Top Ten
Year's Best
Features
1. Charles River Labs
2. TJX
3. Perini
4. Investors Fin. Svcs.
5. Gillette
6. Staples
7. OneSource
8. Reebok
9. Bright Horizons
10. State Street
2002 Globe 100
Company of year
Highest market value
Highest sales
Comeback of the year
Biggest stock gain
Fastest growth
Overall performance
Bulls and Bears
Bulls
1. Clean Harbors
2. Hologic
3. NMT Medical
4. DeWolfe
5. Indevus Pharm.
Bears
1. Sonus Networks
2. Art Tech. Group
3. Praecis Pharm.
4. American Tower
5. Dusa Pharmaceutical
Banking
Market value
Sales
Biotech
Medical devices
Growth
1. Cytyc
2. Polymedica Corp.
3. Perini
4. Tweeter
5. Boston Private Fin.
Telecom
Employment
Technology
IPOs
Company profiles
Globe 100 notes
The 2002 Globe 100
All the charts
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7. O N E S O U R C E I N F O R M A T I O N
S E R V I C E S I N C .
 Don Schimmel, OneSource's CEO, has been focusing on sales to large companies, "a more stable customer base." |
Shift in selling strategy is paying off big time
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ocial climbing has worked fine for OneSource Information Services Inc.
Previously the Concord software firm sold most of its products to small and midsized companies. But beginning in 2001, OneSource chief executive Daniel Schimmel focused on sales to larger companies, which he describes as "a more stable customer base" for OneSource as its dot-com customers slipped away.
The strategy won OneSource customers including Cisco Systems, Compaq Computer Corp., and Siemens AG and brought back customers such as Oracle and Sun Microsystems. As a result, the company saw revenue rise to $59 million in 2001 from $52 million in 2000, and reported $4.7 million in net income in 2001, up from $858,000 in 2000.
The results are respectable, considering the software sector's carnage. In fact, OneSource is the highest-ranked technology company in the Globe 100 this year despite its relatively small size, a performance that indicates how much peers that once dominated the rankings -- such as CMGI Inc. -- have suffered.
OneSource got its start as a division of Lotus Development Corp. and became independent in a 1993 buyout by Schimmel and other managers. It sells software used by sales and marketing executives to track the finances and management of more than a million public and private companies.
During 2001, the firm laid off about 60 employees to reduce its staff to 240, 170 of whom work in Concord.
This year the stock has given back last year's gains, falling in February after OneSource lowered its guidance for 2002. Adams, Harkness & Hill analyst Steve Frankel said the company blamed its problems on "the usual reasons" for a technology company, mainly slower spending by customers. Still, Frankel said OneSource's profitability should count for something these days. "They're clearly a survivor."
ROSS KERBER
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© Copyright 2002 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing Inc. |
