CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

25 February 2009

Financial News

Arena Solutions Announces Record Growth in New Bookings and Net Retention for the Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2008

Arena Solutions announced a fourth quarter gain of 18 percent in new customer annuity subscriptions and a corresponding FY2008 gain of 25 percent, as compared to the same periods in the year prior. This strong performance was influenced by new customer acquisition and existing customers continuing to renew their subscriptions and increase their Arena investments. In the fourth quarter, 44 percent of the existing Arena customers increased their subscription, demonstrating that in a down economy, the value Arena provides in helping companies succeed and grow is more important than ever.

In 2008, Arena took significant steps to remove real and perceived financial and implementation obstacles, making its application not only affordable, but more simple than ever to adopt. Given the ease of transitioning from ineffective spreadsheets to a dedicated bill of materials (BOM) management system, Arena attracted many new customers who were finding it a liability to use Microsoft Excel to manage critical product information, especially as their businesses became more complex and the economic climate became more pressing. With an average deployment of nine weeks from start to finish, or 12 weeks with a fully automated integration to an enterprise resource management (ERP) system, new Arena customers benefited from implementation times more competitive than anything on the market.

Many of the small and mid-size manufacturers that adopted Arena for its ease of use, fast ROI and on-demand (also called software-as-a-service or SaaS) advantages were from the dynamic medical, electronics and consumer products industries. A few of the new customers that joined the Arena community during the fourth quarter are:

--  Semtek Innovative Solutions Corporation, which designs, develops, and manufactures magnetic stripe card readers and software applications for businesses to conduct mobile commerce transactions.

--  ICE-O-Matic, which is a leading manufacturer of commercial ice makers and dispensers for the global foodservice industry.

--  Cohera Medical Inc., which is developing a revolutionary line of wound management products and surgical adhesives.

During 2008 Arena Solutions also focused on strategically expanding its partnership programs. To help connect its customers with partners that can provide additional complementary solutions, Arena added 17 new partnerships. These include new reseller relationships with PLMplus LTD in Israel, J-Squared Technologies in Canada and Matrix Solutions in New Zealand to help address the growing demand for Arena throughout the world.

Other significant highlights of 2008:

--  Arena surpassed its 99.5 percent service level agreement for the 11th consecutive quarter, with 100 percent scheduled uptime in Q4 2008 and a continued commitment to building and delivering the most secure, reliable, collaborative BOM management solution available.

--  During 2008, the company made a series of new management appointments, including a new CEO and CFO and three new vice presidents in charge of engineering, product design and marketing.

--  Arena Solutions delivered two major software releases, its 50th and 51st software releases in eight years. These Arena releases, which feature a new EDA adapter and an integration with SolidWorks PDMWorks Enterprise software, solidify the Arena application's position at the epicenter of the broader product lifecycle management landscape, with deeper integrations that enable the connection with systems like CAD, EDA, PDM and ERP.

"Having recently joined Arena Solutions -- and having a chance to see how other companies are faring in this challenging economy -- I am sincerely impressed by the company's ability to consistently increase its new bookings growth and its footprint in existing accounts. It's a sign that we are making the right product decisions and offering real value to our customers," said Ken Bozzini, chief financial officer of Arena Solutions. "This last year's efforts to remove obstacles to adoption are helping make Arena a no-brainer choice for any company feeling the pain of using spreadsheets to manage product information. Companies that are positioning themselves for success know that there's no better time than now to move to Arena."

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