EXTRANET
NEWS *
Published Weekly
Editors: Joel Orr, N'omi Orr, Stephen
Orr
http://www.extranetnews.com
1. INTERVIEW: BOM.com: Going Strong
2. THE LIST
3. TIDBITS
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
1.
INTERVIEW: BOM.com: Going Strong
EXTRANET NEWS interviewed Michael
Topolovac, CEO, and Tamara Carleton, PR (http://www.bom.com).
We last spoke with BOM.com in August,
2001. In spite of all that has happened in the intervening months, BOM.com
appears to be prospering.
“One of the ‘wins’ we’re really proud
of is design firm IDEO. And we are beginning to be seen as a very inexpensive
alternative to an expensive ERP implementation,” said Topolovac.
Why is BOM.com surviving when companies
with more ambitious business plans and better funding, like RedSpark, are gone?
“RedSpark never shipped, and wasn’t
Web-native. They spent $17 million and had no real customers to show for it. We
spent $1.2 million and started accumulating paying customers,” said Topolovac.
“We’re not file-centric,” he explained.
“We’re BOM-centric. We control files. We are truly a product lifecycle
management (PLM) application. And because we are Web-based, we are much more
scalable than client-server applications, he said.”
The company has 22 employees. The
service is priced at $1000/user/year. The installed base is over 30 companies,
with more than ten users in each.
New features recently added include
change management workflow; versioning and notifications; and incorporation of
supply-chain partners.
Topolovac is certain that all database
applications will be Web-centric. “My question is,
where are we on the adoption curve? But then I look at Salesforce.com, a $150
million company, and I realize that the market is already there.”
The system is based on Oracle 8i, and
has an engaging user interface. Start-up is almost instantaneous. BOM.com
imports delimited text files; the company also provides a data-import service.
Our take: Watch this one; it’s going to
be big. And solid.
2. THE LIST
Total companies: 254 (see who’s on The
List at http://www.extranetnews.com)
ADDED: 1
* Aconex.com, an Australian AEC PLM
provider.
NOTE: I haven’t received any input from
readers on engineering uses of blogs yet. If you know of any, please tell us.
3. TIDBITS
* On http://www.extranetnews.com, you
will find a report on Web-enabled project management, by Mustafa Alshawi and Bingunath Ingirige, of the
* Go to http://www.sodaplay.com. But
beware of getting addicted! (Thanks, Malcolm Davies, for the link!)
* Go to
http://www.enr.com/new/indcal.asp for ENR’s construction-industry calendar.
* Check out CADwire: Go to http://www.cadwire.net for a
daily dose of well-organized news, press releases, and commentary from Joel and
his associates in Cyon Research Corporation.
* You still have a few days left to register
for COFES 2002. “The best industry event in 20 years!” agree attendees.
REGISTER NOW: COFES 2002 - The Third
Congress on the Future of Engineering Software is scheduled for May 2-5 at the
* Attend The
American Institute of Architects 2002 National Convention and Expo;
* Attend A/E/C SYSTEMS 2002,
4. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
We must believe in free will, we have no choice.
-- Isaac B. Singer