Burlington, Mass., Cayenne Software Inc claims to have fired a shot across the bow of [its] competition, Rational Software Corp, with the release of version 6 of its ObjectTeam component modeling tool, aimed, it says, at serious developers with real world challenges and needs since it has the crucial features to solve practical problems. Given that it is only seven months since Cayenne’s last major release of ObjectTeam, version 5, it does seem as if Cayenne – formed by the summer 1996 merger of business and technical CASE (computer aided systems engineering) players Bachman Information Systems Inc and Cadre Technologies Inc – means these claims to be taken seriously. The product is being made immediately available on six different platforms – Windows NT, Windows 95, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, DEC Alpha and HP-UX – and can offer support for coexistence of both component/object and relational/legacy data models, plus generate code in 10 different programming languages or 4GL tools (Ada 93 and 95, C++, Forte, NewEra, Smalltalk, Corba IDL, Java, PowerBuilder, and Visual Basic). The company is making the most out of the fact that it is already offering support for the former Pure/Atria ClearCase configuration management product, now owned by Rational, while the latter isn’t promising to do so until the end of the year. Cayenne has 3 target verticals – internal IT organizations, the technical and embedded market, and ISVs – in mind for selling ObjectTeam 6. It is meanwhile attempting that often difficult task of re-engineering its sales and product mix to accommodate new lines whilst still keeping its existing customers (and investors) happy. It claims 52,000 installations and 2,000 customer organizations worldwide, 55% outside the US, with its product portfolio now slimmed down to ObjectTeam and the former MultiQuest Corp S-Case product, now called PepperSeed, acquired in April (OO modeling); GroundWorks and Terrain (data modeling and database design); and TeamWork (structured modeling for real time/embedded). Though revenues are declining, the company points to the increasing share newer offerings, mainly client/server, are contributing, a sign of eventual renewed growth, it contends. The company started life a year ago with summary unaudited results for both parties indicating its revenue for the 1996 year totaled $31.9m, slightly lower than the $33.3m reported between the two in fiscal 1995. Cayenne also reported software license revenues of $12.7m, a 12 percent increase over the $11.3m reported for fiscal 1995. Cayenne’s net loss for the year was $5.8m, down from a net loss of $10.3m the previous year. In addition, Cayenne’s client/server revenue increased 177% over fiscal 1995. For the six months ending December 31 (in October last year Cayenne changed its fiscal year from June 30 to the end of the calendar year) Cayenne posted sales of $28.0 million, down from $36.2 million for the same period in fiscal 1996, reflecting the contraction and elimination of some of its DB/2 and OS/2 Bachman products and services. Without the $6.3m restructuring charge Cayenne believes it would have made an operational profit, albeit a small one, around $300,000, compared to a $2.4m operating loss and $1.9m restructuring charge the same period in 1995. Client/server and OO product revenue increased 74% and 67% respectively, however. Its first fiscal 1997 quarter, ending March 31, 1997, saw net income of only $62,000, compared to a net loss of $3.1m the same time in 1996 on revenue of $13/4m, down from 1996’s first quarter total of $14.8m. At the close of that quarter, the company said its software license mix was now approximately 62% new and 38% mature products. Its second quarter, however, saw a loss of $1.8m, well up on its projected loss of $1m, compared with a loss of $3.4m the same prior period . The company blamed an internal reorganization of its sales force and the slippage of a number of large customer orders, problems it is attempting to solve by both cutting expenses and rolling out aggressive marketing initiatives and prod
uct plans. Perhaps those plans are not aggressive enough, one could argue, given the mindshare Rational, with its Rational Rose product in particular, has picked up. Michael Jannery, Cayenne’s Senior Director of Marketing, replies: Rational has outmarketed us 10 to 1. But do users want to buy from a marketing engine or do they want to buy something that will actually allow them to do the things they need to do?
Content from our partners
