Companies to Watch 2004Intelligence | Integration | Infrastructure | Collaborative Business Infrastructure
by Michelle M. Young Glimmerings of a better economy seem just around the corner as this list reveals. Infrastructure vendors are among the first survivors to emerge from the Internet rubble — just in time to face competition from some new players. 1. Oracle Corp.HQ: Redwood Shores, Calif. Whether a sincere buyout offer or sabotage, Oracle's intrusion into the PeopleSoft-JD Edwards merger showed the messier side of competition. But the software giant just can't seem to help it — and its Oracle 9iAS and Oracle 10g mean you can't afford to look away. 2. Sybase Inc.HQ: Dublin, Calif. Sybase's purchase of AvantGo leaves its iAnywhere with the dominant market presence. And Sybase's latest release of its enterprise class RDBMS, and an agreement with Tibco Software to develop and deliver Sybase Real-Time Services are more than enough reasons for why Wall Street depends on Sybase. 3. Dell Inc.HQ: Austin, Texas The Dell-EMC entry-level storage systems are proving popular for enterprises of all sizes. And Dell is the leader in Intel-based supercomputing clusters. With big customer wins such as American Airlines, Domino's Pizza, Toyota, and the University of Miami, Dell is not just your mother's PC maker anymore. 4. Mercury Interactive Corp.HQ: Sunnyvale, Calif. Mercury Interactive unveiled an ambitious new strategy — business technology optimization (BTO) — to take the IT governance market by storm. With technology it acquired from its Kintana acquisition and a product line reorganized to match up with BTO requirements, Mercury is well-equipped to take on competition from IBM and BMC Software. 5. MapInfo Corp.HQ: Troy, N.Y. MapInfo was one of the few companies that managed not only to stay afloat, but also actually increase revenue, bouncing back from last year's net loss with a net income of nearly the same absolute number. Could MapInfo be striking a chord thanks to the improved interoperability and integration of MapInfo Professional v7.5 and its acquisition of Thompson Associates (retail market analytics and location-based business intelligence software)? 6. Computer Associates International Inc.HQ: Islandia, N.Y. With the damage control of 2002 — Wang's departure, oversight changes, and a new sales model — paying off in renewed good will and a rebounding stock, the company can now focus on reaping the rewards of a rebranded product line and the favorable reviews of its new utility computing solution. 7. Hewlett-PackardHQ: Palo Alto, Calif. The first quarter of 2003 saw the sweet payoff of the "new" HP when the company overtook perennial leader IBM as worldwide market share leader in total server revenue — softening the impact of Michael Capellas' departure to Worldcom. 8. EMC Corp.HQ: Hopkinton, Mass. After facing setbacks in the hardware storage market in 2001 and 2002, EMC is back in the storage management race with a new emphasis on software thanks to its acquisitions of Legato Systems, a storage software provider, and Documentum, an enterprise content management software provider. And its new — albeit long overdue — Symmetrix platform is being warmly received. 9. Unica Corp.HQ: Waltham, Mass. Unica Corp.'s enterprise marketing management (EMM) solutions are striking a chord with companies seeking to streamline processes and optimize marketing resources, while still delivering actionable customer intelligence. Affinium 6 features a new, intelligent lead management module and significant enhancements to its analytic capabilities. 10. Quest Software Inc.HQ: Irvine, Calif. Quest Central may just be the right product at the right time for companies trying to handle multiplatform database environments with limited DBA resources. The first heterogeneous DBMS that consolidates support for the three major databases (Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server) within a single workbench minimizes database differences, removes platform barriers, and combines domain-specific functionality and full performance management. 11. Pervasive Software Inc.HQ: Austin, Texas Pervasive's purchase of Data Junction Corp. brings complementary data integration and transformation technologies and products to the company's flagship database management product, which is another sign of the increasing importance of integration. 12. Veritas Software Corp.HQ: Mountainview, Calif. Veritas is betting that companies will make storage infrastructure the stepping stone for implementing a utility computing model, making the company's acquisitions of Precise Software (application performance management) and Jareva Technologies (server utilization and automation), smart moves.
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