Symphony Metreo Repeats Leadership Position in Ventana Research 2007 BI and Performance Management Scorecard

Business Wire, Oct 30, 2007

Enhancements in SymphonyRPM 5.2 Help Company Extend its Leadership Position Across Multiple Categories

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Symphony Metreo, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise pricing and operations management solutions, today announced its SymphonyRPM performance management platform has attained one of the highest rankings in Ventana Research's 2007 Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management Scorecard - Midyear Update. The SymphonyRPM 5.2 platform received a total score of 94.27 percent, improving upon Symphony Metreo's leadership position in the overall BI and Performance Management rankings compared to last year. Results of the annual scorecard were recently unveiled at Connections 2007, a Ventana Research conference.

The Ventana Research's 2007 Scorecard involved more than 17 vendors, 349 questions and 47 functional capabilities. In addition to achieving a leadership position in the Overall category with a score of 94.27%, Symphony Metreo secured a leadership position in the Optimize category (95.24%) and was amongst the best in Align and Understand with scores of 91.35% and 95.65%, respectively.

"Performance Management technologies are garnering increased attention across the industry, with end user organizations realizing the business value these solutions can support as key building blocks to corporate performance, while major ISVs continue to drive consolidation in this space," said Mark Smith, CEO and executive vice president of research, Ventana Research. "Symphony Metreo and its SymphonyRPM platform have become perennial leaders in Ventana Research's annual scorecard analysis. We credit Symphony Metreo's success to its commitment to improving functionality and usability around predictive, forward-looking analysis and planning that helps their customers turn business challenges into real competitive advantage."

The Ventana Research Scorecard is a tool that organizations can use to increase their understanding of how different software and solutions rank in meeting business and IT requirements for BI and Performance Management. This research, which is completely unbiased and objective, is the first industry effort to assess software designed specifically for enabling Performance Management. As opposed to other analyst reports that use subjective influence to score vendors, the Ventana Research 2007 BI and Performance Management Scorecard is based exclusively on scoring vendors' ability to provide specific capabilities in their software products and packages that meet business objectives for improving performance.

The report is broken out into three steps to achieve an overall score - Align, Optimize and Understand.

* Align: This step is focused on ensuring that the recommended actions and plans are in the direct path for reaching the goals, objectives and initiatives set out by executives and management.

* Optimize: This step is focused on planning for future actions and decisions to define the goals, objectives and initiatives as set out in the Align step.

* Understand: This step is focused on reviewing the historical performance of people and processes, enabling companies to understand how results impact the organization.

"We're pleased that Symphony Metreo and our SymphonyRPM platform have once again been recognized as leaders in the annual Ventana Research Scorecard. We take great pride in developing and delivering practical technology solutions and functionality that customers rely on to improve their corporate performance in the face of ever-changing and increasingly-competitive markets," said Tal Ball, CEO of Symphony Metreo. "As Ventana Research is well-respected across the industry for its focus on performance management, and thorough methodology and comprehensive analysis, we're honored to be recognized for the fourth year in a row as a leader amongst such an impressive list of competitors."

About Symphony Metreo

Symphony Metreo helps organizations meet their financial goals of Revenue and Margin with innovative solutions that align and synchronize top-down planning with bottom-up execution by focusing on the strategic levers of Price, Volume and Cost. Symphony Metreo serves global enterprises with innovative award winning applications in the areas of Enterprise Pricing, Operations Management and Performance Management. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Symphony-Metreo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Symphony Technology Group, a $1.2 billion strategic holding company. For additional information, visit http://www.symphony-metreo.com.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the leading research and advisory services firm focused on the intersection of people, processes, information and technology to enable breakthrough performance. By providing expert insight and detailed guidance, Ventana Research helps clients operate their companies more efficiently and effectively. To learn how Ventana Research Performance Management workshops, assessments and advisory services can impact your bottom line, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.