Checks with PGR’s network show an outlook for continued healthy sales revenue from BCSI but at the expense of some margin going forward as price pressure from Websense (WBSN) and others forced BCSI to add a free year of maintenance to lock in contracts. PGR experts also note that to make real headway against WBSN, Cisco’s Ironport and others, BCSI needs a better price point and product in the mid-market range. That said, BCSI’s 9000 series is seeing a good adoption rate among high-end users who were “waiting for this.”  So, with sales and near-term pipeline in good shape, BCSI’s margins and future product to penetrate the mid-market are concerns.

Tweet This Post   

Recently the good news in the housing market has propped up the indexes to levels we have not seen since the crash. IT equipment transactions are on the rise from six months ago. This certainly indicates movement!

Some are wondering if this is sustainable. Experts I have talked to said that most customers are still very cautious and that this caution is the only trend that is predictable at this point. We are still in a recession, folks. When people look out into the future, it’s only a year out (not the typical three or four we focused on previously). What does this do the likes of software companies who are scribbling away cost analyses for their companies? Contracts are shorter. Customers are playing hardball or threatening to go cold. Third-party providers are laughing to the bank.

Maintenance contracts are “going dark” more and more in the mid market and experts predict it will be the first time that this trend continues for TWO years. The speculation is that SAP, ORCL and MSFT will have no choice but to give more concessions like free licenses, support, consulting and other perks. SAAS is becoming sexy, to say the least, and now it’s gaining ground in the large enterprise. If any of the big three may benefit, it might be ORCL, because it has the best SAAS offering out there among the three players.

Tweet This Post   

On the face of it, the Adobe Systems/Omniture acquisition screams of desperation on ADBE’s part. Indeed we have heard that their appetite for software auditing has grown in the last couple of months (which usually indicates that sales are not going so well). But why buy a company when you can do the same thing via a partnership? Some experts asked the same question. What many people do not know, however, is that OMTR’s ability to tag and record flash content is a bit more advanced than what is out there. There has been a need for advertisers, media concerns and similar companies to monitor what happens to visitors once they go off of a flash video file. If ADBE can integrate OMTR technology, then this will be a huge differentiator, esp for media clients.

We’ll see how the cards fall on this one, but no doubt, ADBE has a great opportunity if they can get this right. And, as the market knows, they need it.

Tweet This Post