Danish treasury software vendor SimCorp is to change the name of its flagship investment management system TMS2000 to SimCorp Dimension and introduce an ASP-based version of its IT/2 treasury product in an effort to boost flagging sales.
The vendor reported record fourth quarter sales of Dkr170-175m, equal to top line growth of 19% relative to the same period of 2001. Nevertheless, estimates indicate full-year consolidated sales of Dkr505-510m, 10% up on 2001, but Dkr5-10 million below minimum forecasts. The vendor is blaming extended sales cycles for the undershoot. SimCorp management forecasts sales of not less than Dkr575m in 2003, equivalent to at least 13% sales growth.
As part of a concerted effort to extend its user base internationally, the company is to rebrand its flagship product TMS2000 to SimCorp Dimension. The name change coincides with the release of version 3.3 of the end-to-end STP product, which now includes support for portfolio and client management, additional fund accounting and an integration tool that supports transaction based interfaces to third parties. The upgrade conforms to Microsoft’s XP standard and new features include a menu structure that reflects and supports user work processes more dynamically than previous versions did.
Following disappointing sales of the company's IT/2 treasury management system, SimCorp says its will introduce a new lower-cost and lower price Internet distribution model as part of the planned January 2003 release of version 5.0 of the product. The upgrade offers a new, advanced user interface and other facilities based on Microsoft’s .NET technology.
The new sales channel, labelled IT/2 Choice, offers prospective customers direct access to testing and assessing the product’s functionality and application potential as well as to buying and implementing full IT/2 functionality.