ARC Internet Software: Two Vendors Share the Gold

In a classic David and Goliath scenario, Allaire, with 1999 revenue of $55.2 million, shares first place in the Internet software space with IBM, whose 1999 revenue totaled $87.5 billion. Each company, however, achieved top ranking in this year's Annual Report Card in very different ways.

Allaire, Newton, Mass., beat out all comers in the products/pricing area, in which it scored 84 points,two points ahead of IBM and Vignette.

"We produce high-quality, accessible, productive and affordable Web-development software, which provides our partners with unlimited potential to leverage Allaire's software across a wide variety of customers," says David Orfao, president and CEO of Allaire.

IBM, Armonk, N.Y., showed consistency across all categories never goes out of style. It won in the support and partnership subcategories and tied with Vignette for second place in products/pricing with an 82. The company scored 76 points in the support subcategory, two points ahead of its nearest challengers, Allaire and Vignette, and 79 points in partnership, tying for first with Microsoft in administration of SP program. It led in channel strategy and e-business program.

"We are focused on growing the network of trained system integrators and training partners that can take advantage of the application development productivity and flexibility provided by WebSphere," says Paraic Sweeney, vice president of WebSphere product marketing. "Together with IBM, our partners can address the exploding demand for education, implementation and integration services."