Jim Messer, CEO of goTransverse

Jim has spent the past 25 years focused on the telecommunications and IT industries. He served as Vice President of Sales for LHS Group, one of the largest implementation and support networks in the global customer care and billing marketplace with more than 300 customer sites worldwide and 18 global and regional partners. Jim later served as Vice President of Sales for Sema Group plc, which became the world leader in communications software and solutions after the acquisition of LHS for $4.75 billion. Sema then surpassed all global competitors in revenue, subscribers, sites and solutions. Related to B/OSS, Jim also served in senior management positions for CSG Systems, US Telecom Advanced Telecom Service (sold to CSG) and TechnoCom Wireless – a leader in wireless location-based services. Additionally, Jim also served as Vice President of Federal Programs for Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), and served on the staff of U.S. Senate Leader Bob Dole focusing on telecommunications, IT and foreign policy. Jim also participates as a partner in Spectrum Five LLC, the largest holder of DBS spectrum with full U.S. coverage.

goTransverse powers intelligent billing for smart business. As one of the world’s most reliable and respected agile monetization platforms, goTransverse provides a cost-effective way to add flexible pricing and intelligent billing solutions to transform your back-end operations into a competitive advantage. goTransverse’s intelligent billing and dynamic monetization platform supports the monetization of any combination of one-time, subscription and usage-based offerings with near real-time metering, rating, billing, native revenue recognition and business insights. The result is top-line revenue growth, faster time-to-market, visibility into revenue streams, and operational savings. From IoT and cloud apps to media/entertainment and high tech, and even the most traditional of industries – goTransverse powers today’s smart enterprise. Learn more at www.gotransverse.com.

Rhianna Collier: Tell me about goTransverse’s mission.

Jim Messer: Our mission is to help today’s smart enterprise monetize and maximize value from billing innovation. Our success relies on smart, modern businesses who rely on our domain expertise, global scale, and dependability to continually connect and engage with customers worldwide in real-time through our intelligent billing platform. Together, we help deliver incremental value to our customers’ top-line, while realizing bottom-line operational savings.

Rhianna Collier: What were you doing before you joined goTransverse as CEO?

Jim Messer: Prior to goTransverse, I was the President and CEO of BrainMedia, the first company to stream music over wireless networks. But I’ve spent the last 25 years focused on the telecommunications and IT industries, with a special focus on monetization, serving as Vice President of Sales for LHS Group, one of the largest implementation and support networks in the global customer care and billing marketplace and as Vice President of Sales for Sema Group plc, which became the world leader in communications software and solutions after the acquisition of LHS for $4.75 billion. In addition, I served in management positions for CSG Systems (NASDAQ: CSGS) and global technology leader Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB).

Rhianna Collier: How did you get your start in the technology industry?

Jim Messer: I was always fascinated, but not consumed by technology. While working for Senator Bob Dole on Foreign Policy issues, I muscled my way into Telecommunications and Technology and my involvement has only grown since then.

Rhianna Collier: What are your goals for the next 5 years? Where do you see yourself and goTransverse?

Jim Messer: I will remain committed in my role as the Founder and CEO of goTransverse, to building the largest and most profitable intelligent billing provider in the global cloud billing industry. goTransverse will continue to provide an unwavering commitment to both technical innovation and customer success. As businesses continue to evolve into pay-as-you-go relationships with customers, we will remain dedicated to providing our clients a flexible billing touch-point that creates long-lasting customer relationships and increasing customer lifetime value through a limitless combination of subscription and consumption-based business models.

Rhianna Collier: Give us your TechTip of the month.

Jim Messer: When I worked for Senator Dole I watched as he would canvas both sides of the aisle for votes.  He had no enemies and worked with everyone.  When someone would tell him, “no” he’d remark “I’m going to put you down as a “maybe.” In life, always remember, “no” really means “maybe.”

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.