Two strategies for making a profit on stocks: 1) buy a deeply discounted stock and hope for a rebound, and 2) pick a stock at or near its highs, in the belief that if things are good now, they can only get better.

The two business software makers profiled here fall squarely under that second investment strategy. Their stocks have already enjoyed a good run, but demand for their products is still gaining momentum, suggesting they have further to go before they peak.

When it comes to business, or enterprise software, there are the very largest companies like International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) or SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), and there are a host of smaller firms that make add-on products designed to help companies further organize their data. These products generally help businesses sort data into more understandable formats like brief summaries, charts or graphs. They often add analytic features for better understanding the data and additional services for retrieving it and sharing it securely.

The more material that companies store, the more challenged they are to organize all of it, which is why software makers like DataWatch Corp. (Nasdaq: DWCH) and Actuate Corp. (Nasdaq: ACTU) have generated so much investor interest. The proliferation of cheap storage technology means that most companies are swimming in data. Imagine trying to retrieve some basic company statistics from a roomful of old metal filing cabinets jammed with paper, and you get some sense of the challenge of organizing electronic files.

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