2020 Outlook
2019 was a tough year for many reasons but nonetheless one of growth in all respects and I would like to thank my fantastic team, our partners, and our clients for their contribution, without which this would not have been made possible.
So why was 2019 so challenging?
- Externally, the ongoing delays and lack of clarity over Brexit made working with banks and any investment authorities nigh on impossible. It is therefore a testament to the determination and focus of the Sales teams that they managed to grow the revenue by an estimated 15%.
- We’ve had lots of new joiners in all areas of the business to better support our UK and International development. This has, therefore, been a time of significant change as we looked for and introduced new talent, redesigned departments and reworked processes to ensure we remain nimble to deal with the ever-changing market challenges.
So, what DID we achieve in 2019?
- We expanded our teams in the UK, Nordics and France
- We opened offices in Bangalore and Abu Dhabi
- We expanded our SLT in the UK
- We invested £150k in our website and digital proposition
- We became a closed PLC
- We radically improved our operational technology automation as below:
- The “Golden Ticket” – straight through processing of a ticket, with no human intervention. Something the service desk and IT are working hard to make happen as standard
- CIMS is now currently utilised for 97% of all transactions in the UK and will hit similar levels for the rest of the world in Jan 20.
Congratulations to all involved and let’s keep developing better solutions through technology and automation.
So where are we going in 2020?
Given the Election result and the clarity over our position in Europe, I expect a short-term positive bounce in business confidence. Some doubt remains as to whether that can be sustained. Personally, I believe it can, but irrespective of whether that indeed transpires, I’m confident that the outsourcing sector for IT Managed Services will continue to grow strongly. It is also fair to say that the requirement for Cyber Security Services remains upward and our ability to expand will be limited only by a lack of imagination or ambition.
Throughout 2020, we will continue to invest heavily in our ‘FieldView’ technology and other clever software tools, to further enhance our operating efficiency and customer value. We have brought some significant new features into play on FieldView which will offer greater partner value, time-saving benefits and reduce customer operating costs, improve invoicing speeds and therefore inbound cash receipts. This in turn should make us even more competitive, allowing us to win significant high-volume new contracts which will of course be cascaded down to those same partners benefitting from the automated software.
The fluid and competitive market demands the very best, with innovation driving success. Customer UX with complexity massaged by simplicity is the key, and our FieldView technology investment certainly looks to achieve provide our customers with the most valuable ‘automated IT portal’ available.
I look forward to the next 12 months and also to building towards our 3-year plan of £100m.
Our People
Lastly, our strategy and execution are critical, but they are nothing without our people. I’m a firm believer that in a service industry, it is people and technology that add the value and differentiate from those around us. With market leading tools to add to the passion and professionalism of the team, we are so much stronger.
It won’t be easy but if it was everyone would be doing it!!
Rod Moore
CEO & Chairman
