We have to realize the awful environment ODIS's been through since the 2nd half of 1997: Do I have to remind you of the Asian Flu?
There hasn't been a single high-tech US company that didn't blame the Asian slowdown when reporting a mediocre quarterly earnings... From Oracle to Anadigics to Sybase to IBM to... you name it, it was always the same story: the Asian crisis! Did you hear ODIS complaining about Asia? Nope! Quite the contrary: the company seemed to thrive on some other planet: they quietly increased their total workforce by 25%, they eventually broke even in 98Q1, and finally, they blew away Wall Street estimates in 98Q2!
Hence, it's quite encouraging to see ODIS's profit margin: it should allow the company to hire another 20-30 salespeople by the end of 99Q1. I remember you're concerned with the marketing but, frankly, you can't expect ODIS to launch a billboard advertising campaign a la Informix! With a workforce of only 303 people worldwide, they wouldn't be able to match the new demand and they might just finding themselves helping CA in selling Jasmine! Better to let a big gun like CA boosting the overall demand for ODBMSs with its own marketing $$!
I think there are now two key criteria to be met by ODIS: first, the $20M/Q mark, and secondly, a global workforce of 500+. The first criterium should be achieved in 98Q4 while the second might only be fulfilled in 99Q4.
Another positive fact with ODIS is the absence of some really lethal competitor: CA's got the marketing clout but its Jasmine offering is a technological ersatz when compared to ObjectStore. ORCL, IFMX and the like had first to mind their own RDBMS store before confusing their customers with a brand new product line. And Microsoft doesn't even blink at ODBMSs... for the time being... Such a business environment is exactly what schoolbooks call an opportunity window: the longer it stays wide open, the better for ODIS!
Regards,
Gustave. |
