Sterling Commerce named as Strong Performer

Independent research firm names Sterling Commerce as a Strong Performer in Enterprise Applications Software Licensing and Pricing Report.

Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc. subsidiary, has announced that the company has been named a Strong Performer by Forrester Research in its October 2007 report, The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Apps Software Licensing And Pricing, Q4 2007.  Enterprise applications software licensing and pricing refers to the available user-based metrics, usage metrics, delivery and financing mechanisms, policy support for the enterprise software licensee bill of rights (LBoR), and overall software life-cycle costs related to the customer-vendor experience in procuring software. 

For the report, Forrester evaluated the licensing and pricing strategies of leading enterprise applications vendors across 97 criteria.  Forrester created two distinct evaluations to address the small to medium business (SMB) and large enterprise paradigms.  The SMB evaluation prioritises user-based licensing, consistency, and simplicity, and the large enterprise evaluation focuses on flexibility.  Strong Performers receive medium-high scores on both the current offering and strategy dimensions but fall behind Leaders in at least one dimension. 

The report comments that Sterling Commerce achieved Strong Performer status in both the large enterprise and SMB editions of the survey.  The vendor offers a moderate range of usage-based metrics including orders, industry-specific usage metrics, and usage-based metrics.  Sterling Commerce earned average scores across the LBoR, implementation policies being the one area in which the vendor shone.  Sterling Commerces licensing and pricing policies are an especially good fit for buyers that seek a wide variety of usage-based metrics.

This is the first time Sterling Commerce has been included in this report.  We are pleased to have had the opportunity to participate, and proud to have scored well in both the enterprise and SMB categories, said Scott Pulsipher, senior vice president of Global Product Management and Marketing for Sterling Commerce.  Sterling Commerce has a deep portfolio of enterprise applications that are available the way our customers want to buy them, either on-site, on-demand or through managed services.  We understand that solutions alone are not enough, we want customers to do business with us because they feel they receive a superior experience, and this report acknowledges our efforts in that area.

In terms of being easy to do business with, the report states, Sterling Commerce leads with consistency of policy across all product lines and has made progress in freedom of choice in usage models, simplified pricing models, tailored pricing models, and forecasting capability.  A strong strategy corroborates customer comments about the ease of conducting business with Sterling Commerce. 

In Software Magazines Software 500, Sterling Commerce was ranked 74 in the revenue-based ranking of the worlds largest software and services suppliers targeting medium-to-large enterprises.  The companys enterprise applications solution, the Sterling Selling and Fulfilment Suite, is the industrys most comprehensive solution for managing the entire inquiry-to-cash cycle in the manufacturing, retail, distribution and communications sectors.  The Suite simplifies the complex inquiry-to-cash cycle by delivering the applications and technology to manage any demand, across any channel, for any mix of product and services, for any supply base, enabling companies to create a superior buying experience for their customers while shielding them from the complexities of the companies organisation, channels and supply chain. 

About Sterling Commerce

Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), helps customers thrive in a global economy by connecting their business communities, processes, people and technology.  More than 30,000 customers worldwide including 80 per cent of the Fortune 500 use Sterling Commerce solutions for business process integration and supply chain management to improve profitability inside and outside their company walls.  Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Sterling Commerce has offices in 19 countries and most major cities around the world.