Down Economy Has Upside for Some

The Puss was pontificating to a pal recently that Epiq Systems seems to be in the catbird seat. After all, being a company that specializes in bankruptcy management software—given the current economy—cant be a bad thing. The Kansas City, Kan., financial software company landed at No. 69 on the Forbes 200 Best Small Companies in America list for 2001. Epiq also saw some epic numbers, as revenue grew 54 percent, allowing it to perform a 3-for-2 stock split, effecting a 50 percent stock dividend in the fourth quarter of last year.

So, noting the fact that the worlds economic woes are filling Epiqs coffers, the Kitty was amused to see Business Layers eProvision Day One software being touted recently as an effective tool for “firing” employees.

The Rochelle Park, N.J., companys software has been noted for being able to not only terminate an employee but also effectively cancel corporate credit cards and accounts, track equipment allocations, block electronic access to the company, and basically erase an individuals existence from the books.

A phone call from a Katt crony broke the Mousers meditation on the recessions negative effects with a tip that BMC Software may be preparing to merge complementary product families. Billing itself as one of the worlds largest ISVs, the Houston company went through consolidation about a year ago under then relatively new President and CEO Bob Beauchamp.

Coincidently, BMC partnered with Business Layers in March of last year to integrate its security management software product, Control-SA, into the eProvision Day One package.

The tipster wasnt sure exactly which products would be merged but noted that BMCs Enterprise Data Propagation products wouldnt be involved. That line was acquired last week by Striva. Striva, which maintains headquarters in San Jose and London, is reportedly allowing BMCs EDP employees to remain in Texas and plans to base its development and customer support center for its U.S. operations there as well.

Soon, the Kitty sank back into his funk, wondering how the economy would turn around by the end of the second quarter. Then, like a ray of sunshine, the Kitty saw a quote by Sun CEO Scott McNealy in a recent interview. When asked about the effects of the recession on his company, smilin Scott told CNet, “Were not in a hole. A lot of companies would love to be in our hole.”

“Now theres a guy who can accentuate the positive,” laughed the Lynx.

Spencer F. Katt can be reached at spencer_katt@ziffdavis.com.