Peregrine Systems has achieved stellar success with one of the New Economy's lowest profile businesses — modern facilities management. As computers, office equipment and communications networks drive business growth, knowing the value and capabilities of these assets has become an essential task for every chief technology officer.

In the past 20 years, Peregrine Systems has made the tool of infrastructure management as fundamental to large corporations as cash management or inventory management. Its program uses three building blocks: track what companies own, where the assets are located and what they are worth. This technology, reports Bill Keyworth, marketing vice president, empowers customers to "dramatically cut costs and improve their operational effectiveness."

Peregrine hasn't changed its name to Peregrine "dot com" yet, but its business is headed in that direction. Last month it unveiled a new product line, called Insight, that combines the global reach of the Internet with Peregrine's asset management capabilities. Insight gives managers access to data about corporate real estate, office equipment and vehicles to help optimize their utilization. This kind of technology is becoming critical for large electronic commerce vendors, which need to continually upgrade their networks of computers. Steve Gardner, Peregrine Systems president and CEO observes, "In today’s Internet-driven environment there is zero tolerance for systems which are prone to downtime or degraded performance."

Investors see Peregrine's future as bright. After trading over the counter, Peregrine's stock went on the Nasdaq in March 1997 at $5 per share. Since then, shares have increased about 18 times in value to produce a current market capitalization of $4.6 billion and a stock price of $43.63 on Feb. 22. It is one of the few e-business companies which is not only profitable, but reports double-digit profit margins. In its 20-year history, Peregrine has grown to 878 employees.

Peregrine Systems is building its future on a foundation of partnerships. This includes agreements with e-business leaders such as IBM Global Services, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Compaq. The company is equally interested in partnering with recent start-ups which aim to emulate its success, such as customer relationship management vendor Gold Mine and Commerce One, which automates supply chain management. Peregrine should know how to win from excellent teamwork — Chairman John Moores also is owner of the San Diego Padres.

— Max Donner