Sagent: Making Companies More Intelligent

Sagent is a developer
of e-business intelligence solutions. Basically, the technologies help
companies focus on two key areas: costs and revenues.
Think of the technology as providing a 360-degree view of a business – in
real-time.

Because technology is moving so fast, Sagent’s technology is based on an
application service provider (ASP) model. For example, Sagent recently added
features for XML information delivery via wireless protocols. Sagent has
also focused on rapid deployment. There are features like pre-packaged
reports and wizards to make installations easier. Futhermore, Sagent
has a professional services division.

The company has a sterling customer list, such as Sony, AT&T and Kemper
National Insurance. Sagent also has top strategic partners:
Compaq, EDS and CommerceOne (companies that have been spreading the Sagent
technology).

The CommerceOne arrangement is particularly important. Yesterday, Sagent
and CommerceOne launched the BuySite Business Intelligence Kit
(version 1.0). The product integrates Sagent’s data analysis capabilities
into CommerceOne’s BuySite (which is a top e-procurement application).
This allows B2B buyers to track enterprise spending habits, purchasing
patterns and so on. Sagent’s solutions will be bundled with all shipments
of BuySite.

So far, Sagent has shown that it can produce strong financial results. In
terms of revenues, the company had $14.5 million in the latest quarter,
which was up from $8.9 million in the same period last year. Losses were
manageable: $2 million. Further, Sagent added top new customers like Bank
of America, Citibank, and OfficeMax.com.

The stock shot up yesterday on the CommerceOne news. Also, an analyst from
Chase H&Q released a bullish report on the company, indicating that the June
quarter will be strong. In an environment where companies are
pre-announcing bad quarters, Sagent could be very attractive. But it would
probably make sense to wait a few days, so as to get a better price.