Though buy and build firm Digital Barriers is still ‘work in progress’ (see Digital Barriers: Partnerships with large SIs will help build scale), there’s clearly been significant progress towards achieving its stated objectives. There’s a definite change in tone to the interim results statement (for the six months to end September 2011) which indicates that the company has begun to accelerate towards its goals. When I spoke to Group Managing Director, Colin Evans, this morning, he confirmed that, particularly since June this year, the company has made significant progress.
Though the revenue run rate is still dominated (about two-thirds) by the UK – a legacy of its acquisitions – the key message from today’s results is that Digital Barriers has started to gain significant international market traction. As expected, selling advanced technologies to foreign governments has been complicated and time consuming. However, the company can now boast sales (typically with contract values in the six figures) to some big (though un-nameable) international government agencies. It also achieved some key wins on its home turf with both the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office in competitive bid situations.
Since its inception (see Digital admission Barriers down), the management team has had a clear focus on a subset of the public security market. The strategy has been refined as acquisitions have been undertaken, with the acquisitions of Keeneo (see Digital Barriers acquires Keeneo), Zimiti (see Digital Barriers acquired Zimiti) and, yesterday, Stryker (see Digital Barriers acquires Stryker) serving to further confirm the company’s focus on IP-rich, surveillance technologies. It appears the message is now getting through to its potential customers across the globe.
Revenue for the half year was £4.8 million (H110 £1.3 million) with an adjusted loss before tax of £2.9 million (H110: £1.1 million). We should expect substantial losses to be a feature this year, next year and the year after, as the company continues to invest in sales & marketing efforts globally and in technical R&D (for example, to develop a readily deployable product range for Governments after a simpler proposition). But, today’s results give considerable comfort that the company is moving positively in the right direction.