After a year in which revenues have surged by 140%, UK based SAP consultancy Team 121 says it intends to slow its growth rate and plans a period of consolidation in readiness for a likely flotation. Business for the year ending April 30, 1999 topped $58.4m from $27.2m for the previous year with some 40% of revenue being derived from outside of the UK. The rate of growth for the coming year is to be pegged back to 35% to allow the company to consolidate, Gary Speksnyder, managing director of Team 121 told us. Rumors of an imminent flotation on the London stock market continue. However Speksnyder reports that nothing definite has been decided as yet but said that any money raised would be welcome as the company plans its future growth and acquisition strategy.
Last week the company announced the opening of a Norwegian office in Oslo. This follows the successful implementation of SAP R/3 at Nycomed Amersham in Oslo and a number of plants of the petrochemical division of Norsk Hydro in both Norway and Sweden. The office will support consultants engaged on these projects and provide facilities for administration and project management.
Team 121 was established in 1990 and has doubled its staff turnover in each year of trading. Another 150 SAP consultants were added to its headcount over FY1998 bringing the total number to around 400. In the coming year Team 121 expects to add a further 80 consultants. Attrition rate is low at around 10%. Team 121 sells business consulting services with a systems focus around a full suite of SAP R/3 configuration, ABAP programming, BASIS support, training and ongoing support.
The company already has a significant presence in Norway, Germany and Ireland. Clients include Black & Decker, British Rail, Hydro Polymers, Eastern Electricity, Zeneca, Compaq, British Sugar, Shannon aerospace, and Electricity Supply Board in Dublin. The company has also been chosen as preferred partner for the automotive sector by SAP UK and builds upon the company’s focus in the discrete manufacturing sector.
Although Team 121 sees signs of a slowdown in the ERP market, it believes there is still a good deal of bespoke work to be done on legacy systems. It is also busy preparing itself for the next wave in SAP ERP that will see extensions such as supply chain features and web portal functions.
