FrontRange Solutions Acquires Centennial Software
FrontRange Solutions, a provider in IT software solutions, has acquired Centennial Software. Centennial, a provider in dynamic infrastructure management products including auto-discovery, inventory management and license management solutions, serves more than 3,200 supported customers worldwide, with an expansive market presence and more than 200 partners across the globe.
“We've seen a growing trend of service desk customers selecting ITAM tools based on their satisfaction with the service and support from the service desk vendor, and on the functionality of the service desk product, with an eye toward the potential benefits to be derived from a suite-based solution”, said Patricia Adams, Gartner Research director. “Having an accurate idea of what hardware and software is installed in the environment is a necessity to being able to manage it. Essentially, if you don't know what is installed, then it is impossible to keep track of or manage it.”
FrontRange Solutions, with demonstrable revenue growth of more than 35 percent over the prior fiscal year, will utilize Centennial to strengthen its portfolio of products by adding its award-winning discovery, asset management, license management and end-point security products.
Andy Burton, CEO of Centennial Software, said, “By joining forces with FrontRange, our customers and partners will be able to realize additional value from their existing investments by accessing a wider portfolio of market-leading solutions designed to help them manage IT operations more effectively. Having the support of the wider FrontRange organization will also help Centennial build on its strong performance in the UK and European regions by accelerating its growth in key markets such as North America and APAC.”
Xeronics Selects Axeda Remote Service Software
Axeda, the secure remote service and support company, has selected Xeronics AG’s Axeda On-Demand for remote performance monitoring and support of lab automation equipment. Based in Switzerland, Xeronics provides solutions for operational data collection, performance and reliability monitoring and related business intelligence solutions for the life science lab automation industry.
The Xeronics Operational Data Integration System (ODIS) generates business intelligence by continuously collecting, purifying and consolidating valuable operational data from globally distributed equipment, enabling lab automation instrument suppliers to monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) such as usage, efficiency, consumption and system reliability. It will use the Axeda On-Demand platform for secure Internet connectivity and automation of previously manual data collection tasks. It will also use the Axeda Service and Axeda Access applications to deliver proactive issue diagnosis and service to customers.
HCL Technologies Introduces New Breed SaaS Service Delivery Platform
HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCL), a global IT services company, has launched its new SaaS Service Delivery Platform (SDP), AGORA.
Service disruption and Web 2.0 have resulted in a sudden outburst of participation by the user and developer communities. This, along with increasing collaboration between independent service providers, communications service providers, application service providers and content service providers have resulted in the service value chain becoming larger.
Using the AGORA platform, ISVs and service providers in any geographic location can deliver high quality, efficient and cost-effective software services to customers. AGORA is a collaborative platform that provides single, sign-on, unified and secure access to the services that are delivered through the platform, and integration with back-office applications like CRM and ERP. The platform is an efficient automated infrastructure that provides functions such as customer lifecycle management, service management, metering of service usage, billing based on usage and customer support.
“Beyond executing on-demand secure services, the SaaS delivery platform is evolving to become an ecosystem to empower the end-users, tap the endless, dynamic needs of the user community and strap them to drive service innovation,” said Sandeep Kishore, SVP and head Hi-tech and Manufacturing, HCL.
AGORA’s Service Delivery framework is a multi-service provider SOA-based platform that supports multiple channels like direct sales, reseller channel and online market places. Through a Meta Data overlay, AGORA provides multi-tenancy emulation, using which ISVs could deliver their existing products through SaaS without having to invest heavily on migrating to a multi-tenant architecture.
Revelation Software Concepts, Panaya Ink Deal to Integrate Automated Impact Analysis in Change Control
Revelation Software Concepts Pty Ltd (RSC), an SAP software partner, and Panaya Ltd., a provider of on-demand impact and upgrade analysis for use with SAP solutions, will integrate the capabilities of their two flagship products. The combination will allow each to leverage the strengths of the other, providing powerful and unprecedented levels of visibility and control to IT departments running large SAP solution-enabled systems.
Both RSC and Panaya have achieved and maintain SAP certified integration status for their respective products: Rev-Trac 5.0 and Panaya 1.0.
The integration between RSC and Panaya solutions will eliminate unpredicted system impacts from changes made to a system running SAP solutions. Panaya's system visibility will become an integrated part of the automated and enforced change control process provided by RSC's Rev-Trac change control technology.
One of Rev-Trac's key benefits is how it tracks the relationship of transports to their associated business issues. Enforcing impact analysis as part of the change process will produce a full understanding of the effects of changes made to resolve business issues. Before change requests are released, the user can review and approve the impact analysis, using its clarification of all affected modules and transactions to identify and eliminate risks of harmful business disruptions.
Panaya will continue to be available and fully supported as a stand-alone product but with Rev-Trac and Panaya, RSC customers who wish to eliminate unforeseen side effects and reduce cost through impact analysis will have a ready-made solution. The Panaya impact analysis solution is a Web-hosted application offered as an on-demand solution through its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) architecture. The integration with Rev-Trac will make impact analysis a seamless part of the change control process and ensure that configuration teams automatically carry out the analysis at the appropriate stage.
New On-Demand Platform as a Service to Enable Java and Ajax Over the Cloud
Morph Labs and Webtide have launched a new platform version to enable developers to deploy, deliver and manage Java applications without the time and expense of setting up and managing a Web delivery environment.
The Morph Application Platform for Java, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that virtualizes the application environment and leverages cloud computing resources such as the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is now in limited developer preview.
Based on open standards and best of breed open source technology, the Morph Application Platform provides developers with an end to end Web application environment that includes load balancing, high availability infrastructure, distributed computing, virtualized web stacks, databases, managed backups and 24x7 monitoring. It puts developers in control and provides an alternative to building and maintaining an infrastructure, or the need to invest in costly hardware. It also provides scalable resources and an environment that can grow or shrink as required through the push of a button, allowing Java developers to support customers yet avoid over-provisioning.
As the experts behind Jetty, Webtide will work with Morph and extend its developer advice, support and development to companies wanting to migrate or develop new applications that can run on the Morph Application Platform for Java. Webtide will offer conversion packages and expert support subscriptions, such as the ones it offers for distributions of Jetty to auction houses, banks, and online services such as Zimbra’s Collaboration Suite and Desktop, among others.
Operating Benchmarks Point to Different Operating Models and Results
The profit versus revenue growth dilemma has always plagued software companies, but is even more striking today for SaaS vendors and perpetual software companies transitioning to subscription revenues. In OPEXEngine’s (www.opexengine.com) confidential benchmarking of mid-sized software companies last year, found a clear division between mid-sized SaaS companies with negative 2.4 percent net income before taxes, compared to positive net income before taxes of 5.5 percent for 100 percent perpetual license software companies. Conversely, SaaS companies showed very strong recognized revenue growth of 71 percent for 2006 over 2005 (on average revenues of $85 million), while perpetual license companies only achieved 5 percent revenue growth for the same period, on an average revenues of $64 million. We also work with a number of smaller, private SaaS companies that have bootstrapped their growth and out of necessity are profitable, or close to profitable with revenues between $10 million to $20 milllion, but with growth rates closer to 25 percent year over year.
Here’s a closer look at how software companies are investing their S&M and G&A budgets and how the models are shaping up:
For 2007, the publicly traded SaaS companies are spending 40 percent to 50 percent of their revenues on S&M expenses. As expected, we see a high direct correlation between S&M ratios and sales growth. Salesforce.com, the market leader, spent 50 percent of revenues on S&M in Fiscal 2008 and generated 51 percent growth in recognized revenue. Whereas, Ultimate Software, another leader in the SaaS market, spent only 24 percent of revenues on S&M, but also reported proportionately lower Y/Y revenue growth of only 32 percent.
G&A expenses are also important to manage closely, but it is particularly challenging for mid-sized software firms. Companies in the middle market need to meet basic services, continue to invest in growth, account for increasing regulatory and legal requirements, and all without the economies of scale of very large companies. In our analysis of G&A expenses as a percent of revenue in the first half of fiscal year 2007 for 11 mid-sized software companies, G&A ranged from11.6 percent to 19.9 percent with the bulk of companies between 14.5 percent to16 percent.
To get a much more in-depth view of operating metrics and models, OPEXEngine is currently conducting the 2008 operating metrics benchmarking for mid-sized software companies with 2007 revenues between $5 million and $300 million through June 15th. This confidential benchmarking covers a wealth of detailed budgetary and strategic metrics such as:
• Revenues
• Profit margins
• Sales expense and compensation expense
• Marketing expense
• Services expense
• G&A expense
• R&D expense
• Travel expense
• IT and communications expense
• Headcounts for major job categories
• Employee productivity
• North American, EMEA and Asia • Pac revenues and expenses
• Customer numbers
• Renewal rates by dollar and customer renewals
• Average sales quotas
• Net new customer growth per month over 100 budgetary and strategic software operating ratios
Having the latest data on comparable software companies’ expense and business models will help to structure your business most efficiently to balance growth and profitability. Contact Lauren Kelley at OPEXEngine to find out how to participate this pay-to-participate benchmarking service: lauren@opexengine.com or call 781-891-4149. |
