The Software 500 Methodology

Software Magazine, June, 1999

The Software 500 is a comprehensive look at the enterprise software landscape, encompassing both public and private companies that develop and market business software for a wide variety of industries. The ranking is based on total worldwide software revenue for 1998. Suppliers are not ranked on their total corporate revenue, since many have other lines of business in addition to software.

Software revenue includes license fees, as well as revenue from product maintenance and support. Revenue from professional services/consulting, custom programming, training, and hardware sales is excluded. Figures are based on the calendar year so that all firms are measured over the same four quarters. Exceptions are noted in the footnotes to the ranking chart, as are all estimated revenues. The financial information was gathered from Software Magazine's vendor survey. public documents, and industry analysts. Steve Bonadio, senior analyst with the Hurwitz Group in Framingham, m,.Mass., was a contributing editor to this report.