Intelligent Environments Plc is throwing the full weight of its 5.6m pounds June 1996 AIM flotation proceeds behind the development and marketing of its new Amazon Web development tool. Following a profits warning at the half-year stage, the firm has announced losses for the year to December 31 of 1.4m pounds against a slim profit last time of 174,000 pounds. Revenue is off 10.5% to 3.5m pounds and the company is predicting losses for a further year at least. The results reflect a rapid decline in sales of existing OS/2 products and the cost of developing its future product, Amazon, for more fancied operating systems. Amazon 2.0 is a mainframe-to-Web development tool, connecting users to legacy data sources via the Internet and intranets. The system runs under Windows95 and Windows NT. Intelligent Environments already boasts several live applications of Amazon, the most interesting of which is running at Air Express International, the US freight forwarder. Air Express takes over 1,000 phone calls per day from customers who need to know the arrival time of their goods. Using Amazon, Air Express has created a Web site which enables customers to track and trace their shipment using Air Express data held on IBM Corp mainframes. After six months, the site was handling 10% of all track and trace enquiries. Sales of Amazon began in earnest only in the second half of 1996, contributing 400,000 pounds to revenue. Chief executive Tim Cooke, brought in to push the company forward and take it public, sees this growing by 100% every six months. Sales into the US are predicted to reach 70% of revenue in 1997 and Cooke is looking towards a probable NASDAQ listing within 18 months. In the meantime, the company is pushing hard to raise its corporate profile by increasing its sales force and by signing deals with US resellers. The board is supremely confident in its product and equally confident that shareholders are patient enough to await profits.
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