Yes, the Monarch E/S announcement was more of an official roll out--it has been a known commodity. Don't get me wrong--it is a great product, taking the original Monarch product and applying it across the enterprise.
I met with Bruce Gardener, CEO and co-founder, and Marco Peterson, Sr. VP of North American Sales, in early January. They came off as very competent. In fact, they've already begun, via the IBM deal, to execute their main plan for the 1st quarter, namely, to tell the world about their superior product called Monarch. Until now, all sales have been via direct mail! Aside from hooking up with IBM's sales force, they have spent this quarter on the road demonstrating the virtues of Monarch to some of the better respected IT research boutiques, like Meta. This is savvy and will serve them well in their sales efforts if they've got the likes of Meta and others singing their praise.
There has been a seller out there recently (duh), but with a glance at the balance sheet, this is clearly a safe place to buy.
One hitch is that with the investments made in the sales effort this quarter, we may not see the payoff at the bottom line until the 2nd quarter. This is nothing to fret about certainly, it just may spook some short-timers. Hell, then again they may get enough orders this quarter to bring it in black. |
