“I was a developer in the beginning. The technology really interested me. Now that I’ve been here so long, the company feels part of me,” states Mr. Nodet. “And viceversa.”
Mr. Nodet has been working at Exerp for over a decade. Having originally joined Exerp as an enthusiastic developer, Mr. Nodet has risen with the company from tech start-up to being part of the Executive Board that indirectly listed the company on the Italian Stock Exchange through the sale of 50.01% of the shares to Technogym, a major fitness equipment supplier, in April of last year.
The transformation of the company from the incubation phase when you could count the number of employees on the fingers of two hands, to the 60-strong team, including those working out of the new US office, has been remarkable. An important first milestone was reached for Exerp when it developed software specifically for the fitness industry in Denmark. A few years later this was followed by a contract with a major Scandinavian fitness operator.
Following early success, it expanded its operations out across four countries. Mr. Nodet explains the importance of this contract for Exerp. “We worked so hard to develop a new system from scratch that could handle the challenge of meeting the requirements of multinational clients. In hindsight, this was such an important development as it really gave birth to our current system.”
The software developed by Exerp is described by Mr. Nodet as “quite a rich platform that replaces a multitude of systems with a single, efficient system.” Exerp has devised a system that streamlines all the tricky business operations for a large enterprise – such as membership management, billing and stock management – into a single, cost saving alternative.
“For clients looking to change these core functionalities to another platform like ours is like a heart transplant. Their core business depends on it,” asserts Mr. Nodet.
Following success in Scandinavia, Exerp worked with a small UK client. This led to Exerp swiftly securing contracts with two of the biggest operators in the UK fitness market. Having recently signed a contract with GoodLife Fitness, Canada’s largest fitness operator, and with a new office in West Palm Beach, Florida, Exerp is now looking to make inroads into the US market.
Mr. Nodet observes that the fitness market is expanding and concentrating into major players. “Exerp’s market share is actually expanding faster than the fitness market in general,” he says. Exerp hopes to double its current turnover over the next three years. “We are in touch with prospects in APAC in the latest phase of scaling up our operations,” says Mr. Nodet. “We are expanding the software, functionality, and the client base. We are constantly investing in our platform and enriching it. It will be very busy,” finishes Mr. Nodet. ”But people enjoy working here and our clients enjoy working with us. We move fast and deliver projects with speed.”