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E.piphany Inc. CEO Roger Siboni, pegged the CRM software companys future success on how well it can sell its sales and customer service applications going forward after E.piphany saw its fourth quarter 2002 revenues fall from the same period a year ago while its net loss was also reduced.
E.piphany saw fourth quarter revenues drop from $28.4 million to $22.5 million year to year, with license revenue down from $16.2 million to $9.3 million. Services revenue actually increased, from $12.2 million to $13.2 million. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company lost $14.8 million after a $36.8 million loss during the same period the year before.
Still, it exceeded Wall Street analysts expectations, and Siboni said E.piphany is beginning to make traction in the market with its sales and service applications. The company was founded as a marketing and analytics software developer, then added sales and service apps through acquisitions.
“We started to see some good things, but the jury is still out,” said Siboni. “Our outlook presently looks good, but these are still early days.”
Siboni said that while E.piphanys marketing software business is strong, it needs to gain a “critical mass” of sales and service customers for its business to snowball.
“If we can get people to feel more comfortable calling us up for RFPs for their call centers and sales forces, if that happens, then its off to the races. If not, then well have some work to do.”
E.piphany signed up 14 new customers in the quarter, though its largest sale came from an existing customer, Siboni said.
In other earnings news at related companies:
- Art Technology Group Inc. saw fourth quarter revenues drop from $31.1 million to $24.5 million year to year. License revenue fell from $18.7 million to $12.2 million. The Cambridge, Mass., company took a $20.8 million loss in the quarter, down from $92.2 million in the same period the previous year.
ATG also announced Thursday that co-founder Joe Chung has stepped down from its board of directors. Co-founder Jeet Singh left the company last month.
Chung said in a statement that he is leaving to attend to other professional and personal commitments.
- BroadVision Inc. touted its return to pro forma profitability in the fourth quarter. But allowing for restructuring charges, the Redwood City, Calif., portal software developer lost nearly $10 million on $28.8 million in revenues.
Total revenues fell from $48.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2001, while license revenues were down from $21 million to $11.2 million. The company had lost $55.3 million in the year-ago period.
- BlueMartini Software Inc. saw revenues fall from $10.4 million to $8.1 million, including a drop in license revenues from $3 million to $1.9 million. The San Mateo company saw losses increase slightly, from $9.2 million to $10.5 million year to year.
- On the contact center side of CRM, Aspect Communications Corp. saw revenues fall from $111.8 million to $96.9 million year to year. License revenues were down from $24.6 million to $20.6 million. The San Jose, Calif., company did return to the black though with a $6.6 million profit after losing $35.1 million in the previous fourth quarter.
- E-marketing software developer Digital Impact Inc. enjoyed a revenue increase, from $10.3 million to $11.5 million year to year. The company, based in San Mateo, took just a $297,000 loss on that revenue after a $3.2 million loss in the prior years closing quarter.
- Interactive selling software developer Selectica Inc. saw its fiscal third quarter revenues fall only slightly, from $10.8 million to $10 million. License revenues were nearly constant, falling from only $2.9 million to $2.7 million. The San Jose-based company shaved its net loss from $5.5 million to $2.7 million.