Documentum Continues To ThriveDocumentum Continues To Thrive

Each quarter, Documentum Inc.'s earnings dwarf those of other independent content-management vendors. Its second-quarter earnings should provide a difficult target for the likes of Interwoven Inc. and Vignette Inc.

Perhaps more impressive, Documentum has managed to thrive during a period of severe challenges for business-software makers. Documentum had benefited during the dot-com crash from demand for linking the legacy documents it was best known for handling with Web sites and Internet applications. Now, the company is surfing on demand for ways to comply with new content-tracking-management regulations.

Documentum CEO Dave Dewalt told analysts during a conference call Thursday that the company's most significant deal during the recent quarter was the expansion of its relationship with the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA, which has used Documentum's core document-management software for the past four years, made a seven-figure commitment to standardize on Documentum technologies for all aspects of enterprise content management.

Dewalt said that Documentum's transition to a full-service enterprise content-management vendor combined with its move into new areas--such as project-workspace-collaboration software via its acqusition last year of eRoom Technology, and digital-asset management through its acquisition in late 2001 of Bulldog--has expanded its IT-shop footprint. "We're very mindful that we're attacking this as an infrastructure and platform play," he said.

For the third quarter, ended June 30, Documentum reported a profit of $575,000 on revenue of $68.2 million, compared with a loss of $473,000 on revenue of $54 million a year ago. Taking into account amortization and other one-time costs, quarterly profit was nearly $3.6 million. The quarter marked Documentum's seventh consecutive quarter of growth, as well as its third straight quarter of record revenue. Despite that, Documentum execs were disappointed that the company didn't meet revenue guidance, and adjusted their third-quarter expectations downward slightly. The company anticipates revenue of $72 million to $73 million for the coming quarter.