Keen to drop its label as a financial application software provider, which forms the core of its business, Computron Software Inc has been turning its focus increasingly towards knowledge management (CI No 3,349) and claims it is on track to reach profitability by the end of the year. The Rutherford, New Jersey company realigned itself at the beginning of 1998, after several years of financial instability. According to Computron vice president of product marketing, Robert Nishi, the company is on course to generate around $15m to $16m in revenue and a loss of $3m to $4m for the second quarter, a vast improvement on recent times, with the plan to hit profitability in the third quarter. Computron will work on building market share in what it sees as its niche markets; the insurance, transportation, financial and banking sectors, before going after the professional services and communications and utility space. It is set to release new products in September, including a Java translation product, which will enable users to convert their Visual Basic applications into Java, and run them on their desktop machines. It is also set to announce an agreement with CFS Group Plc, the Basingstoke, Hampshire UK-based provider of inventory finance software. Computron is to offer its customers a business intelligence package and will form an agreement with CFS to provide the integration functions. As far as the 20-year-old company is concerned, things are back on track and as Nishi reflects, it can’t get much worse than it has been in the past.
