Front Porch’s 2009 Bookings the Best in 11-Year History

Front Porch Digital announced that the company’s 2009 sales bookings were the best in its 11-year history, representing a gain of more than 30 percent over 2008.

Moreover, the company closed more than 85 percent of the deals it competed for worldwide. Mike Knaisch, Front Porch Digital’s president and CEO, said the company’s success was keyed by a surge in the third and fourth quarters – with fourth quarter sales alone increasing by nearly 100 percent over the company’s previous best quarter ever.

Front Porch Digital’s success is more striking, according to Knaisch, because a recent industry research study indicates some 97 percent of broadcast vendors experienced declining sales in 2009. So far in 2010, Front Porch Digital’s results continue to be strong, buoyed in part by projects now proceeding after temporary suspensions during the downturn.

"Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive and SAMMA products serve a distinct, vital, and growing need in the media industry – so in one sense it’s not surprising that our business is thriving and our prospects are bright," said Knaisch. "At the same time, I believe it’s our companywide focus on customer service that sets us apart and has enabled us to consolidate our position as an industry leader. Recognizing that success has the potential to breed success, we are now availing ourselves of the opportunity to implement organizational changes that will result in even better customer service for the future."

Those changes include expansion of the company’s service, installation, and delivery departments as well as one key promotion and one significant management hire. In January, Front Porch Digital promoted Bland McCartha to vice president and general manager for the SAMMA product line. McCartha’s new responsibilities include product development, marketing, market development, manufacturing, and customer support. Previously, McCartha was Front Porch Digital’s vice president of market development for the Americas. McCartha came to Front Porch Digital through the merger with SAMMA Systems, where he was a sales vice president.

Front Porch Digital has also enlarged its sales staff with the appointment of Michael Devine to the position of regional sales manager for the northeastern United States and Canada. In this role Devine will extend the company’s installed base and generate new business for both the DIVArchive and SAMMA product lines. Devine has spent more than 20 years in the broadcast industry developing comprehensive knowledge of media asset management, archive management, and file transport and process-automation applications.

Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive content storage management (CSM) solution creates a unified system of digital media storage while its SAMMA product line performs accelerated digitization of content residing on analog videotape.