Turnaround File

Wall Street loves a comeback kid. Take FileNet Corp., the Costa Mesa-based business software firm.

Since its troubled first half last year, the company has clawed its way back to profitability and seen its stock price soar. Its shares rose to $59.31 earlier this month from a low of $10.31 in April 1997.

Lee Roberts, the company’s president and chief executive, told shareholders at their annual meeting Friday: “I’m sure you’re happy to see the stock price return to a level that is much more comfortable to live with.”

And investors also appear to be happy with Roberts, who has helped spearhead FileNet’s turnaround. The former IBM general manager of worldwide marketing joined FileNet last May. Since then, he has shifted the company’s focus away from engineering and toward customer technical support. Instead of a single help center, FileNet has opened four centers in different parts of the world and hired staffers who are fluent in several languages.

The company has also bet its future on a suite of software products that integrate imaging and document management, two elements that the company historically sold as separate products. This product line, called Panagon, is designed to help companies wade through mounds of data.

So far, things are looking good, analysts say. Industry watchers note that the software is particularly effective in handling information that doesn’t fit into normal text application--such as cross-referencing photos or videos with a spreadsheet.

“Customers don’t want to buy technology. They want to solve business problems,” Roberts said after the meeting. “If we make it easy for them, then we’ll succeed with our own goals.”