November 24, 2004

NEWS Pragmatech, a provider of sales productivity and proposal automation applications, has appointed Brian Zanghi president and CEO. Zanghi brings 10 years of executive leadership and more than 20 years of technology experience to Pragmatech. He was recently COO of SPSS, a $200 million software business. In an interview with CRM magazine Zanghi said that currently, Pragmatech's message to customers is to continue to expand the company's market presence and continued investment in technology and applications for proposal groups. Zanghi's short-term goals are to continue to use outside funding to expand the company's sales channels and to invest in broader channel capability to continue growth. His long-term goals include expanding the company's current technology platforms, including expanding the integration with Salesforce.com into "infrastructure applications" for the CRM and content-management space. Zanghi also plans to broaden the company's sales channels to include a network of system integration partners and to expand Pragmatech's licensing models to the market. "We're going to continue to expand our market presence," Zanghi told CRM magazine. "This company has had a great tradition of being the mission critical app for proposal groups, and moving forward we'll continue with the aggressive investments we've already made and expand into other market opportunities." Omniture, a provider of technology for online analytics, announced the appointment of Michael Herring as the company's CFO. Herring will be responsible for helping Omniture manage its growth and financial operations. Herring joins Omniture with more than eight years of online industry experience involving financial planning, rapid growth, and executive management of both private and public companies. Most recently, Herring was CFO of MyFamily.com for three years. OutStart, a provider of content-centric software for family learning, acquired Participate Systems, a provider of online customer and sales support solutions. The new company will operate under the OutStart name and provide solutions that create blended approaches to learning and knowledge sharing that aim to help increase productivity in organizations. On-demand CRM provider Salesforce.com announced the results of its third fiscal quarter. Total revenue was $46.4 million, an increase of 14 percent from the same quarter last year. Net income was $2.2 million, a reversal from a loss of $100,000 in the year-ago period. Subscription and support revenues were $41.5 million, an increase of 84 percent on a year-over-year basis and an increase of 15 percent over the third quarter last year. Earnings per diluted share were $0.02, an increase from break-even a year ago. CUSTOMER WINS Firstlogic has announced that the University of Utah has licensed technology from the firm's Information Quality Suite of Solutions. The university will use Firstlogic as a base for data quality within its computer systems, including its PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Solutions and PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management systems. The University of Utah will use the program to standardize, match, and consolidate student and employee information. Sedona, a provider of Web-based CRM solutions for small and medium companies, announced that Community National Bank has selected Sedona's Intarsia to support its CRM strategy. Community National Bank will use Intarsia to automate and manage several of the bank's processes, including tracking and managing referrals, service requests, and direct interactions between customers and bank employees. NEW PRODUCTS Vettro, a provider of mobile enterprise applications, announced the availability of Vetto RainMaker 4.0, a mobile solution for Salesforce.com users. RainMaker 4.0 comes with improved filters and customization options for Salesforce.com that are designed to enable companies to transform mobile devices into sales tools. It will also incorporate full access to product, case, and solution features. Mobile professionals can use the new program to access and update business information via their BlackBerry or Windows-based mobile devices. Consultancy Answerthink has released EzPharma, a custom mySAP All-in-One solution for pharmaceutical firms and others organizations in the life sciences industry. EzPharma is preconfigured to support the business processes used most by life sciences companies, and is designed to be easy to implement to lower its total cost of ownership. The target processes aim to help user organizations improve time to market, enhance quality control, and streamline compliance efforts. Related article: Transitions: Executive Changes for November 16, 2004