The Montana Mogul: RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte (Part 5)

SM: Is there any particular market segment that you have targeted, or do you simply focus on companies by size?

GG: We have about 1,800 clients who tend to be larger organizations. Over 60% of our business is with corporations that have over $1 billion in revenue. Some of our larger verticals are telecommunications, which accounts for 19% of revenues, and technology which, accounts for 17% of our revenues. We also earn 14% of our revenues from government agencies and educational institutions, 13% from consumer products companies, 8% from financial and insurance, 6% from travel and hospitality as well as from manufacturing. We do not have a single client that accounts for more than 10% of our revenues, so our client base is diversified and distributed. This goes a long way to showing our strength as a company.

SM: You sell on a Software-as-a-Service model, so I am assuming you have monthly or annual fees, and do not offer perpetual licenses?

GG: We did have some perpetual licenses but those were discontinued in 2007. We are now an SaaS model with a two-year time-based agreement. Customers do not have an obligation to continue service; however, this has not been a problem. We have been growing very strong.

SM: Can you name some of your clients?

GG: Sure. Medicare, Motorola, Black and Decker, Briggs and Stratton, and Nikon are some examples. They are big organizations with a focus on the consumer.

SM: How long is your sales cycle?

GG: It typically ranges from 60 to 180 days.

SM: I know you have expanded into CRM. Could you identify your main products and discuss how they correlate to your annual revenue?

GG: Our CRM solution accounts for about 80% of our revenue. We have expanded this tremendously over the years. RightNow Service provides an integrated, multi-channel customer services capability that captures customer interactions across traditional and online channels. This is the product we have evolved from the initial days, and we have now have developed patents on this technology.

We now have RightNow Marketing, which is designed to deliver the functionality needed to manage multi-channel, multi-stage marketing campaigns. It automates standard campaign activities, optimizes resources, and leverages the information capture in sales and service interactions.

Another product we have developed along the way is RightNow Sales, which simplifies the sales process so that sales organizations can more easily manage accounts, track leads, organize contacts and basically sell more, all while leveraging the customer information that is already in the common platform.

SM: Are all of these products sold via your sales force or have you now developed partnership programs?

GG: We do have strategic partnerships, which is our indirect channel revenue. At the end of 2007 we had 63 partners in our worldwide partner program.

SM: Can you disclose who some of them are?

GG: The include folks like West Corporation, Lockheed Martin, and Convergys. We also brought on IBM in 2007.

SM: Is you market based solely in the US or do you have an international market as well?

GG: We have a significant international market which is growing. International sales accounted for 26% of revenue in 2006, and 29% of revenue in 2007. We plan on having continued grow in international markets.

This segment is part 5 in the series : The Montana Mogul: RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte
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