ERP software house, System Software Associates Inc, has fought its way through another tough quarter and has arrived at its year end looking tired. Fourth quarter figures for the Chicago, Illinois-based enterprise resource planning software company showed further losses of $3.5m and sales of new software licenses dropped by 40% against last year to just $54m in the quarter. Total revenues were lifted by SSA’s client services business, giving the company sequential revenue growth of 5% and total sales of $112.5m for the three months. But the total quarterly figures are still down on this time last year, and for the full twelve months to October 31, total revenues are down 2.3% to $421m. Significantly, SSA was still in the red during a quarter which was free from the company’s familiar restructuring charges. Restructuring costs reached $123m for the year as a whole, a charge which reflects a 12% staff reduction from 2,250 employees and the closure of around one quarter of the company’s office space. The year also saw the disappearance (for the second time) of founder and former chief executive Roger Covey who left under a cloud in April having failed to reverse the declines which began while he was absent on a sabbatical. Covey’s successor, William Stuek, said the fourth quarter results were better than he had planned for, and he reassured investors that despite the company’s falling cash reserves, cash receipts from business operations were sufficient to cover operating disbursements in the quarter. á
