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TWST: You just released your results this week and announced your fourth profitable quarter. Can you tell us a bit more about the recent success that ClickSoftware (NasdaqSC:CKSW) has seen?

Dr. BenBassat: We finished 2003 with revenues of 22.4, which is 42% growth relative to 2002. Our net income was 1.7 million dollars and we now have four consecutive quarters of profitability. Our cash also increased 77% relative to the cash we had at the end of 2002.

TWST: Could you give us an introduction to ClickSoftware and your core activities?

Dr. BenBassat: The best way to describe ClickSoftware is by a scenario most of us are so familiar with. Remember the last time you called into a utility or a telephone company for service? After a brief validation of your name and address, the customer service representative may even wish you a happy birthday. That is important and it certainly has value. But, the moment of truth arrives shortly afterwards, when you ask how long is it going to take to send someone to fix the problem. It is the service provider’s response to this question that really will either make or break the relationship with the customer. The challenge on the service provider side is that when you call, you are not alone. There are hundreds or thousands like you who are calling in at the same time, and everyone would like to have service right away. However, of course there are only a limited number of technicians who can deliver the service, and the question is, therefore, what time to promise to each customer and who to assign to each call. When you think about this question, it's a very complex issue. You need to ensure the field service engineer has the right skills – so he can really fix the problem on the first call. You need to ensure that he doesn't have to go uptown, downtown and back uptown. You need to worry about overtime, about balancing the workload, and ensuring adequate response to your platinum customers. That is the business we are in. We develop software that helps service operations to maximize the number of service calls they deliver every day, while complying with service level commitments, skills matching, and other business requirements; actually – enabling our clients to provide better service at a lower cost to their customers

TWST: Do you expect any significant large-scale changes or developments going forward that will contribute to your growth prospects?

Dr. BenBassat: There are several drivers in the market which are helping or supporting our growth. First, companies have invested a lot in the supply chain and in their manufacturing operations, but relatively little in their workforce optimization. So, there is a great potential for us here. Second, there is the mobile workforce technology. When you give PDAs or cell phones which can both deliver and receive data to the field force, you can achieve tremendous improvements in effectiveness and efficiency. This is an additional drive that is helping our cause. The third area is that service quality is gaining more and more of a prominent strategic role in acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers. With the economic downturn, when companies have to cut back on their workforce in general, it means that today they have to provide more service with less people, and that's exactly where we come in.

TWST: What is your strategic direction and your main objectives over the next couple of years?

Dr. BenBassat: The market size that we are addressing - telecommunications, office equipment, home services, capital equipment, utilities, etc. - is very large. There are thousands of companies out there across the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, that could potentially benefit from our product, yet the number of customers we have is still less than 100. So there's considerable potential in the market we are already in, and our plan is to continue to focus on these companies, and continue to offer better products, better implementation, and better value.

TWST: What are some of the financial highlights you would draw an investor’s attention to?

Dr. BenBassat: Since the beginning of 2003, we have been profitable and generating cash. We no longer consume cash and are self sustained.. In addition, just to re-emphasize, we have been focused on growing the revenues faster than the expenses. In the fourth quarter of 2004 our revenues per head reached 202,000, while the expenses per head remain fairly constant. Part of our expenses are the fixed costs associated with being a public company, such as the cost to retain the auditors, the legal systems, and so on. But, with the same cost platform, we should be able to support far higher levels of revenue. And then it is a matter of continuing to invest in developing the sales force, developing the deployment force, and essentially investing in the revenue generation activities.

TWST: When you have a chance to talk to investors, what are the three or four best reasons you would give for them to take a position in your company?

Dr. BenBassat: We are a unique fast growing company, responding to a strong business need in a huge market segment that is largely untapped. We are the market leader in this space. We have the largest number of deployed customers with a proven record of fast return on their investment. And we have great partners working with us and supporting our growth. Our fundamentals are strong and with a profound focus on operational effectiveness, we believe that we will continue to grow fast while constantly improving our profit margins.