Created from a department at French systems engineering firm Concept SA in 1991, Implicit Software Inc is aiming to capture its share of the emerging and potentially enormous market for software tools to help companies revamp old applications for client-server architecture. This is definitely an emerging area. There is a huge untapped user base out there. Any company with old applications, will need to change them, and only a small handful of firms have started to, says Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz Consulting in Newton, Massachusetts. In a report published in 1994, Ms Hurwitz estimates that the market for these high-end second-generation client-server development tools will be worth $2,500m by 2000. Over the last 12 months, she estimates that firms with product already on the market made a total turnover of $600m. There are also a lot of players, new companies emerging all the time, but nobody has yet achieved dominance. And they are all aiming at that part of the market, high end, second generation, she continues. Implicit, set up as an American company in January 1994, is among players in the market that include Sybase Inc’s Powersoft Corp, still developing a high-end product to complement its desktop, Forte System Inc, Nat Systems Inc, Dynasty Software inc, the Antares joint venture of Amdahl Corp and Electronic Data Systems Corp, Sapiens International NV, Open Environments Corp, Compuware Inc, with its acquired Uniface BV products, and Visix Software Inc’s Galaxy. Ms Hurwitz says Implicit has a good technology that is strong on rapid application development and for focusing on business rules in that development.
Set up the best scenario
In those situations, she said, it would compete with Forte. Implicit’s product is still in early evaluation with some customers in the US. Says sales director Jean-Pierre Ullmo: The market today for this tool is not yet organised; it’s an opportunity that should be in full swing by mid-1996. By that time, he says, companies will have discovered the limits of first-generation tools, and will have either finished evaluating Implicit’s product or their own user needs for moving mainframe applications into a client-server environment. Hurwitz agrees: It’s a complex market, with a very long sales cycle because people have to live with the decision for a long time. They won’t just say, ‘Well, I’ll try this and if doesn’t work, throw it out.’ As is usual, Implicit went to the US for access to capital and marketing, although its investment to date is largely from French and American industrial partners, with very little from venture capitalists. Its research and development remains in France, where it also recently announced the product. Although Implicit did some initial marketing in the US and got positive accolades about what it was doing, Hurwitz says they need to get more venture capital support so they can get the product to market. Implicit lacks distribution channels and sufficient market recognition. The expensive part of the software business is getting market visibility, not developing the product, she explained. Ullmo says the company is forging an indirect sales network in the US with its industrial partners, including Sun Microsystems Inc. We are interesting lots of industrial partners, so we’re just trying to set up the best scenario, adding that it should be completed within six months. It has hired Don Roadner as marketing vice-president from VMark Software Inc, who took part in the firm’s market analysis and product positioning. The company objective is to be on NASDAQ in three years, Ullmo said. Currently capitalised at $4m, the firm forecasts 1996 turnover of $12m and $30m in 1997.
