Datacom Group made a NZ$2 million (A$1.84 million) loss in the year ended March 31 2023, the Trans-Tasman service provider said.
The after tax loss comes on the back of a small revenue increase to NZ$1.49 billion (A$1.37 billion), up from NZ$1.45 billion (A$1.33 billion) the year before.
For the 2022 financial year, Datacom reported a profit of NZ$28 million, down from NZ$35 million in 2021.
Before tax profit fell from NZ$41 million in 2022, to NZ$8 million, with operating cash flow at NZ$116 million, up from $NZ$114 million the year before.
Acknowledging the profit drop, Datacom Group chief executive Greg Davidson pointed to the provider investing in software as a service and infrastructure products, saying the decision to do so is a highly strategic one.
“Over the past year, the Group invested $80 million in its SaaS product portfolio, technical and structural upgrades to its four New Zealand data centres, regional expansion initiatives and the opening of new state of the art warehouse facilities in Australia and New Zealand to support the IT asset management and logistics needs of customers in the region," Davidson said.
The company's Datapay, Smartly and Datascape offerings saw just over 40 per cent growth year on year, Datacom said.
On top of the SaaS and infrastructure investment, Davidson said Datacom is focusing on identifying how using artificial intelligence can support its strategic goals, and those of the provider's customers.
Datacom said it had 6650 staff as at March 31 this year, in Australia, New Zealand and at Asian locations.
Although it has restructured sales teams in New Zealand, with the loss of 20 positions, Datacom said it had taken in more than 220 graduates and interns over the past year.
