Supply chain and e-commerce software player Kewill says that it still believes it’ll hit expectations for its full financial year, which runs to end March. That’s despite the need to close a number of deals in the remaining two months.
When it announced H1 results back in November, Kewill stated that closing four “major contracts” in its pipeline, along with some smaller deals, would ensure it generated enough revenue to achieve full year expectations. Today in its Q3 statement, it’s saying only one of those four (a contract with Itella Logitics) has been inked so far. That leaves the other three still in the pipeline. Looks like it'll be a busy couple of months at Kewill.
Like so many software vendors, Kewill is moving gradually towards SaaS, as evidenced by its recent purchase of PointandShip Software (see Kewill boosts Saas capabilities with PointandShip). Of course in the SaaS world, pulling in a handful of major contracts towards the end of a reporting period may not be enough to save a company’s bacon, because less of the revenue from the deal tends to be recognised upfront. For software players the world over that have become accustomed to upfront licence revenue models, and the commission structures that go along with them, this change remains a significant challenge.