July 2008 was a particularly great time for Riversand Technologies Inc, a Houston-based product-information management (PIM) and master data management (MDM) solution provider.

It was positioned in the Visionary Quadrant of Gartner Inc's Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management of Product Data.

"Riversand moved from being a niche player last year to being a visionary in 2008. The vendor has continued to sell and implement effective and complex accounts across several use cases (operational MDM as well as design/construct MDM) and continues to deepen its core MDM of product data functionality. The vendor is building a strategy around several vertical industries with excellent references, even alongside some of the larger MDM products (for example, SAP)", said Gartner in the report.
For starters, Riversand, completely self-funded, is focused on the oil and gas, retail and manufacturing verticals. As mentioned in the Gartner report, it is in the process of expanding into a broad-based MDM player from a PIM one.

Apart from its unparalleled technology, says Upen Varanasi, the company’s co-founder and CEO, there a a few other things that have helped place the company on the same platform with players like SAP and IBM.

"Our USP is quick implementation, fast return on investment, better functionality, and a low price of ownership," says Varanasi.
In addition, Riversand has a much focused approach. While in the oil and gas vertical, it targets players big and small, in the retail space; its target is mid-to-large companies. “Such players are unwilling to go to SAP or IBM, given our proposition of fast return on investment and low price of ownership,” says Varanasi.

He goes on to add, "Also, in case of solution like the one of SAP, while SAP will supply the platform, and someone else will come to build on it, we supply a packaged solution."

Finally, Varanasi says that the global slowdown might turn out to be good for the company because clients are now questioning whether they want to spend a huge amount getting an SAP or IBM solution, when an equally-good Riversand solution is available. And that, at a lesser price point.