By Erika Morphy CRM Buyer Part of the ECT News Network
03/15/07 12:14 PM PT
"Asset management and patch management are a natural complement to FrontRange's existing service desk offerings," Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of Nucleus Research, told CRM Buyer. "Integration of the products will position FrontRange better to compete against integrated service desk suite vendors like CA and BMC," she commented, "and hopefully provide customers with an easier-to-manage service desk environment."
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FrontRange has acquired
Enteo, a privately held Germany-based company, at undisclosed terms. The firm's product offerings include applications for patch management, distribution of operating systems and applications, license management and compliance, and configuration management. It has 1,200 customers.
Initially, FrontRange intends to integrate its Heat help desk and IT Service Management (ITSM) with Endeo's patch management, software distribution and license management products, Kevin J. Smith, vice president of products for FrontRange, told CRM Buyer.
"We don't have remediation functionality. They don't have service management," he explained.
The initial integration should be ready to test within 30 to 60 days, and an out-of-the-box, fully integrated product should be available within 90 days, Smith estimated.
"Their architecture is compatible with our .Net platform, so the alignment is good," he noted.
Push to the Desktop
The space FrontRange is targeting is occupied by companies that need to push applications to -- or otherwise have access to -- clients' desktops. A help desk, for instance, might need to send a patch quickly to thousands of employees. License management is another possible use, Smith noted.
In short, the acquisition leverages the company's expertise in two largely unexplored niches: asset and lifecycle management; and IT management.
"Asset management and patch management are a natural complement to FrontRange's existing service desk offerings," Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of Nucleus Research, told CRM Buyer.
"Integration of the products will position FrontRange better to compete against integrated service desk suite vendors like CA and BMC," she commented, "and hopefully provide customers with an easier-to-manage service desk environment."
More to Come
It has been close to a year since FrontRange was taken private by Francisco Partners in a US$200 million transaction. At the time, FrontRange CEO Michael McCloskey said that deep pockets would give FrontRange flexibility to make acquisitions.
This has been the first purchase since then, but the firm is planning at least one and perhaps two additional acquisitions this year, according to Smith.
"We are looking at how we can continue to extend our IT footprint," he said, noting that server management is one area the firm is examining for expansion.
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