Kalido Continues Rapid Expansion and Reports Record Year Of Growth; Enterprise Data Warehouse and Master Data Management Provider Records Best Year to Date

Business Wire, Feb 21, 2006

BURLINGTON, Mass. / LONDON -- Kalido, the leading provider of enterprise data warehousing and master data management software, today announced that the company recorded its best year to date with nearly 70 percent year-over-year revenue growth during fiscal year 2005. Much of last year's growth resulted directly from the company's rising traction in North America. North American-based customers now make up approximately two-thirds of Kalido's current customer base.

The market for enterprise data warehousing and master data management (MDM) solutions continues to intensify as organizations struggle to obtain a 360-degree view of their business despite ongoing business change. According to recent reports by IDC, the total data warehouse market is expected to grow to $13.5 billion in 2009 at a nine percent compound annual growth rate(1) , while the market for MDM will reach $10.4 billion by the same year through a compounded annual growth rate of 13.8 percent(2).

Kalido's software provides Global 2000 organizations with consolidated, timely views of business performance so they can deal with the complexities of managing critical business data around the globe despite ongoing business change, disparate business units and incompatible corporate processes. In 2005, the growing need for this level of corporate insight has driven a significant increase in Kalido's customer base and helped lead to the largest transaction in the company's history with a Global 50 organization. Kalido's continued emphasis on addressing customer needs has enabled the company to achieve a 97 percent customer renewal rate this past year, exceeding industry standards. According to McKinsey & Co., a leading management consulting firm, best practice renewal rates for software fall in the 85 to 95 percent range(3).

"Where KALIDO is unique is on its emphasis that everything will change. You will acquire new subsidiaries, merge with someone else, add new products with new product attributes, add new sales structures and generally adapt to meet business demands. Traditional data warehouses cannot cope well with such changes," wrote Philip Howard of Bloor Research in the recent Bloor Report "Packaged Data Warehouses."

Kalido customers agree: "Executive decision-makers are aiming to drive costs out of the business and to make processes more efficient, and they simply do no have time to wait for systems to be redesigned to reflect change in the business," commented Jonathan Starkey, Enterprise Business Intelligence Technology and Data Manager, Labatt Breweries of Canada. "KALIDO adapts to change quickly and cost-effectively, and enables us to keep reporting aligned with the business as it changes."

Increased Corporate Strength

Growing market demand for Kalido's software worldwide led to the relocation of both of Kalido's London, UK and Burlington, Mass. headquarters to new, expanded office space. As part of the Burlington build-out, Kalido opened both an engineering facility and a customer support center in the United States, thereby mirroring all of the company's facilities in London.

Kalido also fortified the management team in 2005 with the appointment of Joan Nevins as chief financial officer and the announcement of two key executive relocations to U.S. headquarters - Chief Technology Officer Cliff Longman and Vice President of Field Operations Andy Thorburn. In addition, Kalido secured further financing of $13.5 million in a third round of equity financing contributed to equally by its three existing investors, Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners, for future U.S. market development and considerable growth of its engineering staff.

Additionally, Kalido continued to strengthen its Systems Integrator Partner program in 2005 through formal alliances with eight top-tier systems integrators. Particularly notable, Kalido established a strong partnership with Knightsbridge Solutions, the largest professional services firm exclusively focused on BI and data warehousing, to deliver actionable business intelligence and compliance-strength reporting information to enterprise organizations throughout business change.

Continued Technical Excellence

In 2005, Kalido received significant recognition for the second release of its award-winning KALIDO(R) 8 application suite and was heralded for its thought leadership and market penetration in the fast growing enterprise master data management market.

Among other KALIDO 8 Release 2 enhancements, the new release built upon the significant master data management capabilities of KALIDO 8 Release 1, such as improving KALIDO MDM usability and workflow capabilities, to present a market-leading MDM solution. KALIDO 8 Release 2 also provided further two-way integration between Kalido's applications for master data management and enterprise data warehousing. In addition, Kalido continued to demonstrate commitment to addressing an organization's end-to-end business intelligence (BI) requirements with the release of KALIDO Universe Manager for Business Objects.