Back in October 1996 when Cray Electronics Plc changed its name to Anite Group the then chairman and chief executive, Mike Shone claimed that by 2010 Anite would be one of the top three suppliers in six or seven markets. These key markets were telecommunications, space and environment, travel reservations, manufacturing and distribution, publishing, finance and transport. If Anite managed to succeed in just four or five of those, Shone said he’d die a happy man. Shone left the company in March 1998, his dream far from being fulfilled.
Since Shone’s departure Anite has kept alive those early ambitions for growth through acquisition. Most recently it bought Dusseldorf-based IT support services company, BIV to build on its presence in the German market. BIV specializes in IT services to banks but also to certain government agencies and boasts a client list that includes Hessian Landesbank, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Westdeutsche Landesbank and the Luftwaffe. In addition to the impressive client list, Anite inherits from BIV another 235 professional services staff. This was the second German IT services firm to be purchased by Anite in 1998: in February 1998 it acquired GMO, a system design and implementation house with ten offices throughout Europe and employing over 250 staff. GMO is an official SAP consultancy partner and a client list that includes Daimler Benz Aerospace, Deutsche Post, Lufthansa and IBM.
The group as a whole currently employs over 1,400 staff. Anite Group pPlc this week announced unaudited results for the six months to October 31 1998 that show revenues up by 64% to 81.1m pounds on figures for the same period in 1997. However, operating profit for the six months to 31st October 1998 stood at 2.97m pounds representing an operating margin of 3.7%. Anite Systems, the largest division within the Anite Group, achieved sales of 54.4m pounds for the six months to October 1998, representing an increase of almost 39% for the same period in 1997.
Its recent contract wins show a shift towards Microsoft office automation products and application integration projects. One project involves the design and implementation of a Microsoft Windows 95 and NT based corporate infrastructure and rollout of a company wide email system using Microsoft Exchange. The contract, worth 500,000 pounds, comprises consultancy for the configuration and design, as well as management of the migration and transition of approximately 350 desktops, from DOS and Windows for Workgroups to Windows 95.
The Anite Systems division also partners closely with Software AG for enterprise application integration and has developed skills implementing the software vendor’s EntireX middleware product. Anite is developing interests in IT architecture construction using Microsoft’s Distributed Common Object Model (DCOM) as a means of simplifying access to integrated systems.
Anite’s resourcing division boasts a roster of 40 major UK corporations that have contracted the division as sole supplier of IT contract staff. The company claims it currently acts as agent for over 26,000 IT contractors. The division grew strongly over the half-year to October 1998 with sales up 44% to 24.2m pounds.
Anite reports that both profits and margins for the group’s telecommunications divisions group grew during the last six-month period. The division won a number of large contracts including one from Motorola for 700,000 pounds for GSM testers. Anite’s Telecoms Group provides software development and consulting services to communications equipment manufacturers and is concerned with just three key areas of the telecomms industry: radio communications, satellite communications and public and private networks.
Anite has a long history in both analog and digital real-time development projects, including PMR and GSM. The company is said to be at the forefront of emerging radio technologies, such as TETRA and GSM Phase 2. Its satellite communications expertise grew out of its involvement in a number of military programs and it has since become a key player in high quality developments in a comprehensive range of satellite technologies. These include Inmarsat M/B/C/Mini-M, AMSC and other specialist VSAT systems.
Building on its strong base in both terrestrial and satellite radio technology, Anite has been increasingly involved in fixed public and private network development projects. These developments have ranged from hand-held devices to large switch systems. The company claims expertise in various fixed telecomms technology areas including ISDN, DPNSS, DASS, CorNet, SDH, PDH, Frame Relay, ATM, X.25 and X.400. It also sells network systems services including integration and configuration with specialist network management services for fraud limitation, fault prediction, roaming authorization, configuration management and value-added service provision.
Anite’s public sector division supplies IT services, consultancy and systems to government agencies in the UK and across continental Europe. The division currently has contracts with the UK’s Crown Office, HM Customes & Excise and in Europe with Eurostat and the European Commission.
