Costa Mesa’s FileNet Corp., a unit of IBM Corp., formalized a deal with a local software supplier to provide programs that help businesses manage their Web sites to its customers.
Newport Beach-based Day Software Inc. got its start designing, building and maintaining Web sites for companies.
Today it sells software packages that allow customers to essentially do its job.
Many use it to build Web sites for the public, internal sites for employees and for special purpose sites for vendors, supplier and managers.
“(Customers) use Day’s software to build it and then we can tweak and customize the pre-built site,” said Santi Pierini, vice president of marketing.
Day had been selling its Web site management software to FileNet’s customers under FileNet’s brand name for about a year.
“We would provide services in the background while they sold the solution, and (FileNet) would send us a royalty check,” Pierini said.
Day has 17 new customers from the deal so far, he said.
This time around, Day renewed the deal and is set to retain all of the revenue from services, Pierini said.
“We do a larger percentage of the work, but it’s still under (IBM’s) infrastructure and network,” he said. “It’s been a very good thing for Day.”
Day was started in Switzerland in 1993 and trades publicly on the Swiss Exchange.
In 2000, it opened its U.S. headquarters and began trading on an over-the-counter exchange.
Day targets customers in financial services, entertainment, hotels and auto manufacturing.
Some of its biggest customers are Audi AG, Daimler AG, Volkswagen AG, Deutsche Bank AG and General Electric Co.’s NBC.
Local customers include Irvine-based Shimano American Corp., a unit of Japanese bicycle maker Shimano Inc., and Option One Mortgage Corp., a unit of H & R; Block Inc.
The company has about 30 workers locally.
It’s on track to do about $22 million in sales this year, Pierini said.
More than 10% of its revenue comes from deals with FileNet’s customers, which can purchase Day’s product as part of a suite of business software and services called ValueNet.
Day has a similar deal with business software kingpin Oracle Corp.
“Oracle will be shipping our product in November,” Pierini said.
Day, which has about 50 workers in Switzerland, is looking to expand locally by hiring project managers and software engineers in Newport Beach.
“About 80% of our growth in late 2007 and early 2008 will be in OC,” Pierini said.
The company’s goal is to reach $100 million in sales within the next few years, he said.
Microsoft Tech Center
Microsoft Corp. is set to add on a flashy demo center at its office in Irvine.
The Microsoft Technology Center is a cross between a consulting firm and a sales office.
Microsoft business customers can get tutorials on how to better use the software and get help setting up the office tasks such as videoconferencing, Internet phone service and document sharing, according to Matt Kestian, director of the center.
“We talk to the customers and get their business requirements, do a demonstration and tell them the pieces they would need to put in place,” he said. “At this point, we are not really trying to push them or sell to them. We are trying to help enterprise customers be successful, it’s a value add, because they are already buying our software.”
Common requests from business customers include improving communications within the office and across different sites, making Microsoft applications work with different operating systems and making data collected from customers useful to the business, Kestian said.
“Our customers are looking for a little help in how they use technology to solve their business problems,” he said. “In the past it has been always about selling the software without necessarily helping the customer figure out the unknown, or eliminate the risks.”
The tech center doesn’t do software licensing and maintenance. It sells add-ons to the software, servers and other gear.
Microsoft is looking to have the Irvine center do about $21 million in sales next year, Kestian said.
Local customers include Irvine-based Advantage Sales and Marketing LLC and Allianz Global Investors of America LP in Newport Beach.
Microsoft’s goal is to have similar centers within 100 miles of its biggest business customers. It opened tech centers in Austin, Chicago, Boston, Reston, Va., and in Silicon Valley. It’s set to open three more in Atlanta, New York and Dallas.
DigitalPost Raises Money
Irvine’s DigitalPost Interactive Inc., which hosts subscription-based social networking and picture-sharing Web sites, raised $1.7 million in a stock sale.
The privately held startup sold $1.1 million worth of shares to investors in September and raised another $600,000 as debt that converts to stock.
“There’s a clear demand from consumers and partners alike for new and better ways to share digital media and communicate with family and friends,” said Michael Sawtell, DigitalPost’s chief executive.
The money is set to be used to hire staff and add features to the company’s two sites, TheFamilyPost.com and WebsitesForHeroes.com.
The sites use special compression technology that “shrinks” photos and videos as they’re uploaded so it doesn’t put a strain on bandwidth.
Unlike other social networking and picture-sharing sites, they are free of advertising.
Annual subscriptions to the sites go for about $100.
The pages of WebsitesForHeroes.com, which is geared toward people serving in the military and their families, are free.
