Index Technology to Unveil Software for Mainframes
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Index Technology Corp. will introduce tomorrow a product to help corporate software experts update old mainframe software programs, Richard Carpenter, chairman and chief executive officer, said.</br></br>The product, XL/Recover, marks a move into a new area of the software-engineering field that Index helped pioneer. It will be available next week. Index, the nation's biggest maker of products for the computer-aided software-engineering market, known as CASE, has previously made software tools to improve the productivity of programmers writing new programs.</br></br>In an interview, Mr. Carpenter said the XL/Recover software program, which will sell for $9,800 and runs on IBM-compatible personal computers, "is a major thrust in our offerings for 1991." He declined to predict sales but said it will "probably account for 10% to 25% of revenue" in the future.</br></br>Last year, Index earned $2.3 million, or 50 cents a share, on revenue of $38 million. During this year, Index has continued to grow rapidly, but earnings have declined. First-half net was $961,000, or 20 cents a share, down 21% from $1.2 million, or 27 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 39% to $24.4 million from $17.5 million.</br></br>Mr. Carpenter declined to predict earnings for the current quarter or the rest of the year. "This is continuing to be an investment year for Index. The good thing is we're beginning to get the results of all that investment into the marketplace," he said.