Business Relationship Software Feature Article

FrontRange Solutions, a provider of service management, CRM and voice application solutions for small, medium and distributed enterprises, has reported an increase in revenues and profits for its fiscal Q1, the quarter ended July 31, 2005.

Total FrontRange revenue for the quarter increased to $21.9 million, an increase of more than 10 percent from the $19.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2004, which is the last comparable period.

In addition to an increase in revenue, FrontRange has also reported an operating profit increase of 15 percent, or $2.4 million, over the three months ended June 30, 2004.

This is the companys seventh consecutive quarter of revenue growth. (See coverage of the companys last quarterly report.)

Said FrontRange CEO Michael McCloskey in a company statement: Particularly encouraging was the 15 percent profit growth, while making significant investments in our global services delivery and implementation capability as well as maintaining a healthy R&D [spending] rate at [more than] 16 percent of revenue.

Anybody else surprised by these seemingly odd results, as similar companies recently have been suggesting their dwindling revenue results are due to a currently lousy (or soft) market for CRM software? Only me? OK. (But we never saw CRM as failing. For the status and a proper explanation of the current CRM industry, see Customer Interaction Solutions magazine Editorial Director Tracey Schelmetics CRM Is Back On The IT List article from earlier this month.)

Notwithstanding the difficult market conditions, we have seen solid momentum with our new product offerings, McCloskey continued.

FrontRange also continues to release significant updates to its GoldMine, HEAT and FrontRange Contact Center products. Since the January 2005 release of its IT Service Management (ITSM) product, the company has signed 74 customers to date.

Our customers have embraced the improvements weve made to HEAT and GoldMine, as well as new products like IP Contact Center and IT Service Management that complement HEAT and GoldMine, said Kevin J. Smith, FrontRange vice president of products. The combined product offerings were designed in response to the needs of our customers and partners.

Highlights since the last FrontRange financial release include the following:

• FrontRange added 329 new customers during the period (encompassing customers of GoldMine Corporate Edition, HEAT, IP Contact Center and ITSM products);
• Based on new-license revenue, FrontRange was identified as a global market leader in the IT Service Desk for Enterprise Management market, according to the Gartner, Inc. report entitled Market Share: Enterprise Management, Worldwide, 2004; and
• The company launched its new IP Contact Center (IPCC) 5.0, the newest addition to the Communication Management solution family. The new version of FrontRanges VoIP-based software suite features Quality Management and integration with other FrontRange product families, including HEAT, GoldMine Corporate Edition and the new ITSM modules.

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David R. Butcher is Assistant Editor of Customer Interaction Solutions. To see more articles by David Butcher, please visit: http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100008&nm=David%20R.%20Butcher