and requests: "We're seeing a lot more prospects coming to us... especially with our reach right now in the marketplace."

Highland's product suite has expanded too. "We are now offering much better products, as you can see from the recent acquisitions - we are now offering digital asset management to customers, we are offering better user interfaces to our existing customers as well," Ching said.

Of all these factors, recurring revenue growth remains the central metric. "Certainly, I think most important is really the growth in the annual recurring licences and revenue for Highland - that's actually a very net positive impact on our financials," Ching added.

Lastly, Ching returned to the broader strategic ambition: "Certainly, last but not least, is really to increase and cement our position. We are now really recognised as the leader in providing content services solutions to the market."