Zilliant, a price optimization and management software for B2B vendor, today announced what company officials call “record results” for the first half of 2008.

 

Annualized sales for the period increased by more than 70 percent for the third year in a row, which the Zilliantines attribute to “overall market momentum” as well as Zilliant’s products and services, according to the company.

 

“Price optimization is becoming the go-to product for profitable growth, particularly in discrete manufacturing and industrial distribution,” said Greg Peters, Zilliant’s chief executive officer. “Many of our customers in these industries are reporting double-digit margin growth despite rising material costs and a slowing economy.”

 

Zilliant customers’ performance is consistent with industry analysts’ predictions that price optimization technology will increasingly become an investment priority. In their recently released Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2008, Gartner (News - Alert) designated price optimization and management software for B2B as “the only CRM application that provides ‘transformational’ benefits,” Zilliant officials say.

 

“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 vice president for Gartner in the report. “The price optimization and management market differs from most other applications because it offers strategic benefits and operational efficiencies.”

 

In addition to its financial performance, Zilliant first half highlights include the hiring of Rafe VanDenBerg as director of pricing excellence, and Anand Medepalli as director of professional services for EMEA.    

 

Also the first half saw Zilliant launch ProfitShare, a user conference, according to the company.

 

The company’s Precision Pricing Suite comprises seven applications built on what company officials call “pricing science, business intelligence tools, and flexible process automation capabilities.”

 

Gartner’s MarketScope says that “the market for price optimization and management software is rapidly gaining visibility and growing by more than 30 percent per year, as enterprises increasingly look to capitalize on the business value such applications offer in improving margins, revenue and efficiencies with pricing processes.”

 

The report went on to say that “through 2010, price optimization technology will have a more-direct impact on increasing revenue or margins than any other CRM technology.”

 

“Pricing may be the last bastion of guesswork in B2B companies,” Peters said.