Front office software company Clarify Inc reported a strong third quarter yesterday, showing rising margins and a 61% gain in license revenues. The company posted $34.5m in revenues for the quarter, up 57% from the $21.9m it reported in the same quarter last year. Net income for the quarter was $2m, or $0.09 per share, compared with $293,000, or $0.01 per share last time, and nearly double last quarter’s $1.1m income. For the nine months, Clarify’s revenues were $89.2m, up 47% from $60.7m for the first nine months of 1997. Income for the nine months was $3.8m. License revenues and high margins were driven by the company’s release of Front Office98 in July, its first integrated suite of front office applications. Clarify says the average size of its orders has been rising as it moves beyond its original sales support focus and adds marketing and services, and it won seven deals worth more than $1m during the quarter. Those customers included consumer electronics retailer BestBuy, telecommunications companies E-Plus Mobilfunk and Telinor A/S, and Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. European markets, and the telecoms sector were both strong. Clarify says its main competition is Vantive Corp for customer service oriented sales, and Siebel Systems Inc when the focus is sales force automation. President and CEO Tony Zingale said he hadn’t seen any market slowdown in front office procurements as reported by back office software houses, which have blamed Year 2000 distractions for slowing sales. Clarify says it is confident about its fourth quarter due to the market trends it’s seeing, and because it traditionally does a lot of its business at the tail end of the year.
