Guardian IT Plc is a company whose growing number of customers hope never to use its services. But such is the dependence of most companies on their IT operations that paying sizeable sums to have a backup operation in place if disaster strikes is essential insurance. Those investors in Guardian IT who bought the shares at 255 pence at the time of its March flotation can have few complaints as they rose a further 2 percent on first half results to 422.5 pence. Mid-term growth is in line with forecasts and net income rose 58% to 1.9m pounds with revenue 25.8% higher at 13.7m pounds. Growth prospects are good with the forward contracted revenue book up 35% to 49.8m pounds. The City of London, where loss of an IT facility would mean a quick death, leads the way in terms of growth with a 52% expansion in the value of new contracts. But the big hope for the future lies overseas where Guardian IT is just beginning its operations with facilities in South Africa, France and a joint venture with Debis Systemhaus in Germany. The good news is that there were only 18 occasions when customers needed Guardian IT’s services compared with 22 in the same period last year. This is one IT organization where less work has no effect on revenues – and points to happy customers.
