Zilliant Achieves another Record First Half for 2008

Rapid adoption, recognition and growth of price optimization fuels momentum.

Austin, Texas (EMWNews) July 16, 2008 — Zilliant, the leading provider of price optimization and management software for business-to-business (B2B) companies, announced record results for the first half of 2008. Annualized sales for the period increased by more than 70% for the third year in a row, reflecting overall market momentum and Zilliant’s proven ability to deliver significant profit gains to manufacturers, distributors and industrial services companies.

“Price optimization is fast becoming the go-to solution for profitable growth, particularly in discrete manufacturing and industrial distribution,” said Greg Peters, Zilliant CEO. “Many of our customers in these industries are reporting double-digit margin growth despite rising material costs and a slowing economy. Our unique ability to deliver results like these is a clear demonstration of Zilliant’s position as the de facto price optimization solution for B2B companies.”

Zilliant customers’ performance is consistent with industry analysts’ predictions that price optimization technology will increasingly become an investment priority. For example, in their recently released Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2008, Gartner designated price optimization and management software for B2B as the only CRM application that provides “transformational” benefits.

“The potential for this market is significant, because defining and defending optimal prices is a fundamental imperative for enterprises responsible for producing returns for stakeholders,” states Michael Dunne, Research VP for Gartner in the report. Moreover, “The price optimization and management market differs from most other applications because it offers strategic benefits (helping organizations grow revenue and margins) and operational efficiencies (helping companies save time and cut costs).”

In addition to strong financial performance, Zilliant first half highlights include:

• Customer win rate – Zilliant was consistently selected by the majority of new manufacturing and distribution customers investing in price optimization.
• Expansion of senior leadership team – Zilliant hired Rafe VanDenBerg as Director of Pricing Excellence, and Anand Medepalli as Director of Professional Services for EMEA.    
• European growth – Zilliant now has five live deployments across the Europe.    
• ProfitShare’08 – Zilliant launched ProfitShare, the inaugural user conference at which over 120 customers, prospects and partners gathered to share pricing technology best practices, network and learn about new Zilliant pricing software and science capabilities.
• Customer accolades – the Zilliant project at Schneider Electric was awarded their global “new2 Trophy” in the Growth category. The initiative was selected from among hundreds of submissions based on delivering significant, measurable improvements to Schneider’s pricing efficiency and effectiveness despite rising materials costs.
• Analyst recognition – Gartner released two reports covering the price optimization and management space – the Gartner MarketScope for Price Optimization and Management, 2008 for which Zilliant received a positive rating; and the Gartner Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2008 for which price optimization and management for B2B was recognized for its transformational benefits(1). A copy of the 2008 Gartner Hype Cycle for CRM Sales can be requested on Zilliant’s web site – www.zilliant.com.

About Zilliant:

Zilliant is the leading provider of price optimization and price management applications for manufacturing, distribution, high-tech, and industrial service companies. Zilliant Precision Pricing Suite (ZPPS) uses existing transactional data to improve decisions across all facets of price analysis, setting and execution. ZPPS applications combine powerful price segmentation and optimization science with easy-to-use business applications to help companies achieve the best pricing possible on every deal, increasing profits by tens of millions of dollars. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Zilliant is a privately held company. Investors include Austin Ventures, Cardinal Ventures, JP Morgan Partners, and Trellis Partners. For more information contact Zilliant at 877.893.1085 or visit www.zilliant.com.

(1)Gartner Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2008, Michael Dunne, June 2008

The MarketScope is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.