Kursverdoppelung bei Actua Corporation (vorm. Internet Capital)

Sie können sich sogar noch mehr leisten. Am Flugplatz steht Amidal, der Fahrer, in heikler Mission. Unter dem Arm hält er eine in pinkfarbene Aluminiumfolie eingewickelte Flasche Wein. Ein Willkommensgeschenk für den Gast? „Nicht ganz”, sagt Amidal. „Wir sind überbucht. Wir müssen ihn in ein anderes Haus auslagern. Das aber hat nicht fünf Sterne, wie er gebucht hat, sondern nur drei.” Nicht nur für Besucher ist Bangalore längst zum Ärgernis geworden. „Being Bangalored” ist inzwischen ein geflügeltes Wort in Indien dafür, ausgebremst zu werden, nicht voranzukommen.

„Die Lage bessert sich nicht”

Die einst „Grüne Stadt” Indiens, die, aus der Luft betrachtet, immer noch erstaunlich viele Bäume zeigt, wird zum Moloch, wenn man auf dem Boden der Tatsachen gelandet ist. Viel zu schnell ist Bangalore groß geworden. Die Elite der internationalen Softwareentwicklung, eine Fülle von Telefondienstleistern und immer mehr Entwicklungshäuser wie etwa diejenigen von General Electric oder Daimler-Chrysler sind in die indische Metropole gezogen. Mehr als 1.500 Technologieunternehmen aus der ganzen Welt sitzen hier. Ihren Ansprüchen indes genügen die Rahmenbedingungen längst nicht mehr.

Der Flughafen des vermeintlichen Silicon Valley Indiens verdient den Namen nicht. Er ist ein Rollfeld mit angeschlossenem Hangar, in dem sich Passagiere und Zollbeamte gegenseitig das Leben schwermachen. Da die Fluggesellschaften keinen Platz für Lounges finden, gibt der Mann am Schalter von Singapore Airlines verschämt einen Gutschein für ein Heißgetränk aus. Abzuholen am Kiosk Coffee Day.

Zwölf Hotels, unter anderen von Hilton und Kempinski, sind in Planung. Weil der aber niemand traut, bauen die Großunternehmen längst eigene Gästehäuser. So sparen ihre eingeflogenen Mitarbeiter Geld, aber auch Zeit: Die Fahrt durch die Stadt zum Arbeitsort kann heute spielend zwei Stunden dauern - wenn die Stadt aufgrund eines mangelhaften Abwassersystems nicht im Monsun vollkommen überflutet ist. „Die Lage bessert sich nicht, deshalb blicken wir inzwischen über den Standort Bangalore hinaus”, sagt Azim Premji, als Chef der Softwareschmiede Wipro eine der Symbolfiguren des indischen Aufschwungs.

„Unsere Warnungen stoßen auf taube Ohren”

Der Niederländer Bob Hoekstra, CEO von Philipps Software in Bangalore, sagt rundheraus, das Chaos bringe seine Investitionen in Gefahr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, als Gründerin des Pharmaunternehmens Biocon eine der bekanntesten Geschäftsfrauen Indiens, resigniert: „Wir haben uns heiser gebrüllt - aber unsere Warnungen stoßen auf taube Ohren.” Für Smitha Rao von der Tageszeitung Times of India ist das Fazit von zehn Jahren Boom in Bangalore erschreckend: „Versprechen, nichts als Versprechen. Seit Jahren hören wir vom Bau einer U-Bahn, von einem neuen internationalen Flughafen, breiteren Straßen, einem integrierten Verkehrsnetz und natürlich einer Stadt, in der die Besten in der besten Umgebung leben können. All diese Versprechen sind nichts als eine Fata Morgana.”

Natürlich gibt es Profiteure der Lage: Dazu zählen neben den Hotels die Immobilienunternehmer, die dem jungen Mittelstand das Leben zumindest durch neue Luxusappartements versüßen wollen. Die Bevölkerung Bangalores soll sich bis 2015 auf 10 Millionen verdoppeln. Eine Million Dollar kann eine solche Wohnung heute leicht kosten. Zu den Gewinnern aber zählen auch die Bangalore-Konkurrenten, in erster Linie Kalkutta und Hyderabad. Schon zelebrieren die indischen Zeitungen genüßlich eine „Schlacht zwischen Hyderabad und Bangalore” um Auslandsinvestitionen.

Als N. R. Naranyana Murthy, geachteter Chairman des Softwareunternehmens Infosys, vom Posten des Leiters des Komitees für den Bau eines neuen Flughafens in Bangalore im Herbst weggemobbt wurde, wollte ihn Hyderabad mit offenen Armen aufnehmen. Auch Kalkutta ist längst nicht mehr nur als Armenhaus, sondern zunehmend dank Hochtechnologiekonzernen bekannt, die sich hier ansiedeln - trotz einer kommunistischen Regierung. „Die Chancen der anderen Städte sind das Versagen Bangalores”, heißt es in der Times.

„Die indischen Politiker verharren im 19. Jahrhundert”

Die Wellen schlagen besonders hoch, nachdem Ende vergangener Woche auch noch ein Professor auf dem Campus des Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore möglicherweise von einem Terroristen erschossen worden ist. Wenige Wochen zuvor war die Mitarbeiterin eines Call-Centers vergewaltigt worden. Damit hat das Mekka des jungen Indien seine Unschuld verloren: Nicht einmal die Sicherheit scheint die Regierung in der Vorzeigestadt garantieren zu können. Landesvater Dharam Singh erklärte inzwischen, der Polizeischutz für Bio- und Informationstechnologie-Unternehmen werde verstärkt.

Aroon Purie, Chefredakteur der Zeitschrift India Today, nennt Roß und Reiter der Krise Bangalores: „Die Industrie hat ihre Versprechen erfüllt. Sie hat Arbeitsplätze geschaffen, Dollar ins Land gebracht, globale Standards verfestigt. Es sind diejenigen, die Bangalore regieren, die versagt haben. Die indischen Politiker verharren im 19. Jahrhundert, während wir im 21. leben wollen.” Er spricht vom Fall der Stadt.

Auch wenn es so weit nicht kommt, ist eine deutliche Orientierung der Industrie hin zu anderen Standorten zu spüren. So zynisch es angesichts der Lage in Bangalore klingt, kommt sie damit letztlich einem Ansinnen der Regierung nach: Die nämlich ist bestrebt, den Aufschwung breiter im Subkontinent zu streuen. In den vergangenen Jahren war Bangalore Aushängeschild für das junge, aufstrebende Indien. Kenner des Landes fürchten, Bangalore könne noch einmal Symbol Indiens werden: dann nämlich, wenn das gesamte Land seine enormen Infrastrukturdefizite nicht in den Griff bekommt. Indiens Finanzminister Palaniappan Chidambaram forderte schon einen „Killerinstinkt”: „Wir müssen unsere Infrastrukturprojekte endlich mit der gleichen Entschlossenheit angehen wie die Chinesen.”


Text: che., F.A.Z., 07.01.2006, Nr. 6 / Seite 14
Bildmaterial: AP, picture-alliance/ dpa/dpaweb  

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kommt die 76%-Beteiligung von Internet Capital, Investoreforce:

www.investorforce.com/aboutus/...orce%20January%202006%20v.pdf

Die hatten die Jahre nur kleine Umsätze - das scheint sich aber jetzt rapide zu ändern. Auch die vorstehende Meldung könnte zur gestrigen Entwicklung beigetragen haben.

E-auctions are relatively well-established in the procurement field, with companies like Procuri, Emptoris, Ariba, and many others helping companies source everything from bolts and chairs to business travel. But the challenge of sourcing meeting services this way has been quantifying the service factor that’s so critical to successful meetings. At least two meeting-specific e-auction tools have come and gone, including Eventsource (which became ProcurePoint Travel Solutions in 2002 and folded in 2004) and a tool from StarCite launched in late 1999.

Neither of those products took off, but for American Express Business Travel the time is right to try again. “It’s a response to customer need,” says Jay Roseman, vice president of corporate meeting solutions for AEBT. “It’s a compliance issue.” Many companies have a requirement that expenditures over a certain size must get competitive bids, and the e-auction process, Roseman says, is “about creating efficiencies, bringing more suppliers to the table, and reducing the amount of time” for negotiations.

The AEBT auction process, he says, is not designed for information gathering but rather for decision-making. Properties invited to participate will have already returned an RFP that shows they have the rooms and space available during the meeting dates and are in the ballpark in terms of rates. They also will have been determined to have appropriate service levels for the meeting.

During the bid period (typically under an hour), participating hotels will enter their bids online, competing primarily in terms of rates, terms, and conditions, Roseman says. The lowest room rate might not win the business if another property’s concessions are particularly attractive.

Roseman expects to use the tool for about a dozen AEBT clients over the next few months. E-auctions will now be part of the services offered by Corporate Meeting Solutions, a meeting procurement practice at AEBT.

“This is American Express’ tool,” says Michael Boult, president and chief operating officer of StarCite, which created the tool for AEBT and will not be offering it to its own meeting management clients. Boult says AEBT has a one-year exclusive deal on the auction technology, but what will happen after that is “not known.”



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© 2006 Prism Business Media Inc.

denn hier versucht jemand die Kurse nicht durchgehen zu lassen, um seine offenen Positionen zu decken und verkauft auf Teufel komm raus gegen gute Fundamentals leer. Das hält er nur bei niedrigen Umsätzen durch.

Ähnlich war das jetzt einige Zeit bei Blackboard, wo Internet Capital am 30.9. noch über 2.000.000 Aktien hielt (davon haben sie meines Erachtens aber im letzten Quartal einige verkauft). Steigen die Umsätze haben die Leerverkäufer gegen gute Fundamentals nicht den Hauch einer Chance.


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Now, two-and-a-half years later, SafeView has shipped more than 20 of its complex portals to customers around the world in countries like Mexico, Singapore and Israel. But the company still doesn't have any production facilities because, rather than building its own manufacturing capacity, the company elected from its very inception to adopt an outsourced supply chain model.

“From a strategic business standpoint, right from the beginning we had decided that we would outsource the manufacturing,” says Karen Ann Meyer, vice president of operations with SafeView, “simply because in this day and age it just doesn't seem like a good business decision to add manufacturing capability when there is so much of it available.”



The Outsourcing Trend

Outsourcing — using external suppliers to design, manufacture, ship and service products or components (as distinguished from offshoring, which refers specifically to shifting production to foreign suppliers) — has been a growing trend in recent years as original equipment manufacturers have sought, among other things, to divest themselves of production capacity (and the inherent risks associated with owning capital equipment), lower their labor costs and maintain greater flexibility in the face of ever-shrinking product lifecycles. Moreover, the forces driving increased outsourcing appear to be accelerating the trend: AMR Research reported in the study “Contract Manufacturers at a Crossroads: Brand Owner Need for Visibility,” released earlier this year, that “the average 37 percent of cost of goods sold (COGS) represented by contract manufactured items will rise to 43 percent” over the next two years.

AMR analysts Bill Swanton, Dineli Samaraweera and Eric Klein, authors of the study, note that the relationships between OEMs, or what they call “brand owners,” and their outsourcing partners typically run deeper than the “arm's-length” relationships that companies traditionally have had with their suppliers. The OEM-outsourcing partner relationship, they write, normally involves: “Long-term relationships to manufacture a family of parts or products; close working relationships on design, production engineering and quality; [and] collaborative inventory planning at multiple tiers of the supply network, with visibility into and influence over the supplier's supply chain operations.”

Given the particular nature of the bonds that tie an OEM to its outsourcing partners, supply chain executives are finding they must take a different approach to managing those relations than they have in managing their more traditional suppliers. As a company built from the ground up on an outsourcing model, SafeView's experience offers insights into the success factors that can make or break an OEM-outsourcing partner relationship.

1. Identify the Skill Sets
SafeView was founded in 2002, but the company got its first round of funding only in May 2003. At that point, the company's flagship product, the screening portal dubbed SafeScout — which can be used, for example, to screen passengers in an airport, fans at a sports arena, visitors to a prison or employees at a manufacturing plant — did not exist at all, except as a technology that had been developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Lab. Meyer says that, as a new company, it made little sense for SafeView to seek funding to build its own production capacity. “Venture capitalists are hesitant to invest in a hardware company to begin with,” she notes. “And they would be even more nervous about putting a few million dollars into a manufacturing operation.” In addition, the company's management knew that SafeView had a limited window of opportunity — about a year — to prove the technology and prove the market, which meant ramping up fast and quickly getting the product into customers' hands, before the venture funding ran out. Thus, the company made the decision from the start to outsource its supply chain to the maximum extent possible.

It probably didn't hurt that the company's senior management was quite familiar with the contract manufacturing world. CEO Richard L. Rowe, a longtime Honeywell veteran, also was formerly the chief executive of MCMS, a $550 million global electronic contract manufacturer (CM) that was sold in January 2002 to Plexus Corp., an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company based in Neenah, Wis. And Meyer, with 25 years in industry, had spent 20 of those years in the contract manufacturing world.

Drawing on that experience, Meyer says that the first thing SafeView did as it plotted its outsourcing course was to identify the skill sets that would be necessary to bring its product to market. “The way that I approached it was to understand what our needs were going to be,” Meyer says, “because the way I looked at it, either I had to hire a skill set or a contract manufacturer had to hire that skill set.” Understanding the skills requirements is fundamental not only to selecting an outsourcing partner, but also to communicating expectations to the partner, both at the start of a project and, as important, as the project evolves, requirements change and the outsourcing partner has to bring on new capabilities.

2. Focus on the Relationship
Of course, technical requirements, capabilities and skills sets are, ultimately, something that either your own company or your outsourcing partner can acquire. So while these attributes are not unimportant in selecting among potential partners, the synergy between an OEM and its contractors should be the top priority, Meyer believes. “To me, one of the most important criteria in picking out partners was a strong relationship that would withstand all of the unknowns,” she says.

In SafeView's case, the unknowns were plenty, since the company was building a unique product that had never been brought to market before, and they planned to do it within a very short timeframe. “We were embarking on this incredible experience, we had this journey ahead of us and we had no clue what we were going to find,” Meyer recalls. “So having a really good relationship was key.” After reviewing its options, SafeView elected to work with Plexus, a well-established EMS that has facilities around the world, including a Boise, Idaho-area plant that was selected to build the SafeView product.

Working with Plexus, SafeView designed and delivered the first Beta version of the SafeScout in February 2004, just nine months after receiving its initial funding. In short order, the company delivered another five Beta units to its customers. With units now in the field, SafeView began to receive a tremendous amount of feedback from its customers on the initial units, much of which had to be translated into engineering changes for the next generation of the SafeScout. “I think that we as a company weren't prepared enough for the level of design activity and change that was going to happen driven by customer demand,” Meyer says.

And this is where the focus on the relationship with Plexus became critical. Because SafeView was looking to have a long-term alliance with its contract manufacturer, the company took the approach of acting as a filter for all the feedback coming back from the field, rather than just throwing all the design changes over the wall and expecting Plexus to contend with all the necessary engineering changes that had to be made. “So many start-ups go through the initial phase with their contract manufacturer, and by the time they're ready to go into production, right at the moment when the start-up needs its CM the most, they hate each other's guts and the customer is leaving for another CM,” Meyer says. “And it's not the CM's fault; it's just the nature of the beast of going through a product-development cycle. So we tried to filter as much as possible and keep as much churn out of the relationship in the supply chain.”

3. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
As with any good relationship, the key to a healthy OEM-outsourcing partner alliance is communication. “It's very important to have an open and honest dialog,” Meyer says. “You both have strengths and weaknesses, and everybody knows what they are. We're going to try to leverage the strengths and work around the weaknesses, but we're not going to pretend they don't exist.”

For example, Meyer believed going into the relationship with Plexus that, given the complexity of the SafeScout — about 80 percent of the parts on the product's bill of materials (BOM) are custom built-to-drawing, built-to-spec parts — and the level of engineering change that could be expected in bringing a new product to market, SafeView should initially handle prototype materials buying, again to help keep the “churn” out of the relationship with Plexus. Meyer was up front with the EMS, from an early stage, about her plan to hire a new product introduction (NPI) buyer to handle this process. Plexus would have preferred that the operation be entirely turnkey, but Meyer's frank dialog with them on this aspect helped them understand SafeView's point of view from the initial phase of the relationship. So when SafeView hired the NPI buyer, and the buyer began sourcing prototypes and then handing the identified suppliers off to Plexus, the EMS was fine with the process. “They understood that's the way we had to do it,” Meyer says. “And I promised them that once we got through the process and the product was stable, I would hand it over to them, turnkey. But if I had not communicated with them, it could have had an impact on our ability to get through that first part of it and now move into production with a very healthy relationship.”

4. Put the Tools in Place Early
With communication a top priority and a precondition for maintaining the kind of healthy relationship that Meyer sought with her company's supply base, she says that she recognized early on that SafeView would need to put in place the necessary tools that would enable the required level of interaction between the OEM and its outsourcing partners. But SafeView also wanted to ensure that it had the technology in place to protect its intellectual property even as it worked collaboratively with its partners to develop and produce the SafeScout security portal. “I had originally thought that one of the advantages of outsourcing is that you could leverage the tools that your CM already has,” Meyer explains. “But I realized fairly quickly that that was a risky proposition, to have your whole product documentation package managed by your CM, just in case things didn't work out and you needed to take the product elsewhere.”

At the time, Meyer's technology options seemed quite limited. “I didn't have an IT group. I didn't have an IT infrastructure. I didn't have a database. I didn't have anything with which to work. We had our laptop computers, and that was it,” she says. Moreover, SafeView's leadership knew that once they got their first round of funding, they only had 12 months to bring their product to market, so they would have to hit the ground running and could not afford to invest months building an IT backbone and deploying complex software packages.

While reviewing potential software packages, Meyer came across a company called Arena Solutions (formerly known as bom.com), which offers a Web-based, “on-demand” product lifecycle management (PLM) solution. The Arena PLM solution seemed ideally suited for a start-up outsourced manufacturing model, since it allowed an OEM to give any number of outsourcing partners controlled access to online BOMs using nothing more than a Web browser. Meyer initially thought that she would have Arena PLM be the platform for her internal engineering staff to work with the development staff at Plexus, including for part numbering, but the CM already had its own tools in place, and Meyer was unwilling to force a change in Plexus' processes because of the tight timetable for moving the SafeScout into Beta production. Instead, she began using the Arena solution to build the Beta BOM, loading design specs, drawings, instructions and digital pictures into the system and making them available to Plexus' production staff on the manufacturing floor who were building the prototypes. In this way, SafeView maintained control over the documentation package for the SafeScout while giving production staff access to the latest design information.

Once SafeView got its second round of funding, had put Beta units out into the field and started down the path of redesigning the product, the company expanded its use of the Arena PLM solution. By this time, SafeView had assembled its supply base, with seven key suppliers, mostly based in the U.S. Northwest so that they could do just-in-time and a Kanban material pull in conjunction with the Plexus production facility outside Boise. With SafeView's engineers acting as filters for all the design changes coming back from customers, the company's internal staff used Arena to build revised BOM structures and then released the design to the suppliers and, in turn, to Plexus.

Michael Topolovac, CEO and founder of Arena Solutions, points to the advantages of implementing PLM tools at the start of the development process, rather than waiting until a product is already headed for the plant floor. “What SafeView realized early on was that, starting from ground zero, PLM naturally becomes part of the institution and the culture, and all the data's clean from Day One,” he says. “If you do everything manually up until the day before you want to ship, then you're going to discover when you try to actually get that data into a tool like Arena PLM that a lot of the data are wrong or they're not complete. PLM is really what enables you to get that product to production.”

5. Be Flexible
Looking back on the whirlwind of the last two years, Meyer says that one of the big lessons she has taken away from the experience is that OEMs must maintain a degree of adaptability at each stage of an outsourcing exercise. “What you're prepared for is usually not the problem,” she says flatly. The uncertainties in market conditions, the complex dynamics of relationships with outsourcing partners and the many other “unknowables” in an outsourcing exercise place a premium on an OEM's ability to bend with the wind, when necessary, to keep the process moving forward rather than stopping to try to fix every glitch that comes up along the way.

In SafeView's case, that meant hiring an NPI buyer, for example, or acting as a filter for design changes coming back from Beta customers. The bottom line is that, while an OEM can outsource many separate functions, it cannot outsource management responsibility for a project, and the OEM must be prepared to apply the same degree of executive-level involvement in an outsourced project — or an even greater degree of involvement — than would be the case for an internally manufactured product.

Would SafeView ever consider taking its manufacturing in-house? Not likely, says Meyer. “Actually,” she concludes, “when I went out to find our facilities, I deliberately looked at places that I knew didn't have enough room for manufacturing. So it was a very definite decision that we would outsource manufacturing from the start.”

Sidebar: Five Success Factors for Procurement Business Process Outsourcing

Procurement business process outsourcing (BPO) is a growing trend but continues to represent a small number of engagements; Forrester Research, in a July report titled “The Mixed Procurement BPO Opportunity,” estimated that about 60 companies had signed procurement outsourcing agreements as of June — double the number from a year ago, but still suggesting a relatively immature market. Major providers of procurement BPO services, as highlighted in the Forrester report, include Accenture, Ariba, A.T. Kearney, IBM Global Services and ICG Commerce. Other companies offering procurement BPO services to one degree or another include EDS (of which A.T. Kearney is a subsidiary), ePlus, Global eProcure, Infosys and Prorizon.

Based on his four years of experience in the BPO space, Jason Gilroy, vice president of procurement outsourcing at King of Prussia, Pa.-based ICG Commerce, offers these suggestions for ensuring procurement BPO success:



Understand where BPO can, and cannot, help. Gilroy says that procurement BPO typically is not a budget reduction move but rather involves a value-creation business case — BPO might not help a company reduce its procurement headcount, since the goal is more typically to shift current staff away from less-value-adding work on various non-core indirect material categories and toward projects involving more strategic categories that can help a company differentiate itself in the marketplace.


Don't be too prescriptive in the relationship. Build flexibility into the relationship — and the contract — with the BPO procurement provider from the start. “If the initial scope of work is built too rigidly, it makes it very difficult for the relationship to move cohesively together as the customer's business changes,” Gilroy says.


Establish a structure for tracking results. ICG runs monthly cross-functional savings councils with its clients to ensure not only that they are reporting on realized savings to the procurement sponsor but also that a senior finance representative on the council can validate the methodology used to arrive at the reported savings and attest that the savings are actually hitting the company's bottom line.


Ensure senior-level executive sponsorship. It's very easy, he says, for the procurement staff executing the relationship with the outsourcing provider to get hung up on micromanaging how the BPO service provider is doing its job, rather than focusing on whether the provider is achieving the goals of the program. “It takes a strong executive sponsor to be able to pull people back and say, ‘Hey, remember, that's not why we're doing this. We're not trying to say that we did it with six heads, so we want [the service provider] to do it with four people. We don't care how many heads they can do it with, but whether they can deliver this much more value than we were going to deliver.'”


Look for a partner with genuine operating experience. Managing procurement activities and spend on a long-term basis for multiple large companies is not the same as providing sourcing and procurement system implementation services on a one-off consultative basis. Further, it requires an entirely different infrastructure than that required to manage a procurement department internally. Make sure you “check under the hood” to ensure your provider offers a proven and well-tested procurement operation that allows you to leverage and benefit from the learnings and scale that comes from their work across multiple companies. You should expect to be able to tap into an adaptable procurement operation that integrates deep category and process expertise, a transaction processing infrastructure and most importantly, the market data, best practices and benchmarks gleaned from working day-in and day-out across multiple companies.

zu werten, wo überwiegend Kleinzocker agieren. Diese schwachen Hände haben heute verkauft und der Skontrenführer hat in den USA eingedeckt. Man kann dies daran erkennen, dass die Kurse in Frankfurt heute permanent erheblich unter den US-Kursen lagen.

Börse
Frankfurt

Aktuell
7,55 EUR

Zeit
02.02.06  17:27

Diff. Vortag
-4,31 %

Tages-Vol.
51.969,98

Gehandelte Stück
6.709

Geld
7,59

Brief
7,74

Zeit
02.02.06  19:46

Spread
--

Geld Stk.
2.000

Brief Stk.
2.000

Somit wird das Spielmaterial für den Shortseller kleiner: Denn mit ihm spielen nur die Kleinzocker, denen er im Schnitt das Fell über die Ohren zieht.

nur noch 31% - es waren früher einmal 99%. Dann hat man zwei weitere Wagnisfianzierer mit ins Boot genommen und bei weiteren Finanzierungsrunden noch zwei weitere. Ecredit.com ist ja einmal mit extremen Hoffungen gestartet, hart gelandet, aber inzwischen auf der Basis stark reduzierter Erwartungen auf einem guten Weg. Daraus wird kein Umsatzriese, aber eventuell doch eine vielleicht interessanten Nische (wobei ich vor übertriebenen Umsatzerwartungen warnen möchte, aber das ist immer noch wesentlich besser als nichts).


www.ecredit.com/

Die vorstehende Adresse sollte man, beginnend mit der Darstellung der sicher nicht schlechten Kunden, einmal eine Zeit auf sich wirken lassen.

ICGE WILL HIT $20 THIS YEAR! BUY DIPS!!
by: cheapvaluebuyer
Long-Term Sentiment: Strong Buy  02/02/06 08:37 pm
Msg: 239414 of 239417

at a 5pe and with $6 of cash on hand...load the boat

"For several years, a number of leading companies in the Houston area have been using eCredit to lower DSO and bad debt, manage risk and improve operations," said Jeff Dickerson, eCredit President and CEO. "This new partnership with a strong regional credit group like NACM of South Texas is a natural step for us as we look to further increase our reach in the greater southwest region."



About NACM of South Texas
NACM of South Texas, located in Houston, Texas, is a 501(c)6 not-for-profit trade association, owned by the members. The organization is dedicated to the prevention of fraud in business; provides service to its membership and is deeply committed to providing the very best in government representation, education, and services and products for the credit & financial profession. To that end NACM of South Texas offers professional seminar and workshops, industry credit groups for the exchange of ledger experience, credit reports, collection services and distressed business services. In addition, NACM of South Texas seeks out and partners with the best solution providers in the world for products and services that will protect and boost its member companies' bottom lines.

About eCredit
eCredit is the leading provider of online solutions for credit and collections professionals. Its award-winning on-demand software family - Personal Edition, Professional Edition, and Enterprise Edition - supports the mission critical processes of granting credit, monitoring portfolio risk, resolving disputes and collecting accounts receivables. Within the Transportation industry, eCredit's solutions also include credit reports with over 35 million trade experiences on over 7 million unique companies. With deep roots in the credit and collections community, eCredit has over a decade of experience helping companies reduce bad debt and DSO while improving productivity, lowering costs and demonstrating results. eCredit is a private company headquartered in Dedham, Massachusetts. Major clients include American Airlines, Chevron, Cisco, Continental Airlines, Con-Way Transportation Services, Samsung Electronics, Cargill, NEC Financial, Graybar, CDW, Sun Microsystems, and Ryder System. For more information, please visit www.ecredit.com.

eCredit.com and the eCredit.com logo are registered trademarks.


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Kate Anderson
eCredit
(781) 752-1250
kanderson@ecredit.com

kann, was man sich ursprünglich einmal erhofft hat. Manche Dinge haben eben bzw. brauchen mehr Zeit, als man in der ersten Euphorie erwartet hat:

www.ecredit.com/docs/pdf/Jeff_Parisi_January06.pdf

eCredit provides a suite of solutions designed to help businesses of any size, in any industry, optimize their credit and collections operations, lowering DSO and bad debt and reducing overall portfolio risk. eCredit's flexible credit scoring and collections automation software and industry-specific credit reports drive departmental efficiencies and ensure the accuracy and predictability of credit decisions on new and existing customers. As a reseller of eCredit software, NACM Oregon will be offering these specific solutions directly to its members.

"As eCredit continues to expand our customer base both vertically and geographically, it makes sense for us to partner with progressive affiliates such as NACM Oregon," said Jeff Dickerson, eCredit President and CEO. "This new partnership with a strong regional credit group like NACM Oregon is a natural step for us as we look to further increase our reach in the greater Pacific Northwest region."



About NACM Oregon
NACM Oregon serves business credit professionals in Oregon, southwest Washington, and southwest Idaho. An affiliate of the National Association of Credit Management (www.NACM.org), NACM Oregon is a 109-year-old association, offering collection services, credit reports, educational courses, and account management. For more information, please visit www.nacmoregon.org

Membership in NACM offers premier resources for business credit professionals.

As an association, NACM is member-owned and prides itself on service.

About eCredit
eCredit is the leading provider of online solutions for credit and collections professionals. Its award-winning on-demand software family - Personal Edition, Professional Edition, and Enterprise Edition - supports the mission critical processes of granting credit, monitoring portfolio risk, resolving disputes and collecting accounts receivables. Within the Transportation industry, eCredit's solutions also include credit reports with over 35 million trade experiences on over 7 million unique companies. With deep roots in the credit and collections community, eCredit has over a decade of experience helping companies reduce bad debt and DSO while improving productivity, lowering costs and demonstrating results. eCredit is a private company headquartered in Dedham, Massachusetts. Major clients include American Airlines, Chevron, Cisco, Continental Airlines, Con-Way Transportation Services, Samsung Electronics, Cargill, NEC Financial, Graybar, CDW, Sun Microsystems, and Ryder System. For more information, please visit www.ecredit.com.

eCredit.com and the eCredit.com logo are registered trademarks.


Press Contacts

Kate Anderson
eCredit
(781) 752-1250
kanderson@ecredit.com

hat die Internet Capital-Beteiligung CreditTrade noch nie, denn bisher sagten sie statt "the leading provider of transaction, data and information....." immer "a leading provider of transaction, data and information....."

Welcome to CreditTrade
CreditTrade is the leading provider of transaction, data and information ...
CDS Prices - EUROPE Last Updated - Thu 12 Jan 2006 07:49 GMT, back to top ...
www.credittrade.com/home/ services/selectedbenchmarks.aspx - 144k - Cached - Similar pages

Leider berichtet Internet Capital selbst fast überhaupt nicht über seine vermutlich inzwischen umsatzstärktste Kernbeteiligung, an der sie immerhin doch 30% halten. Und dass die auf dem extrem boomenden Markt der Kreditderivate glänzend positioniert sind, erfahren wir von Internet Capital auch nicht. Lediglich wenn sie bei den Quartalsberichten von der zusammengefassten Umsatzentwicklung der acht bzw. neun Kernbeteililgungen berichten, bleibt ihnen nichts anderes übrig, als Credittrade zumindest mit einem Satz zu erwähnen, da sie als vermutlich umsatzstärktste Beteiligung hierauf erheblichen Einfluss haben - sonst hätten sie die SEC am Hals.

         ·§Sie erhalten Hinweise auf die Aspekte der Bilanzoptimierung.
         ·§Sie treffen Fachkollegen und profitieren von einem Erfahrungsaustausch über die betrieblichen Grenzen hinaus.
Für wen ist dieses Seminar konzipiert?
Leiter und leitende Mitarbeiter von Banken, Sparkassen, Genossenschafts-, Landeszentralbanken, Versicherungen, Investmentgesellschaften und sonstigen Finanzdienstleistungsinstituten aus den Bereichen:
         ·§Risikomanagement/-controlling
         ·§Kredit
         ·§Treasurymanagement
         ·§Revision
         ·§Wertpapierhandel
         ·§Derivate
         ·§Rechnungswesen
         ·§Recht
sowie
wie der nachstehenden zeigt: Wir sind nicht nur im Boom, der Boom boooooooomt auch noch. Und mit Internet Capital profitiert Ihr über die 30%-Beteilung Credittrade wie kaum jemand an dieser Entwicklung.

Wirtschaftsprüfer, Unternehmens-, Steuerberater und Rechtsanwälte
 

Die zunehmende Bedeutung von Kreditderivaten für den Handel und das Kreditrisikomanagement erfordert deren Einsatz in Ihrem Haus:· Der Kreditderivate-Markt: Anwendung, Preisfindung, Einsatz und Abwicklung · Wesentliche Arten von Kreditderivaten · Effiziente Strukturierung Ihres Kreditportfolios · Marktdatenanforderungen und Quellen im Risikocontrolling · Einsatzmöglichkeiten der Bilanzoptimierung · Aufsichtsrechtliche Neuregelungen durch Basel II · Steuerliche und rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen Begrenzte Teilnehmerzahl pro Termin! Ihre Experten:· Deutsche Bundesbank, Jochen Flach · Dresdner Bank, Markus Streck · KPMG Deutsche Treuhand,Dirk Auerbach, Hans-Jürgen Feyerabend, Tillmann Roth · NordLB, Christoph Trestler · Risk Training/acaron, Dr. Ursula A. Theiler  

kommt an Kreditderivaten vorbei, nicht einmal Libuda (na, ihr wisst schon). Denn der will gar daran vorbei, sondern über den von ihm auf 300 bis 500 Millionen geschätzten Wert von Credittrade am Boom mitverdienen (auf der Basis von geschätzten Erlösen von 60 bis 75 Millionen in 2005) - durch Kurssteigerungen bei Internet Capital, die mit 30% an Credittrade beteiligt sind.

www.dvfa.de/pdf/creditterm.pdf

vaten heißt es in der nachstehenden exzellenten Studie, die man ab der PDF-Seite 17 dringend lesen sollte, um zu erkennen, welche gigantischen Chancen in der 30%-Beteiligung von Internet Capital an Credittrade liegen. Das ist bei Internet Capital mit 350 Millionen Marktkapitalisierung noch sehr viel intensiver als bei Finanzkonzernen mit Zig-Milliarden-Kapitalisierungen.


www.isb.unizh.ch/studium/courses05-06/pdf/0413_ubs_20060123.pdf

Die gestrige Presentation war weitgehend nur eine Zusammenfassung bisher schon Bekanntem, mit Ausnahme von diesem Punkt

Traffic. com
• Went public on January 25, 2006 at $12.00 per share.
• ICG holds approximately 700,000 shares.
• Represents over $8 million of value to ICG.

Damit sind die bisher 3% immerhin 8 Millionen wert. Das macht zwar nur 0,20 Dollar pro Aktie aus, ist aber besser als nichts. Viel wichtiger ist ein anderer Fingerzeig. Die schon vorhandenen Aktien kommen auf eine Marktkapitalisierung von ca. einer Viertelmilliarde. Bei einem Umsatz von ca. 38 Millionen ergibt sich somit ein Kurs-Umsatz-Verhältnis von 6 bis 7. Würde man das auf die anteiligen Umsätze von Internet Capital aus 2005 von ca. 130 Millionen anwenden, lägen wir bei 845 Millionen. Addiert man die ca. 170 Millionen vorhandene Nettocash/Wertpapiere dazu, liegen wir bei 1015 Millionen, was auf einen Aktienkurs von ca. 23 Dollar hinauslaufen würde.

This represents a slowdown compared with 2005, when issuance was up 24 per cent over the previous year, according to the ESF. The forecast is also less bullish than the outlook of some analysts. Ganesh Rajendra at Deutsche Bank, for example, is predicting growth of about 20 per cent to roughly €380bn, though his figures include public-sector issuance, which is not in the ESF numbers.

Issuers continue to see securitisation as a reliable, efficient and cost effective funding source, the report says, while investors remain attracted by the higher income paid by such deals relative to other fixed income products.

The continued prevailing low interest rate environment – in spite of the European Central Bank’s signalled intention to raise rates this year – and an improving credit quality trend for European bonds generally, also supported the outlook, the ESF added.

The survey gives one of the most bullish of recent predictions for the fast growing commercial mortgage backed securities market, forecasting growth of 43 per cent to about €60bn in 2006. The CMBS market doubled last year, driven mainly by the growing number of investment banks setting up specialist vehicles, known as conduits, to make commercial property loans and sell them on in securitisations.

However, the news is less bright for the residential mortgage backed securities market, by far the largest component of the industry. The survey predicts growth there slowing to about 5 per cent to total issuance of €160bn in 2006.

There were some concerns that RMBS issuance might be held back by a potential housing market downturn in some markets such as the UK, which is the largest and most important RMBS market in Europe.

“One of the risks identified is that an increase in the interest rates may have an effect in the housing market in Europe and more specifically in the UK,” said Marco Angheben, associate director at the ESF.

Another potential pitfall for RMBS issuance could be competition from covered bonds, which are also backed by mortgages, but are a cheaper source of funding because they are guaranteed by the issuing bank’s balance sheet.

The UK’s Financial Services Authority is set to update the market on its moves towards introducing a regulatory framework for such issues at the European Covered Bond Council next Tuesday. The lack of a framework has so far hampered UK issuance although mortgage specialists such as Northern Rock and HBOS have got deals away in the past couple of years.

Tim Skeet, a senior official in ABN Amro’s financial institution’s group and member of the ECBC steering committee, said banks want regulation to put the UK market on an equal footing with countries such as Germany, the oldest covered bond market, and others such as France.

“The industry’s hope is to have the UK product treated the same way in capital requirement terms as Pfandbriefs and other established European covered bonds,” Mr Skeet said.

Mr Angheben played down the threat from covered bonds and that from the changes to capital requirements for banks due in the next few years under the Basel II rules, which are designed to better match capital held by banks with their risk positions.

“One of the biggest trends this year will be a real increase in liquidity in the market,” Mr Angheben said. The initiatives in creating indices for the sector seen recently would help boost liquidity, encouraging a broader range of investors to enter the field and continued issuance of securitisations, he added.

“The coming implementations of new capital requirements under Basel II has not yet had an effect on issuance,” he said.

The ESF is also predicting strong growth in cash collateralised debt obligations – pools of loans or other debt instruments that are split into tranches of varying risk levels – where issuance is forecast to grow 30 per cent to €65bn.

This outlook is echoed by a recent report from Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency, which expects growth in synthetic CDOs – those backed by derivatives rather than real assets – to be low in 2006, but sees investor demand driving a sharp increase in cash CDOs.

Mit Internet Capital schon, denn die sind mit 30% an einem der führenden Broker und Informationslieferanten auf dem dem Markt für Kreditderivate beteiligt: Credittrade. Internet Capital schweigt zu seiner inzwischen wohl umsatzstärksten Kernbeteiligung wie ein Grab. Die Gründe sind ja allzu bekannt: Das Management versucht vor dem Jump noch so viel wie irgend möglich einzusacken - und das geht auf niedrigem Niveau billiger und in größeren Mengen. Da kann es nur eine Devise geben: MITEINSACKEN!!!!!!!!



Are you ready for the trading revolution? According to a recent survey from the ISDA®, credit derivatives have experienced a yearly growth rate of 123%! This unprecedented boom has triggered massive confirmation and settlement backlogs. Is your credit derivative risk and settlement operation prepared to manage the growth that lies ahead in 2006?
ATTN: Credit Derivative SpecialistsRE: TradeTech Credit DerivativesDATE: April 24, 2006 Traders & operations executives who need to learn the latest effective trading strategies for credit derivatives, including credit default swaps, must attend TradeTech Credit Derivatives 2006. Please click here for more information on the industry’s premier credit derivative trading event.

The Credit Derivatives Congress addresses the most pressing issues in the marketplace including credit valuation and counterparty risk, establishing standardized procedures for settlement, assignment issues, mainstreaming and automating your credit derivative operations, building infrastructure strategies, best practices for handling the increasing volume of trades and understanding the complexities of credit derivatives.



www.wbresearch.com/creditderivativescongressusa/

war in den letzten beiden Jahren sicher GoIndustry. Dass sie ausgerechnet die schlechteste Kernbeteiligung am ersten an die Börse gebracht haben, passt zur Strategie des Managements, dass offensichtlich suggerieren wollte, dass auch bei den anderen Beteiligungen die Bewertung ähnlich erfolge wie bei GoIndustry. Dieser Verschleierungspolitik hatte teilweise Erfolg - momentan sind die anteiligen Umsätze von Internet Capital in etwa so bewertet (sogar noch ca. 20% schwächer) wie die von GoIndustry, der mit Abstand schwächsten Kernbeteiligung, die in etwa mit dem 1,7-fachen der Umsätze bewertet wird. Bei Linkshare war es aber das Achtfache der Umsätze, bei Blackboard liegen wir momentan in etwa bei sieben und bei den gerade an die Börse gegangenen Traffic.com liegen wir bei knapp 7.

Noch schwächelt GoIndustry nach dem Börsengang am 5. Januar bei einer Marktkapitalisierung um die 50 Millionen Euro. Das ist auch nicht verwunderlich, denn nach einer kostenmäßigen Roßkurs und der Aufgabe von unrentablem Geschäft ist der Jahresumsatz von Werte zwischen 40 und 50 Millionen Euro in den letzten Jahren auf Werte um 30 Millionen Euro gesunken. Wenn die acht bzw. Kernbeteiligungen zusammen "nur" Wachstumsraten von 20% schafften, dann hing dies sehr stark mit den Rückgängen bei GoIndustry und der inzwischen in eine andere Gesellschaft eingebrachten CommerceQuest zusammen. Warum GoIndusty in Not kam und warum es dort auch besser werden kann, zeigt eine sehr interessante Marktingstudie. Geht einmal auf PDF-Seiten 13 bis 20 auf der nachstehenen Adresse:

www.cs.fhm.edu/~fischer/Dipl%20BWL%20WS0506%20LE%206%20HO.pdf

“Amphire has been seeking a collaborative offering for perishables to further consolidate its position as the leading technology provider in foodservice”, said Mark Barnekow, Amphire’s President and CEO.  “We have evaluated the other collaboration and demand management solutions in the market for perishables and believe that FoodLink Online clearly has the most competitive products. The FoodLink Online offering will provide immediate value to the perishables trading community within Amphire’s extensive customer base.”


“Amphire and FoodLink Online not only have major strengths in their respective marketplaces, but also have solutions and customers that are very complementary,” added Vijay Yajnik, President and CEO of FoodLink Online.  “We believe that by partnering it will enable us to provide robust and integrated applications for the food community. Both Amphire and FoodLink Online will provide a much stronger value proposition and a single source for Internet based solution applications. They will enable our customers to streamline their procurement and supply chain processes in consumer foods, packaged goods, and perishables, achieving optimal efficiency.”  


About Amphire Solutions, Inc.

Amphire is a provider of information management, data synchronization and Internet-based supply chain optimization solutions serving the foodservice, consumer packaged goods, technology, janitorial and sanitation, and paper and industrial packaging trading communities. Amphire’s comprehensive suite of solutions enables the flow of transaction and critical business information between buyers and sellers. Compliant with emerging supply chain standards, Amphire’s products allow enterprises to address fundamental supply chain challenges such as global data synchronization, product information management, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) transaction management, contract master standardization, contract compliance, promotions and rebate management, reporting and analytics, and supply and demand forecasting with configurable and user friendly web-based solutions. For more information, please visit www.amphire.com.


About FoodLink Online LLC

FoodLink Online is the leading supply chain software solution provider to the global perishable foods industry. FoodLink Online offers Internet-based solutions for demand planning and management, procurement, logistics, receiving and payment. These solutions improve the way organizations carry out transactions, use real-time information to make decisions, and build relationships with their supply chain partners. The FoodLink Online Marketplace provides a global hub that is optimized for trading perishable foods. FoodLink Online is rapidly expanding to further broaden its global procurement platform. The company is privately held and is backed by Rustic Canyon Partners, a venture capital firm based in Santa Monica, CA. For more information, please visit the FoodLink Online”s website at www.foodlinkonline.com



Contact Information:

Amphire Solutions, Inc.
Monica Maxwell
650-508-1929
info@amphire.com

Foodlink Online LLC
Michael Schauer
310-792-4235

Startkurs 7,84 USD

Kurs am 03.02.05: 9,56 USD, Wertentwicklung rund 21%. Nur noch 4 Monate Zeit um die 100% zu erreichen.

und ich habe auch nur formuliert, dass eine Kursverdoppelung in sechs Monaten möglich ist. Dass mein Kursziel noch höher ist als die dadurch sich ergebenden 15 bsi 16 Dollar, habe ich hier ja öfter kundgetan. Aber ich bin auch kein Hellseher, wie schnell sich emotional bedingte Irrationalitäten auflösen und was sich das Management für einen Kurs wünscht - ob die ihre eigenen privaten Kaufprogramme schon abgeschlossen haben oder nicht.

Wenn wir in den Jahren 2006, 2007, 2008 und 2009 jeweils 50% pro Jahr machen, bin ich es auch zufrieden. Ich weiß, das ist nichts für Wie-werde-ich-in-5-Minuten-reich-Zocker, aber denen hae ich ja auch immer vom Kauf des Papiers abgeraten.

Additionally, the e-auction technology helps buyers to reduce cycle time and achieve improved sourcing and decision-making efficiency gains. It also helps hoteliers to focus on providing the best, most competitive meetings packages possible.

The e-auction tool will be available in January for American Express’ U.S.-based clients, with a global release to follow later in the year.

”The new, ground-breaking American Express e-auction technology supports an historically complex event management bidding process, making it easier than ever for corporations to realize greater value from their meetings investment, better leverage preferred supplier relationships, and more closely link meetings purchasing to their overall travel procurement strategy, ” said Jay Roseman, Vice President of Corporate Meeting Solutions, American Express Business Travel. “When used in conjunction with our strategic purchasing programs, the American Express e-auction tool helps to further streamline deal-making, allowing meeting and procurement buyers and hotel suppliers to more effectively negotiate and together generate the best overall meeting package.”

“This tool is just the latest example of StarCite’s long and productive partnership with American Express Business Travel. We’re pleased to have been asked by American Express to develop such a complementary addition to their Corporate Meeting Solutions practice,” said Michael Boult, President and CEO of StarCite. “Meetings management is one of the last great frontiers of unmanaged corporate travel spending. As a leader in strategic meetings management technologies we’re excited to provide the tool that will help pave the way for smarter, more efficient and cost-effective bid negotiations for all participants.”

How It Works
Using the American Express e-auction solution for meetings management is simple and straightforward. First, corporate buyers identify a threshold volume for meetings and events that must be competitively bid via the e-auction tool. For each unique event, American Express Business Travel procurement specialists then initiate a site search based on the client’s stated meeting requirements, preferred supplier strategy and travel policy. Based on the tailored availability report generated, the buyer narrows its venue options down to a short list of suppliers and properties that appear best prepared to provide the value clients require. Finally, American Express hosts the actual e-auction via a secure extranet-site allowing the buyer to customize the bid process and receive a formal offer within minutes. The auction thereby gives buyers significant flexibility during the bidding process, allowing buyers to tailor their requests.


About American Express Business Travel
American Express Business Travel, a division of the American Express Company, is dedicated to helping its clients realize the greatest possible value from their investment in travel through increased cost savings, outstanding customer service and greater spend control. For small businesses, medium-sized enterprises and multinational corporations, American Express Business Travel provides a combination of industry-leading booking technology, travel management consulting expertise, strategic sourcing and supplier negotiation support and customer service available around the world, around the clock, online and offline. American Express operates the world’s largest travel agency network, recording nearly $20 billion in worldwide travel sales in 2004.

American Express Company (www.americanexpress.com) is a diversified worldwide travel, financial and network services company founded in 1850. It is a world leader in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel, business services and international banking.


About StarCite, Inc.

StarCite, Inc. is the provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions™. StarCite optimizes global investments in corporate meetings and events delivering visibility, savings and control. StarCite provides process efficiency, enabling technology and proven adoption management support to drive significant cost reduction to buyers and enhanced revenues to suppliers. StarCite is based in Philadelphia. Investors in StarCite include Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE); Maritz Travel Company; Seaport Capital; and TL Ventures. For more information about StarCite, or its technologies and services, please visit www.StarCite.com.

Boult: Companies think that's solving the issue. They think that with registration they have an organized meetings program, when we actually believe it is the least important step of anything that they would do. Clearly, we think most important is the buying, the sourcing and the site selection part of the business. Maybe that meeting is suitable for a virtual meeting. Maybe it's suitable for a hybrid. Then we get to a kind of "good-cholesterol, bad-cholesterol" idea for meetings. Today we have this ubiquitous technology, and you could use it for small meetings, but if it's too much, why would I do that? Should you go through an elaborate request-for-proposals process for 25 people? I don't think that's a smart thing to do. You will see us identify different categories of spend and different types of behavior and we will address those. You're going to see us accommodate the different needs, which is the right thing and the smart thing to do. The small meetings stuff we believe is outside any RFP activity. We think you negotiate the rate—either it's the transient rate that you're recycling or some other prepackaged contract with attrition, cancellation, rates, discounts for food and beverage and audiovisual—and that gets packaged in the beginning of the year.

MT: Will StarCite change its structure to focus on separate services for smaller meetings or companies?

Boult: We could have a different brand for midmarket and small-market companies, or we could be just StarCite. For our existing large companies, we just need a bend in the road. Based on what it is that you want, if it meets specific criteria, it should go into this workflow. It's still StarCite, it's still what you do today, we just take you in a different direction based on what you described to us that you need. The industry has kind of old habits. We've got the old way of negotiating. It doesn't seem to help us in this up-cycle in which hotels can almost name their price. Customers are looking for new ways to leverage and the obvious one to me is that you've got $50 million in transient sitting here and $50 million in meetings sitting there and you're having two different conversations with suppliers. You've got to bring it together. Surely it's one conversation.

MT: Isn't that easier said than done?

Boult: It only makes sense when there is a geographic overlap, but we're finding now that from a capacity perspective, hotels don't want all of your transient business. I was really intrigued to see what they've done here because hotels might not want all that spend. This is a strange cycle that we have in travel. It makes sense on paper, but in the real world it might not make sense. In New York, I guarantee, you could bring me a $2 million meeting and I couldn't accommodate you for the next couple of months because we don't have the supply and I'm surely not going to give it to you at the transient rate. Companies are struggling with that, but they know the old rules don't necessarily work any more. It's still amazing to me that very sophisticated companies don't even know what they spend. From a transient perspective, that's just impossible to understand, but from a meetings perspective, that's typical. They just don't even know the basic information. The good thing about it is that there are some things that feel like 1998 or 1999, but other things that feel like 2010. Some of technology is way in advance from a transient perspective. Some things are quite advanced, but other things are way behind. Globalization is way behind in the meetings space. We are finally getting companies saying to us that they're ready to globalize. That's why we're expanding. The transient programs have been globally consolidated for five years.

MT: What will be your business strategy in 2006?

Boult: I'm interested in growing the business. If I can buy something faster than doing it ourselves, then we're going to be doing that. Among our ongoing initiatives: geography, direct sales, sales via our partners—one thing that we're very proud of is our partner channel network. All the big TMCs and all the big management companies use StarCite and they've basically said: "That's our solution." I don't think that's coincidental, we work those partnerships very well. So, we'll have more partners and more business from partners, new products and acquisitions. There's a lot of ways to get this done.

MT: You've mentioned that Internet travel management companies are looking at opportunities in the meetings industry. Could we see a StarCite-powered tool through one of those companies?

Boult: You may see something like that. I think the ITMCs have looked at this as well and said: "For us to compete, we need to have a legitimate offering in this space and we're not going to build it. We're going to partner with something that already exists." We're very active there as well. We already have a deal in place with one of them, but it has not been announced yet.

MT: What sort of meetings would ITMCs target? What sort of services would they offer?

Boult: I don't think they're going to be big service providers, I don't think that's their model. Their model is about driving the transaction and they want more transaction business. If transient is an element of transaction business, they can also add meetings. The ITMCs are saying that there's a whole area of growth over here with thousands of transactions that are being ignored. Their product is a very transient looking and feeling model. Meetings transactions are very different. Outtask's Cliqbook programs for transient and meetings are very different. They're different for a reason. The ITMCs are looking at the business and saying: "Maybe this is how I get into a company, if I'm very compelling from a meetings perspective."

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