In a decisive move signaling a major push for worldwide market penetration, IT consulting and software giant msg global solutions has announced the appointment of seasoned industry veteran Jens-Thorsten Rauer to its Board of Directors. Tasked with spearheading the company’s international growth strategy, Rauer’s appointment is a clear statement of intent as the firm seeks to capitalize on the unprecedented digital transformation sweeping through its core sectors of insurance, banking, and automotive.
Rauer, a distinguished leader with a formidable track record at technology and consulting powerhouses like SAP and Deloitte, will assume responsibility for global sales, marketing, and the strategic development of msg global’s extensive solution portfolio. This high-level appointment is not merely a personnel change but a strategic recalibration, positioning msg global to more aggressively pursue new markets, deepen existing client relationships, and innovate at the pace demanded by a rapidly evolving technological landscape. As businesses across the financial services and mobility industries grapple with the dual pressures of modernization and competition, Rauer’s leadership is poised to be the catalyst for msg global’s next chapter of significant global expansion.
A New Era of Global Expansion for msg global
The appointment of Jens-Thorsten Rauer to the Board of Directors is a pivotal moment for msg global. It signifies a transition from a phase of steady, organic growth to a more assertive, strategically driven expansion. By placing the reins of international growth in the hands of a proven leader, the company is equipping itself to navigate the complexities of a globalized market and solidify its position as a premier partner for digital transformation in the financial services industry.
Rauer’s Mandate: Driving Growth and Innovation
Rauer’s role is multi-faceted and central to the company’s future. His primary mandate is to architect and execute a comprehensive strategy for international growth. This involves more than simply increasing sales figures; it requires a holistic approach that integrates sales, marketing, and portfolio management into a single, cohesive engine for expansion.
- Sales and Market Penetration: Rauer will be responsible for scaling msg global’s sales operations across different regions. This includes identifying and entering new geographical markets where demand for specialized financial and insurance software solutions is high, as well as deepening the company’s footprint in established territories like North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. His leadership will be crucial in building and empowering high-performance sales teams capable of navigating complex enterprise sales cycles.
- Strategic Marketing and Brand Positioning: In a crowded marketplace, brand visibility and a clear value proposition are paramount. Rauer will oversee the evolution of msg global’s marketing strategy to ensure its brand resonates with C-level executives facing critical digital transformation decisions. This involves articulating the company’s deep industry expertise, its close partnership with SAP, and the tangible business outcomes its solutions deliver.
- Portfolio Management and Development: The technology landscape is in constant flux. Rauer’s third key responsibility is to ensure that msg global’s portfolio of software and services remains relevant, competitive, and aligned with future market needs. This involves working closely with product development teams to guide innovation, potentially identifying strategic acquisition targets, and ensuring that solutions like the msg.Insurance Suite and SAP S/4HANA for Financial Products are continuously enhanced to address emerging challenges like AI integration, cloud-native architecture, and evolving regulatory demands.
Peter Umscheid, a member of the msg global board, expressed the company’s confidence in the appointment, stating, “We are very pleased to have Jens-Thorsten join our board. He brings a unique perspective and deep understanding of the markets we serve. His leadership and experience are exactly what we need to meet the growing demand for our products and services worldwide and to successfully drive our international growth strategy.”
The Significance of a Board-Level Position
Placing this growth-focused role at the board level is a critical strategic decision. It elevates the function beyond day-to-day operational management, embedding it directly into the core of the company’s governance and long-term vision. This empowerment grants Rauer the authority and resources necessary to make transformative decisions. It ensures that international growth is not an isolated departmental goal but a central pillar of the entire corporate strategy, with direct oversight and support from the highest level of leadership. This structure enables greater agility, facilitates larger strategic investments, and signals to the market, partners, and clients that msg global is profoundly serious about its global ambitions.
The Man Behind the Mission: Profiling Jens-Thorsten Rauer
To understand the potential impact of this appointment, one must examine the career and capabilities of the man stepping into the role. Jens-Thorsten Rauer is not simply an experienced executive; he is a veteran of the very industry intersections—technology, finance, insurance, and consulting—that define msg global’s business. His career has been a masterclass in driving growth, managing complex global operations, and helping large enterprises leverage technology for competitive advantage.
A Distinguished Career at the Intersection of Technology and Finance
Rauer’s professional journey has prepared him perfectly for the challenges ahead. His most recent and perhaps most relevant experience comes from his long and successful tenure at SAP, a company that sits at the heart of msg global’s own technology stack. At SAP, Rauer held the pivotal role of Global Head of the Financial Services & Industries (FSI) business unit. In this capacity, he was responsible for SAP’s entire FSI portfolio, a multi-billion-dollar business encompassing software and services for banking and insurance clients worldwide. He was instrumental in shaping SAP’s strategy for these industries, overseeing the development and go-to-market for flagship products that are now industry standards.
His deep familiarity with the SAP ecosystem, particularly solutions like SAP S/4HANA, provides him with an unparalleled advantage. He understands the technology not just from a vendor’s perspective but from the viewpoint of the clients msg global serves. He knows their pain points, their implementation challenges, and the strategic value they seek to unlock. Before his leadership role in FSI, he also served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for SAP’s MEE (Middle and Eastern Europe) region, giving him extensive operational experience in managing large, diverse, and fast-growing markets.
Prior to his impactful career at SAP, Rauer honed his strategic acumen as a Partner at Deloitte, one of the world’s leading professional services firms. In this role, he advised top-tier financial institutions on strategy, business transformation, and technology implementation. This consulting background instilled in him a client-centric mindset and a deep appreciation for the business challenges that technology is meant to solve. It’s this combination of high-level strategic consulting and hands-on global technology leadership that makes him such a compelling choice for msg global.
Rauer’s Vision: Quotes and Perspectives
Rauer’s own words on his appointment reflect a clear-eyed view of the opportunity ahead. “I am very excited to join the msg global family and to lead the next phase of international expansion,” he stated. “The company’s deep industry knowledge, its highly talented people, and the breadth of its portfolio are impressive. I see great potential to build on the company’s successful history and to become the preferred partner for business and IT transformations in our focus industries.”
This statement is telling. It highlights three core pillars he intends to leverage: deep industry knowledge, talent, and a comprehensive portfolio. His focus on becoming the “preferred partner for business and IT transformations” underscores a vision that goes beyond simply selling software. It speaks to a holistic, partnership-based approach where msg global acts as a strategic guide for clients navigating complex, multi-year transformation journeys. This aligns perfectly with the market’s demand for partners who offer not just technology, but also profound domain expertise and a proven methodology for success.
Understanding msg global’s Position in the Market
To fully appreciate the context of Rauer’s appointment, it’s essential to understand the company he is joining. msg global solutions is a significant, though sometimes underestimated, force in the global enterprise software and services market. As part of the independent, international msg group, which boasts over 10,000 employees worldwide, msg global has the backing and stability of a large, established parent organization while retaining the agility and focus of a specialized firm.
More Than Just a Consultancy: A Global Software and IT Powerhouse
Founded on the principle of bridging the gap between generic enterprise technology and specific industry needs, msg global has carved out a powerful niche. The company’s business model is a hybrid of software product development, implementation services, and strategic IT consulting. This allows them to offer end-to-end solutions to their clients, from initial strategy and process design to software implementation, customization, and ongoing support.
The cornerstone of msg global’s strategy is its long-standing, premier partnership with SAP. While many companies are SAP implementation partners, msg global occupies a more elite status. They are a co-development partner, working hand-in-hand with SAP to build and enhance core industry solutions. This deep integration gives them unparalleled product knowledge and the ability to influence the future direction of the software their clients depend on.
Key Offerings and Industry Focus
msg global’s portfolio is tailored to the complex regulatory and operational environments of its target industries.
- Insurance: This is arguably msg global’s strongest vertical. The msg.Insurance Suite is a comprehensive, modular platform that covers core insurance processes, including policy management, claims management, billing and collections, and reinsurance. It’s often deployed alongside standard SAP components like SAP S/4HANA for Financial Products Subledger (FPSL) to help insurers comply with complex accounting standards like IFRS 17 and US GAAP LDTI. Their expertise in this area is world-renowned.
- Banking: For the banking sector, msg global provides solutions built on the SAP Banking platform, helping institutions with core banking modernization, payments processing, risk management, and regulatory reporting. Their services enable banks to streamline operations, enhance customer experience, and adapt to the challenges posed by fintech competitors and open banking initiatives.
- Automotive and Mobility: The automotive industry is undergoing a seismic shift towards connected vehicles, electric mobility, and new ownership models. msg global provides solutions that help automotive companies and their financial services arms manage fleet solutions, vehicle financing and leasing, and develop new digital services for the mobility ecosystem of the future.
Global Footprint and Existing Markets
With a presence in dozens of countries across five continents, msg global already has a significant international footprint. The company has established a strong presence in mature markets like Germany and the United States, as well as in key growth regions across Europe and Asia-Pacific. Rauer’s challenge will be to accelerate growth within these regions while strategically identifying and penetrating new territories in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. His task is to transform this collection of international offices into a truly integrated global sales and delivery machine, leveraging successes from one region to drive growth in another.
The ‘Why Now?’: Navigating a Landscape of Disruption and Opportunity
The timing of Rauer’s appointment is no coincidence. It comes at a moment when the industries msg global serves are at a critical inflection point, facing a confluence of forces that make large-scale transformation not just a competitive advantage, but a matter of survival. This environment of disruption creates a fertile ground for growth for expert partners like msg global.
Digital Transformation as a Driving Force
For decades, many large insurers and banks have been held back by aging, complex, and fragmented legacy IT systems. These monolithic core systems are expensive to maintain, difficult to adapt, and incapable of supporting the digital-first, data-driven business models required to compete today. The pressure to modernize is immense, driven by:
- Customer Expectations: Consumers, accustomed to the seamless digital experiences offered by tech giants and startups, now demand the same level of convenience, personalization, and transparency from their banks and insurers.
- New Competition: Agile, tech-savvy Insurtech and Fintech startups are entering the market, unencumbered by legacy systems. They are cherry-picking the most profitable parts of the value chain and forcing incumbents to innovate or risk becoming irrelevant.
- Operational Efficiency: In a low-margin environment, reducing operational costs is critical. Modern, automated, and integrated systems are essential for streamlining processes, reducing manual effort, and improving the bottom line.
The Cloud Imperative and the Rise of AI
The migration to the cloud is no longer a question of ‘if’ but ‘when and how’. Cloud platforms offer scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness that on-premise data centers cannot match. This shift enables companies to consume advanced services, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), more easily. In insurance and banking, AI is revolutionizing everything from underwriting risk and pricing policies to detecting fraud, automating claims processing, and providing personalized financial advice. Rauer’s background at SAP, a company at the forefront of embedding AI into enterprise applications, positions him to guide msg global and its clients in harnessing these powerful new capabilities.
Regulatory Hurdles and Compliance Challenges
Perhaps the most powerful short-term driver of transformation is the wave of new, complex regulations. Standards like IFRS 17 (Insurance Contracts) and IFRS 9 (Financial Instruments) have forced nearly every insurer and bank on the planet to undertake massive, multi-year projects to overhaul their accounting and financial reporting systems. These are not simple updates; they require a fundamental re-architecting of data models and financial processes.
This regulatory pressure has created a once-in-a-generation business opportunity for companies like msg global, which possess the niche software (like SAP FPSL) and the deep domain expertise required to guide clients through these complex implementations. Rauer’s extensive experience in the FSI sector means he understands this regulatory landscape intimately and can articulate how msg global’s solutions directly address these mission-critical compliance mandates.
Looking Ahead: The Rauer-Led Future for msg global
The appointment of Jens-Thorsten Rauer is a clear and powerful signal. It is an investment in leadership, a commitment to global ambition, and a strategic response to a market ripe with opportunity. By bringing a leader of his caliber onto the board, msg global is not just aiming for incremental growth; it is positioning itself to become the undisputed global leader in its chosen domains.
With Rauer’s proven ability to scale global technology businesses, his deep understanding of the SAP ecosystem, and his client-centric consulting mindset, msg global is exceptionally well-equipped for its next chapter. As insurers, banks, and automotive firms continue their critical journey of digital transformation, they will require partners who offer more than just code—they will need strategic guides with proven solutions and deep industry knowledge. Under the new leadership of Jens-Thorsten Rauer, msg global is poised to be that indispensable partner on a truly global scale.
