VISTAGY’s Revenues Climb 30 Percent in 2008 in Spite of Challenging Economic Environment
VISTAGY, Inc., a global provider of specialized engineering software, has announced that its revenue increased 30 percent over 2008 in spite of the systemic problems in the badly slumping worldwide economy. Fueling that growth was a robust 52 percent increase in product revenue.
The company aims to build on that success in 2009 by continuing to forge close relationships with its customers, expanding its commitment to the emerging aerospace markets in Russia, Asia Pacific and India, and increasing its share of the aerospace, automotive, transportation interiors and the fast-growing wind energy markets.
“We were particularly strong in the fourth quarter when the economy was significantly deteriorating, proving that our products are especially relevant when it is critical to achieve increased efficiency and associated cost savings,” said Steve Luby, president and CEO of VISTAGY.
“We focus on partnering closely with customers to develop and deploy design methodologies tailored to their specific products and processes. I think that had a lot to do with our success in 2008. Our software not only enables customers to more efficiently design and manufacture some of the world’s most complex products, but our customers have reported that the knowledge, experience and responsiveness of the people at VISTAGY are also critical factors in their success.”
In 2008, VISTAGY continued to support the expansion of the aerospace industry to emerging markets while maintaining its strong position in North America and Europe by partnering with premier sales and service providers, such as CSM Vigyan in India, Innovation Technologies and Solutions (ITS) in Russia and INCAT in North America. VISTAGY also signed a variety of customers in Russia and China that are using VISTAGY’s FiberSIM composites engineering software and Airframe Development Environments aircraft assembly software to reduce product development cycles, enhance product quality and meet aggressive delivery schedules.
CVSDude Announces Record Sales, Move to Silicon Valley and Acquisition of Sharpforge
CVSDude, Inc., a provider in Subversion hosting and source code control services, has released a wide-ranging series of strategic initiatives and financial milestones.
Serving nearly 3,000 customers worldwide with tens of thousands of dedicated users, two-thirds of these located in North America, the has made the decision and logistical move to bring the corporate headquarters for CVSDude to Silicon Valley, from the Gold Coast of Australia. The executive and support teams will be focused on sales, marketing and support around the company's new website, platform technology and SMB/Enterprise-focused product suite (due for release in Q1 2009).
"Given the critical importance and geo-centricity of Silicon Valley to the programming world, we expect our move to California to be one that CVSDude customers will welcome," said Jason Seed, CEO of CVSDude. "Tech support is also expected to partially move to the Bay Area, with R&D remaining in Queensland, Australia. We are very excited to be part of the 'epicenter' of the high-tech world here in Silicon Valley and look forward to making our own mark here with CVSDude."
In addition, despite the worldwide recession, CVSDude also experienced its best revenue month in six years of business in January of 2009. This is a testament to the company's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, as customers seek to maximize the value of their worldwide programming teams and minimize their upfront capital costs in difficult times.
Using the unique capabilities and opportunities afforded by a 'cloud-based,' fully managed and supported source code control solution, CVSDude enables its customers with unique features and cost-savings for secure, collaborative software development.
CVSDude remains a primarily founder and employee-owned company, and took an Angel round of investment in late 2008 to help finance the move to the US. To further grow the company and its customer base, CVSDude has made the strategic acquisition of a competitor, found at www.sharpforge.com, sharpforge.org, and projxpert.com. As of March 2009, the CVSDude group of companies will look after clients and users of these sites.
Centerstance Announces Strategic Partnership with Intacct
Centerstance, a provider of salesforce.com integration and consulting services in the Pacific Northwest, has joined the Intacct Business Solution Provider partner program. As a member of the Intacct partner program, Centerstance will sell and implement Intacct financial management applications either standalone or in conjunction with other applications to small and mid-sized businesses.
Intacct, a provider in on-demand accounting and financial management applications, is the only on-demand financial management system seamlessly integrated with salesforce.com. Intacct rolled out its Business Solution Provider partner program in March 2008.
"We have crafted a comprehensive, partner-focused channel program to attract leading companies such as Centerstance to help service the exploding market for our on-demand financial applications," said Jerry Jalaba, vice president of channel sales at Intacct. "The Centerstance team brings the depth and breadth of expertise in on-demand consulting services that will add significant value to our joint clients. They also give Intacct a strong local presence in the Pacific Northwest, a growth area for small and medium-sized businesses."
Bright Spots in Software M&A Transactions for 2008
Although both the volume and value of Software M&A transactions decreased in 2008 from the two prior years, there are bright spots in an otherwise down market. The volume of infrastructure software transactions actually increased last year, albeit only slightly, from the number of deals recorded in 2007. Application Software transaction volume as a whole was down in 2008, yet certain specific segments remained unchanged or even increased over prior years.
The 2009 Software Industry M&A Trends Report recently released by Berkery Noyes analyzes merger and acquisitions activity in 2008 and compares it the two previous years. Overall transaction volume decreased by 12 percent last year from the 2007 level while aggregate transaction value decreased by 51 percent, reflecting fewer large-scale transactions in favor of middle-market deals. Fortunately, valuations were generally steady, with median EBITDA multiples dropping by less than 2 percent year over year, and still well above the 2006 median multiple, suggesting that buyers are still willing to pay solid prices for attractive properties.
Healthcare and manufacturing solutions were up while education, entertainment and travel & hospitality solutions remained unchanged. Financial services & accounting showed a decrease, even though the top two transactions of 2008 were insurance-related.
To view the free four-page report in adobe reader format, Click Here (http://berkerynoyes.com/Assets/BIReports/2008Trends/Software.pdf).
Berkery Noyes has provided strategic mergers and acquisitions transaction advisory services, financial consulting and strategic research to middle-market information, media and technology companies in the US and internationally for more than 25 years.
Rally Software Doubles Subscription Revenue for Fourth Consecutive Year
Rally Software Development Corp., a provider in Agile application lifecycle management (ALM), has doubled its subscription revenue for the fourth consecutive year and increased its customer base by 70 percent in 2008. The company is poised to continue its growth in 2009 as it delivers the cost-cutting benefits of Agile practices and on-demand ALM tooling to software and corporate development organizations during the current economic crisis.
“While our continued growth has helped us mature into an established Agile ALM leader, we still have the same fire that drove us to start Rally in 2002,” said Tim Miller, Rally’s CEO. “Our passion for helping companies lean their development organizations and create better software faster is evident in every release and every customer success. This passion, and our desire to see our customers gain market share during this economic downturn, will continue to motivate us throughout 2009.”
“Even with the tough economic climate, Rally is poised to thrive in 2009,” added Miller. “The fact that we help development organizations lower their costs and increase their velocity is a winning combination. Plus our SaaS platform and Agile cadence lets us respond to new customers' needs in a few weeks. This faster pace positions us for continued growth even when other vendors are hibernating.”
McAfee, Inc. Increases Focus on Software as a Service with New SaaS Security Business Unit
McAfee, Inc. has created a new business unit to enhance and expand the company’s software as a service (SaaS) offerings and extend McAfee’s current “in the cloud” capabilities. The business unit will be responsible for all products within McAfee delivered over the Internet, including security scanning services, Web and e-mail security services and remote managed host-based security software and hardware.
“We’re positioning McAfee for sustained growth by building the scale and scope the company needs for the future,” said Dave DeWalt, McAfee president and CEO. “McAfee has always been a SaaS leader, and the new business unit will enable us to further strengthen our current solutions and introduce new, innovative services. We continue to drive toward our goal of becoming the world’s number one security vendor.”
McAfee has established a strong leadership position in SaaS with millions of customers already using its security as a service products. This is a growing market space, analyst firm IDC predicts the worldwide IT SaaS market will reach nearly $20 billion in revenue by 2012 from just under $9 billion in 2008.
SaaS has gained in popularity amongst IT professionals because of its many clear benefits for customers, including accelerated time to value with pre-deployed software, lower up-front costs, no additional hardware and lower internal staffing requirements. Additionally, SaaS provides great reliability, security and privacy with guaranteed uptime and disaster recovery benefits, plus higher productivity at a lower total cost of ownership.
The McAfee SaaS Security Business Unit joins McAfee’s other business units in Network Consumer, Risk and Compliance and Data Protection business units to provide increased focus, responsiveness and accountability within the diverse security business. Each unit is designed to be entrepreneurial and responsive within a specific market, moving quickly to seize emerging opportunities and foster focus and familiarity within a particular market and its customers. |
An optimist is convinced that their small technology company will survive the current economic crisis. The realist understands that only those with proven business models and a willingness to shift tactics and strategies will be successful over the longer term. 
2009 AIIM International Exposition + Conference
Software Test & Performance Spring 2009
