The Week in Review: December 19, 2003
In the news...
Oracle saw a 15 percent rise in earnings to $617 million for its second quarter ended November 30. Revenues were up 8 percent to $2.5 billion. "Application software sales appear to be coming back for Oracle," says Patrick Walravens, with JMP Securities. "Application sales were up 27 percent last quarter and up 72 perncet in North America. Oracle now forces its representatives to sell either applications or database technology, but not both. This division of labor is having a major effect on application sales because in the past the sales reps would just default to selling the database, which was the easier sale. Now the applications sales reps have to sell applications if they want to get paid -- and they do want to get paid."
Cognos also reported sales and earnings gains in the past quarter. Revenue for the third quarter ended November 30 was $172.2 million, an increase of 25 percent compared to $138.1 million for the same period last year. Earnings were up 22 percent to $24.2 million.
The Help Desk Institute recently released its HDI 2003 Salary Survey. Overall, HDI's survey found that while the economy has begun to rebound slightly the support industry continues to face many challenges as it experiences the pressures of cost management through headcount reductions, numerous sourcing solutions, and advances in self-help technologies. Key U.S. findings include:
Entry level salaries averaged $26,648; managers averaged $61,149
72 percent of entry-level workers earned between $21,000 and $35,000, a finding consistent with HDI's 2001 and 2002 surveys
49 percent of Level 2 workers, who have greater technical skills, earned from $36,000 to $45,000
49 percent of managers earned $46,000 to $65,000
42 percent of senior support managers earned $61,000 to $80,000, compared to 48 percent in 2002
Antenna Software, a provider of wireless solutions for the mobile enterprise, has acquired RPA Wireless, a leading mobile systems integrator. Antenna says the merger will allow the company to offer its Antenna A3 mobile enterprise applications as a hosted solution to companies of any size.
Witness Systems has added a new business optimization consulting offering to its newly branded Witness Consulting Network, part of its Witness Services Network. The new business optimization assessment is designed to help companies maximize their eQuality software investment by aligning employee performance measurement with overall business objectives.
Deals of the week...
Salesforce.com has announced that JLG Industries, a producer of mobile aerial work platforms, has chosen Salesforce.com to provide on-demand CRM for its sales, customer service, marketing, and executive teams.
WebSideStory has announced that Wet Seal has selected its outsourced analytics solution.
Executive changes...
Cadient announced this week that Ashesh Shah has been named president of its Saband Technologies subsidiary. Shah was cofounder of InterMedia Interactive Solutions.
Portal Software has appointed Luca Lazzaron as regional vice president for the company's southern and eastern EMEA region. Lazzaron previously held positions at Cisco Systems.
Model N has named Bill Pollak as vice president of sales, and Stephen Zocchi as vice president of marketing. Pollack previously served as a vice president at PeopleSoft, while Zocchi was previously vice president of marketing and business development at NetDynamics.