The Week in Review: September 26, 2003

In the news... Best Software's ACT! has reached all time highs, with 1.9 million individual users at more than 16,000 customer firms. "The rapid growth of both individual users and organizations selecting ACT! for contact management is a testament to our relentless focus on meeting small business customer needs," Greg Head, general manager of ACT!, said in a statement. If there wasn't already enough proof of how hot the analytics space is right now, Cognos reported impressive gains this week in its second quarter, ended August 31. Revenue for the quarter was $158.2 million, an increase of 23 percent from the second quarter of last year, when revenue was $129.1 million. Net income for the quarter was $18.2 million, an increase of 32 percent over net income of $13.7 million in the second quarter of last year. CEO Ron Zambonini cited the success of the company's new ReportNet analytics and reporting tool as partially responsible for the gains. With a compound annual growth rate of 13 percent, outsourcing is the fastest growing technology segment within the federal government, according to a report released by INPUT, a market intelligence research firm. The report posits that U.S. Federal Government spending on outsourcing will increase from $8.5 billion in fiscal year 2003 to over $15.5 billion in FY 2008. "A huge percentage of the federal IT workforce is reaching retirement age within the next five years giving federal agencies little choice but to pursue outsourcing to meet the technology needs of initiatives like e-government and information sharing in defense of the homeland," Lauren Jones Shu, senior analyst of federal market analysis at INPUT, said in a company statement. Deals of the week... Cognos announced that Fist Citizens bank has chosen its new ReportNet product as its analytics and reporting solution. Siebel Systems announced that Independent Health has selected Siebel Healthcare to enhance its customer service and increase employee satisfaction. NICE announced that ECE has selected NICE Systems for a Quality Monitoring recording system for its 800-agent contact center in Tampa, FL. UpShot announced Monday that Arasys, an integrated marketing resource and fulfillment solution provider, has selected UpShot's online CRM service. Executive changes... Witness Systems has appointed Sandra Jimenez as managing director of the company's Latin American operations. She most recently served as vice president, applications, at the Latin American division of Oracle. This week SmartPath, a provider of marketing resource management software applications, announced the appointment of Brian K. Branson, MBA, CPA, to the role of CFO. Branson previously served as CFO for BTI Telecom.