Small software developers find a niche in L.A. County.

Aerospace, entertainment applications prove popular

Computer software that helps with script writing, physician billing, teaching children how to read, creating a greeting card and project management are among the dozens of programs that have been developed by Los Angeles County companies.

Other locally produced software includes a desktop publishing program, a network communications system, programs that monitor the quality of other software, and floppy disks that offer in-depth studies of popular movies like the Beatles' "Hard Day's Night."

A Los Angeles county-based software company, Western Technologies Inc. in Culver City, is the maker of the current leader in video games -- "X-Men."

With software becoming increasingly specialized and driven by narrow markets, more small programming companies than ever are sprouting up in the county. Places like San Jose, Calif., Cambridge, Mass., or the Route 128 corridor in Massachusetts are not in danger of being supplanted by Los Angeles County as the programming leader. But industry experts note the county is becoming a significant area for software development.

Contrary to what might be expected of local software designers and producers, their businesses are not primarily linked to either the entertainment or aerospace industries. Rather, the majority of the two dozen or so software companies in the county produce programs with general business applications.

If the software companies are concentrated anywhere in the county, it's probably in Santa Monica where there are about 10, including the area's two biggest -- Candle Corp. and Quarterdeck Office Systems Inc.

According to Software Magazine, a national trade journal, Candle had revenues of close to $200 million last year and was the 18th largest software maker in the world. Quarterdeck ranked 51st with just under $52 million in revenue.

The only other county-based software maker that is considered one of the bigger companies is Davidson & Associates in Torrance, which in 1992 had $40 million in sales. Davidson is not listed by Software Magazine but company officials said they should have been included in the ranking. A Davidson spokeswoman said it was an oversight by the magazine not to include the company.

All the other local software companies are significantly smaller, and most have revenues of less than $10 million.

Candle and Quarterdeck were the only Los Angeles County-based companies on the magazine's latest ranking of the world's 100 largest software companies, which is headed by Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. with $2.9 billion in sales.

But many industry experts predict that the future of the software writing business is in the small companies that develop products for narrow markets.

"The industry is becoming increasingly specialized and that is where it seems that most of the local companies are headed," said Craig Campbell, a spokesman for Candle, which makes software that monitors large networks of computer systems for businesses.

Candle's software products sell for tens of thousands of dollars but many of the local companies make software that costs $20 for a floppy disk.

For instance, Voyager Co. in Santa Monica puts books and movies on floppy disks that sell for about $20 each. The company is now working on software for William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" that will include a written copy of the play, a movie or theatrical production of it and an analysis of it.

Davidson & Associates also makes software for both the individual consumer market and schools. It is also one of the few local software makers that is a public company, with its stock being traded in the over-the-counter market.

Quarterdeck is also traded over the counter but Candle is a private company.

Clearly, most of the county's software companies are like Elan Software Corp., which is based in Pacific Palisades and in 1992 had revenues of about $1 million.

Formed in 1986 by a young computer programmer, Elan Susser, and a communications specialist, John Ferrara, Elan's Goldmine software provides a communications network for businesses. In other words, the software lets personal computer users hooked into the same system "talk" to each other and exchange information.

Brenda Christensen, a spokeswoman for Elan, said since Ashton-Tate Corp. was bought by Borland International Inc. the local software industry has become dominated by small makers like Elan.

Torrance-based Ashton-Tate was one of the largest software makers in the world when it was acquired by Scotts Valley, Calif.-based Borland, which closed down Ashton's local operations.

A few of the other local companies like Elan that make software for general business uses are Los Angeles-based Cuadra Associates Inc., Property Management Systems Corp. in Santa Monica, POC-IT Management Services in Santa Monica, Compulink Management Center Inc. in Torrance and Owl Software Corp. in North Hollywood.

A small number of software makers have ties to two of the county's most visible industries -- entertainment and aerospace.

One of those is Screenplay Systems Inc. in Burbank. The company's software offerings include one that helps organize screenplays, another that outlines a movie-shooting schedule and one that budgets one.

In the next few months, the company expects to release a new software program that has been under development for 13 years. The program, called Dramatica, will organize any kind of writing project.