Zanett... Perficient... Sapient... All Named Standouts in Revenue Growth... Professional Services Firms In Stronger Showing By Heather Clancy, CRN

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 2006--Providers of commercial IT professional services made a strong financial showing over the four-week period ended Aug. 21.

Services players were one of only two of the six sectors followed closely by CRN, which included commercial IT professional services, IT outsourcing, IT distributors, offshore outsourcing, IT direct marketers and IT resellers, to trend upward during the period. IT direct marketers also made a strong showing.

According to data provided by CRN information partner Martin Wolf Securities, revenue growth on an annualized basis for the segment was 9.4 percent, compared with 8.5 percent reported during the week of July 24. Gross margin was unchanged at 28 percent, but profits as measured by EBITDA (defined as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) rose to 6.6 percent from 4.3 percent for the earlier period.

Standouts in terms of revenue growth included Perficient, Zanett and Sapient. The top three companies in terms of gross margins were Management Network Group, Answerthink and Sapient.

Direct marketers recorded revenue growth of 12.2 percent for the period ended with the Aug. 21 report, up from 11.2% at the beginning of the four-week period. Gross margins edged up to 12.9 percent from 12.7 percent. EBITDA was 2.5 percent, compared with 2.4 percent.

Direct marketer leaders in terms of revenue growth were Softchoice, Zones and PC Connection; gross margin leaders were Dell, CDW and Systemax.experiencing increases in IT Service gross margins, as is Zanett's IT peer group, led by Austin-based Perficient, Inc (NASDAQ: PRFT - News).