Brazil's ERP giant Totvs appoints new CEO

The founder of Brazil's largest enterprise software firm Totvs has stepped down and appointed a new head as part of a wider strategy that includes a shift towards cloud-based offerings.

As Laércio Cosentino leaves the post of the company he founded in 1983, Dennis Herszkowicz has become the new CEO. Prior to his new job, Herszkowicz had been leading Linx, a Brazilian developer of retail management systems.

With the new leadership in place, Cosentino will become chairman of the board of the company, who provides enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to about 30,000 clients, many of which being small and medium enterprises.

The changes in senior management follow a series of attempts to find a replacement for Cosentino. This included a turbulent stint of Rodrigo Kede Lima, who joined Totvs from IBM in 2015 with an agenda of international expansion.

Kede Lima then left the company citing health issues - only to return to the Big Blue ten days after as general manager for Latin America.

Three years ago, Totvs started the migration process of its to a subscription model. Last month, the firm reported third quarter revenue of 589.6 million reais ($122 million), up 4.8 percent on the same period in 2017.

For Q3 2018, the company reported a 83.5 percent increase in adjusted net income at 39.5 million reais ($8.17 million). According to the firm, the recent results suggest that the company has now reached the inflection point after the transition to the new delivery model.