The Week in Review: May 30

Amdocs announced that it has agreed to acquire Certen, the billing subsidiary of Bell Canada, for the sum of Can$89 million. Bell Canada says it will assume responsibility over the future evolution of its billing systems in areas such as business analysis and requirements definition, architecture, and project management. Amdocs and Certen will assume a more operational role, and will continue to implement Bell's current billing modernization program, as well as handle day-to-day billing functions like invoice production and distribution, according to an Amdocs statement. J.D. Edwards reported a 9 percent drop in revenues for the second quarter ended April 30. Sales of $203.5 million, down from $223 million in the previous second quarter, resulted in a loss of $393,000. "The weak economic and unsettled geopolitical environment that impacted the global software industry affected J.D. Edwards in our second quarter," Bob Dutkowsky, J.D. Edwards chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement. "I'm encouraged that more customers and prospects chose to do business with J.D. Edwards in this quarter than in the second quarter of last year. But in this environment, the transaction sizes were smaller, as our customers are licensing and implementing smaller increments of software. I'm also encouraged that our services business performed well in the second quarter, with improved consultant utilization around the globe." eAssist Global Solutions, a provider of customer service and support software and services, announced its acquisition of the divine brand of Customer Interaction Management Internet products, including the entire NetAgent Suite, Expressions, the eBIS/jeBIS platforms, and Velocity Marketing, from Golden Gate Capital, a private equity investment firm. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but eAssist says it has gained 2,500 new customers through the acquisition. Executive changes... ICT GROUP has announced that Martin Puttock has been named managing director of ICT Europe, the company's international services business unit providing multilingual sales and service support for clients in Europe. Extraprise announced the appointment of former Oracle executive Jeff Griebeler as practice director for its contact center business in the Americas. Epicor Software, provider of integrated enterprise software solutions for the mid-market, has appointed Michael Piraino to the position of senior vice president and chief financial officer effective immediately, and has named Robert Smith (who has held various executive positions at such companies as Honeywell and Novellus Systems, prior to his retirement in 1996) to its board of directors. Firstwave Technologies has named Richard Jackson to its board of directors. In addition to serving as a director of Firstwave, Jackson is currently chairman of the board of ebank Financial Services. Arcplan, a business intelligence software provider, has named Robert Koolen to the position of CEO, and Brian King to the positions of president and COO, effective July 1. The company says Stewart Plumb was promoted to vice president of sales in early May. NetManage announced the appointment of Carol Montgomery-Adams as the company's new vice president of worldwide marketing.