New company formed to develop Geac BI tools

27.03.2006
Golden Gate Capital Corp. completed its US$1 billion acquisition of Geac Computer Corp. on March 14 and last week launched a company called Extensity Inc. to further develop and sell Geac's financial applications and business intelligence tools. Geac's enterprise planning software line was shifted to Golden Gate-funded company Infor Global Solutions. Ken Walters, president and CEO of Atlanta-based Extensity and former president and chief operating officer at Infor, recently discussed his plans for the business with Computerworld.

CW: What is the focus of the new company?

KW: Our focus is going to be on the total needs of the finance groups [in companies] worldwide. They are being called on more and more to provide actionable, real-time data into the business operations, along with [managing] Sarbanes-Oxley and regulatory requirements. They need to be able to pull information out of the financial systems [and] provide that data to the business operations to allow them to drive decision-making on a day-to-day basis. Extensity is very well positioned to take advantage of those financial transactions, from the back office to the measurement systems and the business intelligence systems that are being put into place.

CW: How will Extensity differentiate itself from the many other vendors of BI tools?

KW: Golden Gate Capital has developed a strategy around assembling specific solutions around specific marketplaces. We have the backing and capability to not only develop internally the products we currently have, but the capability to do acquisitions. We're starting out at about $325 million in revenue -- very profitable -- with a lot of recurring revenue and with a great opportunity to do acquisitions and grow organically. We come out of the blocks as a very global company with strong reach around the world.

CW: What are your short-term and long-term product plans?