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Microsoft ScaleUp program: invests in Egress Software

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Egress Software logoOne our early Little British Battler’s, Egress Software Technologies (see Little British Battlers – The Fourth Generation), has announced it is one of ten companies to become a member of Microsoft’s ScaleUp program (previously known as Microsoft Accelerator), which sees Microsoft invest in fast-growth technology businesses.

For Egress, its Microsoft partnership has always been strategically important, with Egress offering enhanced privacy and risk management services to the Azure and Office 365 platforms. CEO Tony Pepper believes this latest development will formalise the relationship, providing a framework to engage with the team. As part of the ScaleUp program, Egress will “gain access to the full Microsoft ecosystem, providing the necessary go-to-market support to continue rapid expansion, as well as enabling the introduction of new tech innovation into Microsoft.”

Security remains a concern when adopting cloud solutions. Egress’ products complement Microsoft’s cloud offerings, bringing an additional level of data security for organisations holding and sharing sensitive information. There remain clients who seek enhanced information and data security over and above that provided by Microsoft. Indeed, this was exactly the case for Suffolk County Council – see Egress benefits from MS365 migration at Suffolk CC. This partnership has the potential to provide greater reassurance to Microsoft clients as they migrate to the cloud. And in the process, help further accelerate Egress’ already-fast-paced growth.


***NEW RESEARCH*** Financial Services IT Market Trends and Forecasts 2018-2020

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graphicThe Financial Services sector is still a cauldron of change as new competitors emerge, regulations change and customers get more demanding. The large, established players have to change their business models and cost structures radically if they are to succeed. This will mean substantial changes in the way they interact with their Software and IT Services suppliers.

The ubiquitous digital transformation agenda, together with the need to prop up legacy systems, will mean that IT spend will remain strong, growing faster than the overall market. However, we expect that the chronic uncertainty over Brexit will continue to delay decisions and shift IT investment onto the Continent as London-based operations hedge their bets. An annual growth rate of 2.3% is forecast for the next 3 years, well down on pre-Brexit expectations.

As companies look to improve customer experience and service quality, major changes are necessary to ensure that they can efficiently access the relevant data, particularly from within their own organisations. Success here will enable real progress through the application of automation and analytics technologies.

With the advent of cloud, larger companies see the opportunity for lower costs, but they also realise that their rate of innovation is woefully insufficient. Many aim to work with the new breed of Fintech players, but in our opinion, doing this effectively requires a partnership with the larger SITS suppliers.

Tectonic shifts are occurring in all the major segments of the UK SITS market and throughout the worlds of Banking, Insurance and Capital Markets. This annual review highlights the underlying issues and discusses the implications and opportunities for the SITS supplier community. Subscribers to FinancialServicesViews can access the report, here.

If you don’t yet subscribe, please contact our Marketing Director, Deb Seth at dseth@techmarketview.com .

Fujitsu identifies with Home Office HOBS programme

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Fujitsu logoIt is a very large central government programme: the Home Office Biometrics (HOBS) programme, valued in excess of £100m (see Digital Marketplace). The department is aiming, once several existing contracts expire at the end of 2019, to develop a unified, integrated, biometric service, offering enhanced quality and capability.

There have been numerous procurements undertaken to support the programme. Now, Fujitsu has now been announced by the Home Office as one of the beneficiaries. It has won a £28m, five-year contract (with a 3-year extension option) to deliver Lot 1 of the Biometric Matcher Platform and Associated Services (BMPS). Lot 1 is for the “technology platform and biometric matcher service bus provided by the Matcher Services Supplier”. Of the £28m, £6m will pass through to subcontractors providing the biometric software and services. In combination Lot 1 and 2 are valued at £55m. Another, separate, procurement, valued at £15m, which attracted 29 applications, was for a HOBS delivery partner.

Fujitsu has a long-running relationship with the Home Office, due to its long-runniAng ‘Sirius’ infrastructure services contract, which was originally signed in 2000. At the end of 2016, the contract was extended to 2018 (see Home Office takes more cautious disaggregation approach), and there is a possibility it may be extended again. However, the department’s intention is to slowly move elements back in-house or contract then under new smaller arrangements. Fujitsu has been working hard with Home Office to demonstrate its digital capabilities – including biometrics - in a number of pilot projects (see UK Public Sector Supplier Prospects 2018). This win is surely testament to the company’s efforts to reposition the business in central government, while not losing sight of its legacy strengths.

WeChat closes in on MyTop

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MyTopI first introduced the world - well, HotViews readers anyway - to the concept of MyTop over 10 years ago in Sept 2007. Indeed I wrote to Mark Zuckerberg in a letter dated 11th Sept 2007 saying Dear Mr Zuckerberg - MyTop - It could be you. He didn’t respond.

MyTop was all about an App that users would never leave. Choosing instead to do everything from within the App. Users leave Facebook to do lots of other things which is maybe why they are looking at ways of sourcing music and video within Facebook. According to a report in the FT today the most shared piece of content on Facebook last year was a link to a music video for Despacito - viewed 22m times. The 'problem' for Facebook was that this video was on archrival Youtube (owned by Alphabet/Google).

The one App which is now closest to MyTop is the Chinese WeChat - part of TenCent. WeChat has now announced it has passed 1b user accounts (although that might translate into half that number of individual users). The point about WeChat is that users never leave it. They use it for email, shopping, bookings, ecommerce, banking etc etc. Exactly what MyTop promised.

Discover how Cogeco Peer 1 are transforming the way scale-ups operate (Sponsored Post)

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Cogeco Peer 1 LogoThe overwhelming shift towards business growth, requires scale-ups to create a flexible, ever-evolving infrastructure that enables growth, adapts to changes in technology and customer expectations.

Over the past few years, the UK start-up revolution has shown no sign of slowing down. In 2016, nearly 660,000 companies were established, an increase of 52,000 since the previous year, according to research conducted by the Centre for Entrepreneurs.

Tech start-ups are faced with many challenges, ranging from finding a suitable flexible contract and office accommodation to protecting their IP, sourcing finance and transport infrastructure. These are important issues and scalable tech infrastructure is right up there with them.

At Cogeco Peer 1, digital transformation is at the core of the business, allowing companies to focus on what they do best, whilst we provide the infrastructure designed to facilitate and support individual companies needs and business strategies and support their growth.

This is where we bring our expertise to the Great British Scaleup Programme.

We can provide advice on the best fit platforms and the importance of on-demand scalability so there is no limit to growth, ensuring the business is always on top of demand. And, of course, we’ll be providing insight into the importance of back up and disaster recovery services as well as having defences against distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

All applicants to the Great British Scale-Up programme are able to take advantage of an in-depth IT infrastructure review with Solution Engineers from Cogeco Peer 1.

There is no obligation, and this is a great opportunity to seek expert input into the infrastructure requirements and managed services you could leverage to build a growth platform for your business.

For more details or to speak to one of our specialist engineers today, please click here.

Equiniti's platform for growth

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EquinitiA strong second half to the year (see here) saw Equiniti grow revenues by 6.1% (2.9% organic) to £406.1m in 2017 (£382.6m 2016). Underlying EBITDA also improved by 6.6% to £98.5m (£92.4m 2016) with margin up slightly to 24.3% (24.2% in 2016).

Organic growth is being driven forward by two of Equiniti’s three divisions, Investment Solutions and Intelligent Solutions.

Revenue in Investment Solutions increased by 6.7% to £132.3m (2016: £124.0m) as it increased market share and won new share registration clients including Howdens Joinery, Jardine Lloyd Thompson, Rentokil Initial and J Sainsbury.

Revenue in Intelligent Solutions increased by 14.1% to £124.7m (2016: £109.3m) growing on a combination of good organic growth and on the contribution of 2017 acquisitions Gateway2Finance and Nostrum that have widened the product offering. This saw new wins with mobile operator Three to service its mobile handset financing, as well as new projects with Green Deal Finance Company and Sainsbury’s Bank.

Equiniti’s other division Pensions Solutions experienced a tougher trading environment with revenue increasing marginally by 0.7% to £139.0m (2016: £138.1m). Underlying EBITDA declined 11.2% to £24.6m as a consequence of a reduction in higher margin project and software work. MyCSP has however stabilised financially over the last year and delivered in line with expectations.

The most significant shift for Equiniti in 2017 may prove to be its entry into the US market with the acquisition of the Wells Fargo Shareowner Services business which completed last month. This in addition to the new client wins and its focus on platforms sets a strong foundation for 2018.

Great British Scaleups: The Third Wave – Day 2

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logoWe are excited to announce the second group of fast-growing UK tech SMEs companies participating on Day 2 of our third Great British Scaleup Event today in London.

They are:

  • Armour Communications
  • Deep Sky Blue Solutions
  • Methods Business & Digital Technologies
  • Mvine

Top executives of these companies will be joining a team of TechMarketView research directors and ScaleUp Group advisors in individual, intensive 90-minute workshops to assess their scale-up potential.

The companies will be rated using the ScaleUp Growth Index®, a proprietary scorecard which identifies areas of the business that might be an inhibitor to achieving management’s growth objectives. It gives an independent insight of the company’s scale-up potential relative to its peer group, and helps management feel better prepared to undertake the next stage of the scale-up journey and track progress.

We announced the first group companies participating in Day 1 in yesterday's UKHotViews, and we will be telling you more about all these companies in future UKHotViews posts.

Don't worry if you missed out this time. Great British Scaleups: The Fourth Generation is scheduled for June, and Great British Scaleups: The Fifth Dimension in September.  We will announce details in UKHotViews in coming weeks. Contact gbs@techmarketview.com for further information.

The TechMarketView Great British Scaleup programme is proudly sponsored and supported by:

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Is someone about to eat Just Eat's lunch?

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Just EatWe have covered Just Eat since 2011 including its IPO in Apr 2014 and its pretty amazing elevation to the FTSE100 in Dec 17 with a valuation >£5b. Also a string of acquisitions including HungryHouse which has just received CMA approval.

Just Eat has been at the centre of a debate here at TMV (and elsewhere) about what constitutes a tech company. See Jan 14 post Is Just Eat a tech company? If the definition covers companies that use technology at the heart of its operations in delivering its services, then Just Eat clearly qualifies. But so does Lloyds Bank and British Airways!

Just Eat shares had risen 60% in the last year - making them one of the best performers in the FTSE100. But, yesterday some 12% was knocked off their share value as they announced a surprise loss for the year (£76m loss v profit of £91m for previous year), increased future spend and lower forecasts for 2018.

Just Eat really only operated as an intermediary between restaurants/food outlets and its customers. Other companies did the deliveries. We have expressed our fears about this before. See Just Eat - should we still be worried? and work back. Now it faces strong competition from those that make the deliveries too - operations like Deliveroo, UberEats and even Amazon. Now Just Eat will enter the delivery business too in the UK and some other overseas markets - putting aside some £50m for that investment.

The ‘problem’ with ‘disrupters’ is that they can themselves be quite easily ‘disrupted’. So valuations can be very volatile as newcomers arrive ‘to eat your lunch’. Rather appropriate in Just Eat’s case


Littlefish keeping up the momentum

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Littlefish logoWe have been tracking the progress of Littlefish ever since the company was part of our Little British Battler programme in early 2012 (see Little British Battlers Q1 2012). Though the company remains small (revenues of around £8.5m in their last financial year), it has been incredibly active and fast-growing, as can be seen from the HotViews archive.

Over the last couple of months, the provider of IT managed services has announced two more UK public sector signings. The latest is with The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO), the NDPB responsible for investigating pension complaints, under a three-year deal (optional one-year extension) worth c£900K. The organisation is moving to the Government Hub at Canary Wharf. Littlefish will provide a full managed IT service including secure 24/7 service desk, end user and infrastructure support, Office365, Microsoft Azure cloud platforms, and 8×8 cloud telephony. It will also deliver service integration and be responsible for governance, compliance and innovation. Like other government organisations TPO is looking to modernise its working practices.

Last month, Littlefish signed the Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO), also for managed IT services (service desk, end user device, application and infrastructure support, and end-to-end service management). SSRO is responsible for the regulatory framework for single source defence contracts. That deal was a two-year deal (including two one-year extension options). SSRO appear to have been particularly impressed with Littlefish’s Service Desk On Demand offering.

These sorts of deal are right in Littlefish’s sweet spot in terms of size and type of organisation. What will be really interesting is if Littlefish manages to take a piece of the pie at some of the larger Government departments as they disaggregate. Littlefish’s ambition is certainly evident. And it has had wins with larger organisations in the private sector. But will, in an unsettled Whitehall environment, the appetite to work with smaller players be strong enough?

Microgen delivers strong growth in 2017

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Microgen LogoMicrogen plc, the financial services software specialist, has reported strong revenue and profit growth for the year ended 31 December 2017, with both its Aptitude Software and Microgen Financial Systems businesses performing well.

Revenue was up 46% to £62.6m (2016: £43.0m); on a constant currency basis revenue improved by 43%. Organic revenue growth, excluding the benefit of its RevStream and Primacy acquisitions, was up 37%. Adjusted operating profit improved by 43% to £13.6m (2016: £9.5m) and profit before tax reached £10.8m, which was up 37% (35% on a constant currency basis) on the previous year (2016: £7.9m).

Its Aptitude Software business improved its revenue by 68% to £44.3m (2016: £26.4m), with organic growth (excluding RevStream) of 58%. Adjusted operating profit increased by 107% to £7.9m (2016: £3.8m) representing an adjusted operating margin of 18% (2016: 15%). Implementation services revenue increased by 91% to £26.6m (2016: £14.0m), although future growth will be impacted by Microgen's growing partner model for these services.

Microgen Financial Systems ended the year with revenue of £18.3m, a 10% improvement on the previous year (£16.6m), largely driven by its activity in the Trust and Fund Administration (T&FA) market. T&FA revenue grew by 27% to £11.3m (2016: £8.9m), with 16% growth excluding Microgen's in-year acquisitions. Adjusted operating profit was £7.5m (2016: £7.2m), meaning adjusted operating margin fell slightly to 41% (2016: 43%). This is attributed to the timing of investments and the move away from its higher margin application management business to the T&FA market (see Microgen - Optimistic about 2017 for further discussion).

Microgen's strategy is clearly progressing well, and it appears to have made a solid start to 2018. It has made the first sale of its new Aptitude Insurance Calculation Engine to an Asian insurance group and reports an encouraging pipeline of opportunities.

Netcall bets on low-code

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netballInterim results out today from customer engagement software provider Netcall has revenue increasing 32% to £10.7m (H1 2017: £8.09m) and EBITDA increasing by 22% to £2.69m (H1 FY17: £2.21m)

Netcall remains a business going through change (Netcall making headway into the cloud) as it continues to transition to the cloud and a recurring revenue model, while running out its Movieline business in favour of the modular Liberty customer engagement, experience management and workflow platform.  As such it will be pleased to see recurring revenues continuing to strengthen up to 71% (H1 FY17 69%) of the top line.

The other big shift is Netcall’s entrance into the high growth, low-code software market via the acquisition in August of MatsSoft. Low-code is designed to addresses the gap between the rapidly increasing demand for software and digital transformation and the supply of development and design talent which is increasing at a much slower rate.

The business is now focusing on developing a low-code pipeline from new and existing customers seeing great potential in cross-selling MATS into its existing Liberty customer base and has already developed its first low-code solutions for the public sector, Patient Hub and Citizen Hub.

Netcall is in a better positon than it was a year to eighteen months ago having gone through the painful process of switching to cloud and with its investment in the potential of low-code should be set to improve further in the second half of the year.

*NEW RESEARCH * Understanding the Legacy Issues facing Banks

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legacyIn FinancialServicesViews we have written long and often about how banks need to address their legacy issues urgently if they are to remain competitive against agile, cloud-native digital businesses and to meet ever-increasing customer expectations. The resulting Bank transformation programmes have multi-billion dollar budgets (see for example Lloyds Banking Group to spend an extra £3bn on IT), and much of this spend will be directed at third-party Software and IT Services providers.

As we highlighted in our recent Financial Services Market Trends and Forecasts report, there is an unprecedented period of opportunity for SITS providers. However, we believe that a critical success factor for vendors to win a share of the banks’ expenditure will be the ability to demonstrate an understanding of the wide range of interconnected and complex legacy issues.

But what exactly are these legacy issues, how did they arise and specifically what sort of opportunities do they provide for vendors? To answer these questions and more, FinancialServicesViews clients can access our new report Understanding the Legacy Issues facing Banks” here.

And, as we consider that this report will be very helpful for many of our HotViews readers, we are making this report available to non-subscribers. If you are interested in buying this fascinating report on a one-off basis, please follow this link.

Aston Martin Lagonda

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LogondaI was trying to think of a good reason to feature a picture of the new Aston Martin Lagonda‘concept car’ unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show yesterday. Do I really need a reason? It is a magnificent looking car!

I suppose the nearest I can get is that Aston Martin is as much a tech company as many others we feature. And it’s British!

Aston Martin's CEO Andy Palmer said the electric Lagonda , possibly available in 2021, would appeal to those who ‘want to upgrade from a Tesla’.

Also (according the FT) to those 'thinking of buying a Rolls Royce but think their car is not great for the environment’. Do Rolls Royce owners really care about what their cars do for the environment?

Georgina's Big Thank You!

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GOSH Walkie Talkie MedalI made it!

Those of you who read UKHotViews (see Georgina’s Walkie Talkie Challenge for GOSH) will know that I had signed up to climb the 828 steps (36 floors) of the Walkie Talkie in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). As my younger son has been under the care of the hospital’s orthopaedic department for much of his life, it is cause close to my heart.

How GOSH makes a differenceWell, after trekking through the snow to the station and making it onto one of the few trains that wasn’t cancelled, I attempted the challenge on Saturday and made it... in 11 minutes, 3 seconds! I must have blocked out the memories of the BT Tower Challenge two years ago (see Georgina’s BT Tower Challenge for GOSH). I started a little too confidently. Having tackled six floors at a slow run, my legs were like jelly…. And there were another 30 floors to go! I had to pull myself up by the rail for much of the rest of the climb...

I wasn’t the fastest – that was 4 minutes! But I wasn’t the slowest either. And the main thing is that I made it to the top, to be greeted with my glass of Prosecco. More importantly, with your help, I have raised a staggering £2,428 for GOSH. As you can see, that will help the hospital achieve an awful lot.

So, a big THANK YOU. I was overwhelmed, once again, by the generosity of our readers and clients. If you would still like to donate, my page is here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/team-o-toole. Am I going to have to be more ambitious in my challenge next time?!?

Investment primes Kimble for even more growth

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logoWhen we examined the professional services automation (PSA) market and Kimble Applications’ position within it in our “Enabling Digital: Services Shift Execution & Intelligent PSA” report at the end of 2017 we highlighted several factors that enabled high growth Kimble to build a strong position in this expanding market. We also cautioned that “its success coupled with its size will inevitably attract attention. It could be positive in the form of investors - or from would-be acquirers”. We’re delighted to hear it has attracted positive attention in the form of investment from PE firm Accel-KKR.

Although the size of the investment was not disclosed we believe Accel-KKR acquired a significant portion of the company while enabling the founders to retain a large share. Investment rather than acquisition means co-founders Sean Hoban, Mark Robinson and David Scott can continue to lead the business that has been growing at a cracking pace in its UK home market, and particularly the US and Canada which has quickly got to a position where it is delivering more than 50% of its new product revenue. JEGI | CLARITY were Kimble's corporate finance advisor.

Having followed the SaaS based supplier since its early days in 2011 when it had just 10 foundation customers and was a ‘newbie’ on the Salesforce.com platform (see Kimble takes PSA to the cloud), through activities that included participation in our Little British Battler programme to expansion into the US and Canada, and the development of  “augmented intelligence” for PSA, we’re really pleased that the investment also means Kimble remains a UK company.

PSA demand is strong in the US and Canada, something Kimble aims to capitalise on by using the funds to support expansion in the region (as well as in Europe and new geographies), plus further investment in product development. The combination of former consultants developing for the needs of current consultants, while leveraging the technology and network effect of the Salesforce platform has certainly worked well for Kimble. We’ll keep watch as it enters the next phase of its development. 


Kimble - A personal note

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KimbleBack in the early 2000s, during my involvement with Elderstreet, I first met Sean Hoban and Mark Robinson via Edenbrook and we made an investment. It proved very rewarding when Edenbrook was acquired by Hitachi in 2009 for c£30m. See Hitachi Consulting buys UK’s Edenbrook.

So I was delighted when they, together with David Scott, went on to setup Kimble and, soon after, asked me to become an ‘angel’ investor in 2012. The same invitation was made to some pretty prominent people in the UK tech scene - so I joined a prestigious band of shareholders.

Usually, as with my investment in Fairsail (see All Hail Adam Hale as Sage acquires Fairsail), when an exit opportunity arises it is an ‘all or nothing’ decision. I’ve often felt that was wrong. Wouldn’t it be so much better for founders, in particular, if they could sell a part of their shareholding - providing some personal financial security - whilst continuing to participate in managing the future growth of the company? So I was delighted that the Accel KKR deal did just that. It also enabled angel investors, like me, to cash in part of their holding whilst leaving most of the stake ‘riding on the table’ for the future.

HVPI am not permitted to divulge the price paid or the implied valuation of Kimble. But, for me, it has become the best 5-year investment I have ever made. So I have a lot to thank Sean, Mark, David and the Kimble team for.

Footnote - If you want the full background on Kimble since its very start, all the articles are on the HotViews Archive available to TechMarketView clients and UKHotViews Premium  subscribers. Sign up today!

Strengthening WANdisco looks East

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LogoWANdisco’s road to full recovery appears to be all but complete. 2017 revenues at the Anglo-American live data focused company surged by 73% yoy to nearly $20m while its cash overheads increased by less that 5%. Losses have been all but stemmed. They shrank from $7.5m in 2016 to just $600K last year placing it within close reach of its cash flow breakeven goal. Indeed, WANdisco now feels strong enough to start pushing out into new geographies and has recently signed its first OEM sales agreement in the Chinese market with Alibaba Cloud, the largest provider of public cloud services in China.

This is a remarkable reversal of fortunes for a company that appeared to be in serious disarray just 18 months ago (see here). The more forward-looking indicators give yet further cause for optimism. 2017 bookings were up an impressive 45% yoy to $22.5m with WANdisco Fusion – its flagship active data replication platform – accounting for 70% of the new business signed. The current sales pipeline is described as strong across multiple sectors.

WANDisco’s channel strategy has been a key pillar in its return to growth. Its OEM partnership with IBM is clearly working well, securing two record contract wins with major global financial institutions, each worth in excess of $4 million in 2017 (see here). Its established relationships with Microsoft and Amazon continue to bear substantial fruit and last year it added another major OEM agreement with Virtustream worth a minimum of $3.6 million over 3 years. In January 2018 it also signed a sales agreement with Bytes Technology Group UK, a leading provider of software licensing and cloud services.

This demonstrable partnering prowess bodes well for WANdiso’s venture into China. Under the new non-exclusive OEM agreement, WANdisco Fusion will be sold as a standard component on Alibaba Cloud, covering several key aspects including live data migration, disaster recovery and hybrid big data. This move adds significantly to the company’s market reach. If successful it will further accelerate WANdisco’s impending return to profitable growth.

A great event for Great British Scaleups

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logoHow privileged we were to support eight aspiring UK tech SME scale-ups on their journey! TechMarketView research directors and ScaleUp Group advisors helped the top teams of these companies assess the scale-up opportunities and challenges in their business plans at the third Great British Scaleup event held in London over the past two days.

The companies participating in GBS3 were:

  • Armour Communications
  • Deep Sky Blue Solutions
  • Engage Technology Partners
  • hedgehog lab
  • Methods Business & Digital Technologies
  • Mvine
  • Resolving
  • Screendragon

We'll be writing more about these companies on UKHotViews soon and will be following their progress with interest.

Don't worry if you missed out this time. Great British Scaleups: The Fourth Generation is scheduled for June, and Great British Scaleups: The Fifth Dimension in September.  We will announce details in UKHotViews in coming weeks. Contact gbs@techmarketview.com for further information.

The TechMarketView Great British Scaleup programme is proudly sponsored and supported by:

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Access Group intensifies hospitality push with Procure Wizard

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logoSince taking its first steps into the hospitality sector in June last year with the acquisition of Selima and formally launching its Hospitality division in December 2017, Access Group has been busy acquiring industry specific capabilities, adding to them again this week with the purchase of Procure Wizard.

As the name suggests, Procure Wizard is an online procurement solution designed to streamline back office processes to deliver cost savings, improved profitability and labour efficiencies. Its ‘Purchase to Pay’ technology helps reduce indirect spend, improve controls and automate invoice processing. Such products aren’t ground breaking (think SAP Ariba) but at a time when enterprises are looking for technology to deliver business outcomes they can deliver measurable value, especially when tuned to the needs of a specific sector – so Procure Wizard also provides food, beverage and laundry control solutions and, menu engineering.

The acquisition complements previous hospitality acquisitions, including DesignMyNight, ProNett, Intelligent Business Systems (IBS), and Selima of course which marked the move into hospitality, and is in line with Access Group’s adjacency acquisition strategy which had previously enabled it to move into verticals such as education, care management and ticketing and EPOS which share some similarities in the type of software requirements. Procure Wizard (founded in 2009) comes with a bevy of customers including The Patisserie Valerie, Macdonald Hotels & Resorts, Bill’s, Le Bistrot Pierre, Drayton Manor Theme Park, Peach Pubs and Company of Cooks which provide cross and upsell opportunities for Access Group’s core business software (finance, HR, supply chain, CRM).

Terms of the deal were not disclosed but TE Associates-backed Access Group is careful in its acquisitions, a strategy that has been successful: it hit the £100m revenue mark in its last FY, with 18% growth (see here).

Communisis's transition to digital delivers

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communisisCommunisis, the integrated marketing services provider, announced full year results this morning with revenue growing by 4% to £375.9m (2016 £361.9m). Adjusted operating profits rose by 9% to £21.2m (2016 £19.5m). Communisis has also taken prudent measures to reduce its debt by 20% and pay down the pension deficit.

The business has been shifting (Communisis, managing the transition) for some time from being a traditional print business towards a digital-first delivery model targeting higher operating returns. This is having a notable effect on the transactional business improving reoccurring revenues and delivering higher margins. This has seen it launch a series of digital and data-led initiatives designed to deliver greater value for clients far in excess of just saving the postage costs.

Another key strategic development is Communisis’s international reach with 30% (2016 26%) of group revenues now coming from overseas. A New York office was established in May 2017 to provide content marketing to financial services and it will open an office in Hong Kong next month for the sourcing of “premiums” (gifts which accompany luxury goods purchases).

Sales have also been strong winning a number of big contracts including with a major UK Bank, the BBC and HMRC. A contract renewal for the issuance of the TV Licensing (TVL) communications and transactional mailing was also announced. The 6 (+4) year contract sits with Proximity which manages the marketing and demand generation side of TVL and has sub-contracted to Communisis the fulfilment of direct marketing, print and fulfilment services.

Strategically Communisis continues to head in the right direction and is set up well for 2018. Shares were up some 7% at the time of writing this morning.

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