RM Plc, which claims to be the market leader in the UK’s education IT sector with an estimated market share close of 50%, say it is benefiting from a surge in government spending with mid-term net profit up 308.8% to 1.7m pounds ($2.9m) on revenue 40.8% higher at 71.1m pounds ($115.2m).
The UK government plans to spend $1.6bn for wiring up the nation’s schools over the next five years and RM says that only around 25% of schools have networked internet access and a further 25% dial-up access, so the largest portion of the budget has still to be spent. Significant competition has yet to appear, RM claims, with rivals such as ICL having tiny market shares. And while big players such as Compaq Computer Corp boasted at the start of this year about looking for a sizable market share (CI No 3,577), RM says it has never met it in competition for a contract.
