Tuesday, April 20, 2004 19:29 (GMT-0400)


Brazilian software services company Resource Informática expects to nearly double revenues this year to 60mn reais (US$20mn), compared to 35mn reais last year, as sales to the United States improve, Resource chief executive Gilmar Batistela told BNamericas

By June, the company expects to sign its first two contracts in the United States for its network management product SiteSeeing, with more to follow in the second half of the year, in line with the company’s forecast in January

Resource is optimistic that sales to the US will pick up following the slowdown after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York. The company opened an office in 2000 in Miami but all business to date has been "irrelevant," he said.

In addition to selling off-the-shelf software, Resource will try to convince US companies to outsource their software design needs to its factory in Americanas, São Paulo state, Batistela said.

The company is "very close" to signing a contract with US equipment manufacturer Caterpillar to build procurement software for worldwide use, Batistela added.

The biggest unit growth this year, however, will be the company’s one-year-old partnership to distribute e-business and database solutions of US software producer Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL

This year, the company expects revenues from this partnership to reach 6.5mn reais, nearly three times the figure in 2003, Resource Oracle partnership director Alfredo Polito said.

Resource also distributes and implements software of US business intelligence software company Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN), and was that company’s top distributor in terms of revenues in Latin America in 2003, according to Batistela.

By Karen Keller

BNamericas.com