Petroleum
The first sale of a Country License for the PriceNet product under a global purchase agreement with a Multi-National Fuels Supplier and Marketer has been implemented. The implementation of a second country licence is underway and will be complete by the end of the year. A third order received has been scheduled for implementation in 2001. Discussions over further orders under the same purchase agreement have commenced with other subsidiaries. KSS believes that this contract alone has the potential for revenues over the next three years in excess of £15million
Retailing
The company has already built a sales team of 10 to address specifically the mass retailing market. The company has commenced pilot studies with 2 major UK retailers.
As a part of the process of widening our market reach and providing additional credibility for KSS’s technology at the board level of major retailers, two major consultancy houses in the UK and one in the USA are taking KSS to visit their specific clients who may be ready now for adopting this technology. In addition, a major technology company is also starting this process.
To exploit the full potential of the PriceStrat product in the Petroleum convenience retail market, the Retail Division has been enlarged to include the former Petrol Division, under the leadership of Colin Brookes, Senior Vice President and General Manager. Neil Bond, formerly at Computer Associates, has been appointed as Vice President Sales for the Petroleum unit.
Telecoms
Over the last 3 months we have recruited and trained 3 staff to support and assist Alcatel in the marketing and selling of the TelPrice product. We would expect to see the benefits of this investment within the next 6 months through increased deal flow in the Telecoms sector. In partnership with Alcatel, a successful pilot of the TelPrice product has been completed with a major European mobile telephony provider.
The QOSIPS contract (European Community research project for Quality of Service on IP Networks) has been signed and the project work has now commenced.
Recruitment
In general recruitment is progressing better than forecast both in the UK and USA. Our current headcount stands at 120 against the 89 reported at the end of June. Our current financial plan for 2001 is to have 220 employees by 31 December 2001. In anticipation of continued strong growth the company has secured an additional 4,300 square feet of office space in St James Buildings, Manchester.
The company is committed to continuing its recruitment efforts to increase both the size of the sales force and the capacity to support pilot studies and product implementations. This will put us in a position to be able to support up to 18 pilot or implementation projects in Q1 2001.
Prospectus
With two months of the financial year remaining, meeting or exceeding revenue expectations will be largely dependent on the signing of certain software licenses (including those related to the retail pilot studies mentioned above) which may fall just before or after the year end.
The management, neverthless, remain very optimistic about the company’s prospects.
CEO Madan Singh commented
I am delighted with the progress we have made in the short time since flotation. It is very gratifying that we continue to attract and retain the high quality of staff necessary to underpin both our sales and development efforts. We are well placed to drive the business towards achieving the aggressive growth targets and financial metrics that we have set.
