Navigating Through the Storm: What H1 2025 Taught Us About Growth in Uncertain Times

The first half of 2025 hit differently than I expected. When the year started, I thought we might finally see some stability after years of geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty, and market volatility. I was wrong. If anything, the world seemed to get pulled in even more directions, political instability deepened, and economic signals stayed mixed. 

What struck me most wasn't just external chaos, but how it affected the people I spoke with daily: our customers, partners, and prospects. In every conversation, I could feel the weight of indecision. Projects were paused, budgets frozen, and teams were stuck in analysis paralysis. Yet somehow, STAEDEAN achieved double-digit growth in new orders during this period. Looking back, I think I understand why and there are lessons here worth sharing. 

6 Lessons on Growth in Uncertain Times

1. The Power of Moving Forward When Others Stand Still  

 While many organizations froze their transformation initiatives, the ones that thrived were those that kept moving forward, actively preparing for what comes next. 

I saw this firsthand in conversations with customers and partners. The companies making progress weren't ignoring the uncertainty; they were using this time to build competitive advantages. Instead of waiting for perfect conditions, they focused on what they could control: improving their operations, investing in their teams, and modernizing their systems to be ready when markets recovered. 

This mindset shift explains our growth. Customers didn't come to us despite the challenging environment; they came because of it. They needed partners who could help them transform faster and with less risk, so when stability returned, they'd be ahead of the competition. 

While many technology companies struggled with cash flow and profitability during this period, our financial foundation remained solid. The double-digit order growth, combined with our expanding partner ecosystem, created a virtuous cycle of sustainable revenue growth that positions us well for continued expansion. 

 2. What Our Rebrand Really Taught Us 

Last year's transformation to STAEDEAN wasn't just about changing our name and colors—it was about fundamentally shifting how we deliver value. Of course, rebranding comes with challenges. People struggle to find you, question your stability, wonder if you're the same company they trusted before. 

But this journey forced us to prove our worth in concrete ways. We couldn't rely on our previous reputation; we had to earn trust through execution. That pressure led us to integrate Microsoft AI technologies more deeply into our solutions, cutting implementation times by up to 50% and delivering roughly 25% more value for clients. 

The market response validated this approach. When customers see faster go-lives, quicker time-to-value, and more capacity for innovation, trust rebuilds quickly. The rebrand became less about marketing and more about operational excellence. and the financial results followed. Our investment in AI and transformation capabilities didn't just improve customer outcomes; it strengthened our market position and will yield new sources of revenue growth.

3. Life Sciences: Where Preparation Meets Opportunity 

Two years ago, we acquired a company with tremendous potential in life sciences but limited scalability. Throughout H1, I watched this investment finally pay off as we gained traction globally with pharmaceutical companies who couldn't afford delays. 

The breakthrough came from combining AI-enabled Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management with deep industry expertise. When INOVIO needed to streamline clinical trials and prepare for commercialization, we delivered in just six months. EVER Pharma eliminated manual processes and accelerated their digital transformation with our fully integrated ERP solution. 

These wins showed me something important: we're not just selling software; we're helping companies transform with immediate time-to-value. In an industry where speed and precision literally save lives, that distinction matters enormously. 

4. Partners as Problem-Solvers, Not Just Sales Channels 

This year I traveled extensively, meeting partners face-to-face across different regions. What I discovered was that our partners were feeling the same customer pain we were: indecision, uncertainty, and the pressure to deliver value faster than ever. 

Our collaboration with partners like Columbus, Avanade, Nexer Group, Conclusion MBS, Delaware, Cegeka, Cittros, Sycor, Sysco Software, Consntrade, Prodware, Argano, and others became about much more than expanding market reach. Together, we brought expertise not just on software, but on business transformation, change management, quality, and compliance. 

In these partner meetings, we aligned on what customers really needed: guidance through the uncertainty, not just technology solutions. Our partners became trusted advisors helping customers navigate the storm, and that collaborative approach drove results for everyone. 

5. Customer Retention: Investing More to Deliver More 

H1 was challenging for customer retention in ways I hadn't anticipated. We saw clients forced to cut costs dramatically, some went through acquisitions, and others faced bankruptcy. This could have been devastating for our recurring revenue. 

Instead, we doubled down on customer success. We invested significantly more time helping existing customers extract greater value from their existing solutions. Rather than just maintaining relationships, we actively worked to help customers achieve bigger gains from their investments. 

Hamilton provides a perfect example. We helped them reduce integration timelines from three months to just 20 days. Data imports that previously took a week now complete in hours. This wasn't just about cost savings; it gave them the operational agility to focus on growth and innovation during uncertain times. 

This approach paid off. By delivering quantifiable value and demonstrating ROI during the toughest period, we built deeper trust and kept churn remarkably low. 

6. Business Central: Serving the Agile Middle Market 

Our Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC) solutions achieved triple-digit growth percentage in H1, and I think I know why. Companies wanted agility at their size. BC delivers exactly that. It's built for organizations that don't need fully integrated multi-currency, multi-country, multi-language systems but still require enterprise-grade functionality. 

What we discovered is that even smaller divisions of larger companies need the sophisticated features that multinationals demand. Our deep industry expertise enables us to deliver enterprise-level solutions backed by solid data tools, helping clients big and small get value fast from BC. 

We also launched our full food solution in the cloud this year (process manufacturing), enabling customers to take full advantage of the Microsoft cloud platform. You can explore these capabilities at https://bc.staedean.com

As I prepare to attend Directions EMEA 2025 personally, I'm excited to reconnect with the BC ecosystem and discuss what really matters: delivering more value for more customers, faster.

AI Innovation That Drives Real Results 

STAEDEAN is one of the first ISVs in the Microsoft ecosystem to bring multi-agent AI into Business Applications. But we're not just writing emails with large language models, we're unleashing systems' potential to drive real value and cost savings. 

Our AI solution combines large-language and small-language models to speed implementations, provide industry-specific insights, and automate routine tasks. This led to creating an internal AI community where colleagues share prototypes, best practices, and ethical guidelines. 

Our product team works closely with Microsoft R&D on single-agent and multi-agent solutions transforming ECM and PLM processes. We're preparing to showcase this innovation at Microsoft Ignite later this year. 

Here's what I learned at Community Summit 2024, where our sessions on AI and data quality drew over 130 attendees: AI can't run on messy data. That's why our Data Maturity Assessment became so crucial. In H1, we continued building knowledge in this space, helping customers improve their data maturity as a precursor to AI success. 

Beyond that, data security and compliance. Being able to survive audits became even more critical during uncertain times. Our solutions enable clients not just to survive but thrive, and this capability continues to drive our growth.  

Looking Ahead: From Momentum to Acceleration 

Though customers continued struggling with decision-making and we saw significant postponement in H1, we still achieved strong growth. Looking into H2, I see that pattern starting to accelerate significantly. 

Our pipeline continues growing and decisions are being made, which shows promise for what I expect will be a record-breaking H2. This isn't just about revenue, it's a true showcase of the trust customers place in us and the value they see in our offerings. 

We're actively preparing for the future by moving multi-agent AI from pilots to full-scale deployments. These tools will cut implementation times significantly, giving customers quicker time-to-value when leveraging our models for solution configuration. 

More importantly, we're driving new revenue streams, improving information availability, and creating more efficient ways to interact with systems of record. We showcased our new AI tools at Community Summit North America 2025 in Orlando (Booth 1631), where we were a premier sponsor. 
 

The Real Lesson: Growth Through Value, Not Volume 

H1 taught me that sustainable growth comes from relentless focus on customer retention while delivering continuous innovation. We've been able to expand even in uncertain times because we never stopped investing in bringing more value to customers faster. What sets STAEDEAN apart isn't just our technology or partnerships, it's our financial stability and strategic vision during turbulent times. While industry challenges and market uncertainty create noise, our fundamentals tell the real story: consistent profitability, expanding global reach, great and supportive investors and a growing customer base that trusts us with their most critical transformations. 

Our partners help us scale this impact, reaching more customers together and delivering not just software and services, but true end-to-end transformation. This enables our customers not merely to survive uncertainty but to emerge stronger and more competitive. 

The companies thriving today aren't waiting for perfect conditions. They're actively building advantages while others hesitate. That's the opportunity in every challenging period, and that's what the second half of 2025 represents for all of us.