It’s a tough market: Tech One

Australian software  vendor Technology One announced $47.44 million in revenue for its 2003 financial year, but warned that it expected tough market conditions to continue.

Adrian Di Marco, executive chairman at Technology One, told the company's AGM today that he didn't expect market conditions to improve until 2005.

However, he argued that the company should deliver growth in the current year.

The vendor has plans to release its new-generation software -- dubbed Connected Intelligence (CI) series -- next year, which Di Marco believes will “underpin the next stage of the company's growth”.

In an interview with iTnews Di Marco said that the company had been focussing on getting its new-generation product out, and had put both acquisitions and expansion overseas temporarily on hold.

He described Technology One's strategy over the past few years as being in contrast to its competitors, who he said had significantly reduced their R&D and embarked on an aggressive program of acquisitions.

“Acquistions are very distracting,” Di Marco said. “We're really focussed at this stage getting our next generation product out.” He added that the company was trying to focus on its core at the moment, but that acquisitions might come back on road at some stage in the future.

The company also wants its new CI product to lead it into new markets overseas. Di Marco anticipated that Technology One would look at expansion overseas again mid to late next year. He said initially it would tackle the UK market, reassessing after that whether to move into Asian or European countries.

R&D remains a major focus for the company in Australia. During the 2003 financial year the company spent $9.3 million on R&D.

“Technology One's strategy has been to specifically avoid acquisitions of overlapping products, and to continue to invest heavily in R&D through the tech stock crash,” Di Marco said.

All the company's R&D is carried out in Australia, and Di Marco described software developers here as among the best in the world. “You can save a bit of money by sending it overseas, but you won't get the same results,” he said.

According to Di Marco it competed with companies such as Oracle and PeopleSoft, and having all its software developers in one R&D centre allowed it to control the quality. “I think we've got some of the best software developers in the world and we don't realise it.”

For the 2003 financial year, Technology One also saw net profit before tax of $10.1 million, net operating cash flows were $9.56 million, and EBITDAR of $20.01 million, according to a statement.