Affordable software monitors network operations

BOULDER ? Just because Absolute Performance Inc. has been around for nearly a decade doesn?t mean this old dog (in Internet years, anyway) can?t learn a few new entrepreneurial tricks.

Absolute Performance is launching its flagship product, System Shepherd, as a stand-alone hardware and software package.

Until now System Shepherd, an IT performance-monitoring and operations-management platform that helps companies manage and tune up their networks, has been available only as a remotely hosted application.

The time was right to have a version of System Shepherd available for companies that want to have more control over their network infrastructure, said Jerry Champlin, chief executive officer. Those customers include financial-services institutions and government agencies, he said, but continued that he could not reveal those customers? names.

?While the delivery model is new, System Shepherd itself is a very mature solution,? he said.
In fact, the entire IT operations-management-software industry is fairly mature. Absolute Performance competes with some pretty big players, including three heavy hitters from California: OpenView from Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Quest Software (Nasdaq: QUST) and NetIQ (Nasdaq: NTIQ).

All of these products help companies manage their IT assets with software that monitors and analyzes computer networks. They typically also offer alerts to IT staff when network problems arise and the ability to produce reports aimed at different audiences, from system administrators to executives.

One difference, Champlin said, is that System Shepherd can be designed and priced for small- and medium-size businesses ?that can?t afford HP OpenView solutions. We have a full range of customers, from startups that have two to 10 servers all the way up to large government agencies.?

Another is the ease if installation, he said. ?Everybody touts the idea of getting the product up and running quickly. We mean you can get it up and functional in a matter of hours.?

Champlin says System Shepherd also has a fairly nontechnical Web-based front end that?s easier for system administrators to use. ?We think a lot of the products were built by software engineers rather than systems managers.?

The product?s reporting capabilities are different as well, because not only does it point to problems, it suggests solutions. So, for example, if an Oracle database is failing, System Shepherd suggests ways to get it running again. ?That?s valuable for that mid-market company that can?t afford to staff an Oracle expert.?

The new offering involves placing an appliance on the company?s network along with subscribing to the software, Champlin said. The cost for the base System Shepherd platform that will monitor 12 network appliances (servers, routers, etc.) is $3,000 per month, and there is a one-year commitment.

When it?s remotely hosted, the cost for System Shepherd ranges from $225 to $450 per server per month depending on what?s being monitored and the type of reporting required, he said.
Many of Absolute Performance?s customers are converting to the in-house package, Champlin said. ?We?ve started to see a lot of demand within our client base.?

Champlin launched Absolute Performance in 1997 because of a need he saw as a consultant with a large IT consulting firm in Chicago. ?I had been working in consulting roles solving the same problem over and over again ? optimizing performance and availability for large (enterprise-resource-planning) platforms. From that we started to build System Shepherd so we could scale our business.?

As the company grew to include clients in the Midwest and on both coasts, Champlin found it hard to recruit talent in Chicago. He decided to relocate to Boulder in 1999 because of the talent base at companies like IBM, Sun Microsystems and Level 3, ?and the startup community was very hot at the time.?

The company has been profitable since day one, Champlin said. Revenues in 2004 were $3.2 million, and he expects to achieve $4 million this year.

Absolute Performance has grown to 29 employees, and Champlin said he?s adding personnel at the rate of one to three new hires per month.

Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at (303) 440-4950 or csellis@bcbr.com.

Absolute
Performance Inc.
2100 Central Ave., Suite 102
Boulder, CO 80301
(303) 443-7000
www.absolute-performance.com

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