Revenues from the rapidly growing market for Macro 4’s Business Information Logistics (BIL) solutions, which includes products to support e-business and Internet document presentment (document enabled CRM and e-billing), increased by 188% growing to £5.9 million (1999 £2.0 million) representing 49% of new license sales in the period (1999 30%).
The Macro 4 Group sees significant potential in the BIL solution area to expand its activities into Europe and the US.
Ronnie Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, comments:
As organisations move towards greater use of electronic information, the use of solutions delivered by our Business Information Logistics suite of products, will increase in importance. These solutions enable documents to be immediately accessible at the point of need, regardless of originating platform / application and be readable in whichever format is required. Obviously, the Web offers the best vehicle for external document presentation.
Sales of Macro 4’s Systems Management software products have also been buoyant in all territories growing to £16.1 million (1999 £15.1 million) with a strong performance in the US which achieved Macro 4’s largest ever contract in the Application Availability solution area. Continental Europe also showed strong growth with total revenues rising by over 42% to £7.0 million (1999 £4.9 million). These products include software for Application Availability (which enable the development, fault diagnosis and fault resolution for the IBM mainframe applications), General Systems Management (including software and utilities for systems automation, Web connectivity and performance monitoring) and Output Management (assured delivery of data through active management, control and routing).
In line with its strategy, the Group has strengthened its operational infrastructure, and over the six months has continued to increase the number and quality of its experienced professional staff. During the period, the Group incurred £1.75 million of exceptional costs, £1.5 million of which related to a potential acquisition which was investigated in depth during the period. Underlying profit before amortisation of intangible fixed assets and exceptional items moved ahead to £5.3 million from the £5.1 million seen in the first half of the previous year.
Commenting on the results, Ronnie Wilson said:
I am pleased to be able to report another successful six months for the Group, as a result of continuing investment in Professional Services and research and development to develop customer-focused products and solutions and the successful integration of acquisitions made in the previous year. This growth was achieved during a period which was generally recognised as challenging for companies in our sector of the software market.
We are confident that, as a Group, we are progressing in line with our plans to deliver sustainable growth in shareholder value over the medium-term. I anticipate the second six months of this financial year will see further healthy growth in our business.
