Brisbane ISV signs three US deals

Brisbane ISV Ephox has signed three OEM deals with US-based companies for its browser-based authoring software EditLive! for Java, ahead of plans to expand into Europe in 2005.

Mike Wallas, Asia-Pacific region director for Ephox, said the developer had signed enterprise content and document management firm EMC Documentum, online marketing company Art Technology Group (ATG) and enterprise content management software provider Open Text in the US.

“I can't disclose the value of the deals,” he said. “But they're certainly going to add probably another 50 percent to our revenues.”

The trio of customers would integrate EditLive! for Java into their own product ranges to let users publish content online using What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) familiar Microsoft Office-based content, he said.

Wallas said Ephox started up when it developed EditLive! in 1998 and had been growing fast – albeit off a small base – since then. The ISV had netted various deals in the US over the years and had set up its main sales and marketing office in that country.

“We will be opening an office in Europe in 2005,” he said. “And we will be growing [staff numbers] fairly significantly in the US in the next year.”

He would not disclose the actual size of Ephox' revenue base. However, the company had 15 staff and was headquartered in Brisbane where its main development facilities were also located, he said.

“We expect to grow about 60 percent in the next year, overall. We grew over 52 percent in the last financial year and 80 percent in the year before that,” he said.

That was all organic growth, Wallas said, with no additional capital-raising needed at any stage.

Ephox was also seeking channel partners in Australia, he added.

Wallas said EMC Documentum had integrated EditLive! for Java into its web publisher editor system, letting users edit HTML and XML content through its application interface.

Open Text would bundle EditLive! XML and XHTML authoring technologies with its Livelink Web Content Management Server, he said.

ATG would bundle Ephox's EditLive! authoring technologies with a range of ATG products, such as ATG Content Administration, he said.

Ephox claims to have some 1200 customers – numbering some 500,000 users - of its products in 40 countries.