RightNow Is Getting It Right

Recently, RightNow (NASDAQ:RNOW) implemented its customer relationship management (CRM) software for Motley Fool Inside Value pick Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU). And Intuit liked what it got right away. According to an Intuit executive: "RightNow's product did in 45 days what Siebel's (NASDAQ:SEBL) took more than two and a half years to do."

RightNow provides a comprehensive array of services for enterprise CRM, such as Web self-service, voice self-service, surveys, marketing campaigns, and sales tracking. These services are proving popular with major customers; in fact, more than 52% of RightNow's revenues come from companies with sales in excess of $1 billion.

The success is translating into strong financial results. In the third quarter, revenues at RightNow increased 41% to $23.2 million, marking the company's 31st consecutive quarter of revenue growth. It snagged more than 90 new customers, including Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and Prudential Insurance, a subsidiary of Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU). The customer count for RightNow is more than 1,400.

The third quarter also brought an increase in net income, which climbed more than 60% to $2.3 million, or $0.70 per diluted share. The company has generated an impressive $11.1 million in cash from operations year-to-date, with more than $7 million in free cash flow. In addition, RightNow has a cash cushion of more than $60 million, against a negligible $150,000 in debt.

RightNow's on-demand version of its CRM product is expected to be a growth driver in the future. Companies can use the software as a service, in which RightNow handles the administration, facilities, hosting, and database management, while customers log in to the system and pay fees on a subscription basis. Technology industry watcher IDC projects on-demand customer service solutions to grow from a $4.2 billion market in 2004 to $10.7 billion in 2009, and that's certainly good news for RightNow.

Consolidation in the CRM space also appears to be a positive for the company. "Oracle's (NASDAQ:ORCL) announced acquisition of Siebel has created a leadership vacuum among large enterprises evaluating CRM solutions," says RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte. "Not only are we poised to fill that vacuum, but our hundreds of deployments in large enterprises give us an established record of success as we move to up-sell those customers to larger RightNow deployments."

In other words, it looks as though RightNow is in the right place at the right time.

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Fool contributor Tom Taulli does not own shares of any company mentioned in this article.