He told Computer Business Review that because their offerings are shallow, when Kewill implements its own software, it is usually to interface with Oracle and SAP applications. To emphasize this symbiotic relationship, he said Kewill also partners with SAP to sell its Clippership product to SAP’s SME customers in the US.
In the year to March 31, net income, hit by amortization of intangibles on acquisitions, fell 45.5% to 1.46m pounds ($2.87m) on revenue 31.4% higher at 41.48m pounds ($81.7m).
In a world where Kewill said supply chains have become broader, more complex, and significantly more global, it said its software has helped companies navigate the complex regulatory, financial, and logistics environments.
The company quoted a study of trends in the transportation management systems market by ARC Advisory Group, which forecast that the market would grow from nearly $990m in 2005 to more than $1.3bn by 2010. Within that growth, it said sales to logistics service providers is growing at 11% and sales of global trade management software at 12.7%, both focus areas for Kewill. It said this is one of the reasons it is experiencing double-digit growth in its international businesses.
Kewill has also added a chief technology officer to its management team to take advantage of its recent acquisitions by laying out a technology path to maximize opportunities for cross-selling products.
While the plan is to use techniques such as service oriented architecture and agile development methodology to create a dynamic supply network suite, Nichols said funding for these will come out of the current R&D budget, currently running at 9% of sales, and will take two years to implement.
