Economists may be declaring the recession an unpleasant memory, but Epicor Software Corp. CEO George Klaus isn’t ready to assume that growth for his enterprise applications company is just around the corner. In fact, Epicor’s business plan assumes significant growth won’t return to the enterprise software market before the second half of 2010.
“I hope I’m wrong,” Klaus told Managing Automation at the company’s recent Perspectives conference in Las Vegas, attended by about 1,000 customers. “But we’re going to put a conservative plan in place for next year, that’s for sure. And we’re not going to let our expenses get ahead of our revenue plan.”
Epicor, which earlier this year faced and at least temporarily sidestepped an unfriendly takeover offer from private equity firm Elliott Associates, doesn’t have the cash to mount any significant acquisition of its own, Klaus said.
Not that Epicor lacks opportunities to reverse a difficult third quarter in which the company’s license revenue fell 38.7% and overall revenue dropped 27.4%. Current bookings are strong, Klaus said, led by the company’s year-old Epicor 9 platform. So far, Klaus told customers at Perspectives, 60 customers have gone live on Epicor 9, and 590 are in the process of going live. The company expects to have 100 live Epicor 9 customers by year’s end.