Indianapolis-based Interactive Intelligence Inc. expects profit in both the fourth quarter and entire year of 2010 to exceed earnings in the previous time periods, the company announced late Monday.

The business-communications software firm, in announcing preliminary earnings, anticipates reporting fourth-quarter profit of between $4.5 million and $5.3 million, or about 23 cents to 27 cents per share.

For the final quarter of 2009, Interactive Intelligence earned $2.5 million, or 14 cents per share.

The fourth quarter is typically the company’s strongest, and that held true in 2010, Interactive Intelligence Founder and CEO Donald E. Brown said in a prepared statement.

“A number of significant product orders resulted in an outstanding performance for the quarter, including five orders over $1 million and another 25 orders over $250,000,” he said.

For the year ended Dec. 31, Interactive Intelligence expects profit of between $12.3 million and $13.1 million, with earnings per share of between 65 cents and 69 cents, compared with 2009 profit of $8.6 million, or 47 cents per share.

Fourth-quarter revenue last year should be between $49 million and $51 million, compared to revenue of $35.9 million in the same quarter of 2009.

The company forecasts revenue for the entire year to be between $164.7 million and $166.7 million, compared to $131.4 million in 2009.

The company’s outlook for 2011 includes annual revenue of at least $200 million, or 20-percent growth compared to last year’s revenue, Brown said.

Interactive Intelligence is scheduled to report fourth quarter and year-end results for 2010 at 7 a.m. Jan. 28.

Company shares hit a 52-week high of $29.62 each on Monday before closing slightly lower at $29.41.