CHICAGO, April 19, 1999 — Microsoft Corp. today announced
“Winning on Windows® , the ISV 75,”
a new annual ranking of North America’s fastest-growing independent software vendors (ISVs) for the Windows operating system for 1998. These top 75 ISVs that target Microsoft® Windows for their application development efforts are growing at an impressive 119 percent yearly – more than 8.5 times the industry average – and delivered more than $1 billion in innovative IT solutions in 1998.
The ISV 75 ranking was announced last evening at a reception in Chicago attended by more than 200 ISVs, industry leaders and venture capitalists at COMDEX/Spring ’99 and Windows World. Keynote speakers included Tod Nielsen, vice president of Microsoft Developer Marketing, and Bill Reichert, president of garage.com, a Silicon Valley-based company that works with start-ups and investors to locate funding and provide professional services that start-ups need to grow their business.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate these ISVs’ phenomenal growth in this first-ever ‘Winning on Windows’ ranking,”
Nielsen said.
“Microsoft’s success as a platform vendor is to a great degree based on the success of the third-party development community. These companies are building the innovative solutions for Windows that their customers demand, and are helping deliver on our vision of improving the way people live, work and do business.”
“Many people in the industry would have you think that there’s limited opportunity for growth and success for ISVs on Microsoft platforms, but this ranking completely shatters that myth,”
Reichert said.
“With companies ranging from young start-ups to established industry veterans, the ISV 75 resoundingly demonstrates the tremendous depth of possibility and innovation available on Windows that continues to drive this industry forward at an unprecedented rate.”
Top ISVs Experience Stellar Growth
The top 75 ISVs (see appendix for complete list) were identified based on research conducted by independent research firm Reality Research Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMP Media Inc., and sponsored by Microsoft’s MSDN
™
ISV Program and Information Week. As a group, the ISV 75 achieved an annual growth rate of 119 percent in 1998, more than doubling average annual sales of $6.4 million in 1997 to a projected $14 million each by the end of fiscal 1998. Many of the top companies experienced hypergrowth of 500 percent to
2,300 percent – more than 160 times the 14 percent compound annual growth rate for the 1998 software market worldwide, as projected by International Data Corp.
NetIQ Corp. Wins Top Honors
Topping the esteemed ISV 75 list as the fastest-growing ISV was NetIQ Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., a leading provider of systems and application management solutions for the Microsoft Windows NT® operating system, with nearly 2,250 percent revenue growth in 1998. NetIQ is leading the way in creating comprehensive systems management solutions for Windows 2000 with its NetIQ AppManager Suite, announcing today that the current release of AppManager will support the beta 3 release of Windows 2000 when it ships. In addition, Microsoft will ship an updated version of the NetIQ WBEM (Web-Based Enterprise Management Initiative) Agent, which utilizes key Windows 2000-based management technologies such as the Common Information Model (CIM) and Windows Management Instrumentation, with each copy of Windows 2000 beta 3, offering tremendous manageability and ease of use for developers and customers of Windows 2000.
“NetIQ’s success would not have happened without the comprehensive development support offered by Microsoft, combined with the demand for Windows NT-based solutions, which has created a market ripe for innovative companies with solid product offerings,”
said Ching-Fa Hwang, president and CEO of NetIQ Corp.
Windows DNA and Windows 2000 Lead the Way to ISV and Customer Benefits
The ISV 75 are delivering innovative Windows-based solutions in more than 56 vertical and horizontal segments, including products for accounting, systems management, enterprise resource planning, health care, legal, telecom, financial services and more. More than 79 percent of the ISV 75 are building distributed applications, employing the Microsoft Windows Distributed interNet Applications (Windows DNA) architecture and the Visual Studio® development system to deliver leading-edge distributed Web-based applications for their customers. In addition, more than two-thirds of the ISV 75 are already developing applications for the forthcoming release of Windows 2000, taking advantage of key new features such as Windows Management Instrumentation, the Active Directory
™
directory service, Single Sign On and Windows Installer to build the easily manageable, reliable applications enterprise users demand for their business-computing needs.
Learn More About
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Winning on Windows, the ISV 75
”
“Winning on Windows, the ISV 75”
will be featured in this week’s issue of Information Week and also highlighted on Microsoft’s Web site. More information on these emerging industry leaders and their products, solutions, success stories and growth is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnisv/winning/ . In addition, more than 25 of the top 75 ISVs will be showcasing their applications this week in Microsoft’s Partner Pavilion, Booth W1562, at COMDEX/Spring ’99 and Windows World in Chicago, April 19-22. See http://events.microsoft.com/events/winworld/pavilion.htm for details.
About the MSDN ISV Program
“Winning on Windows, the ISV 75”
is co-sponsored by the MSDN ISV Program, a free co-marketing and business development program for ISVs that produce shrink-wrapped or downloadable software that is commercially available and supports or runs on Microsoft products, technologies and platforms . Microsoft also offers the MSDN ISV Startup Program, which provides marketing and promotional opportunities and venture capital relations activities for newly established or start-up companies in the computer industry. More information on these programs is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnisv/ .
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, Windows, MSDN, Windows NT, Visual Studio and Active Directory are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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Appendix:
“Winning on Windows, the ISV 75”
