smartFOCUS sees interim results ahead of expectations

In his AGM statement, smartFOCUS (LON:STF) chairman Chris Gater told investors that strong demand for the company’s software services has lead to the board’s increasing confidence, and consequently Gater expects to report H1 results ahead of  previous expectations.

"I am pleased to announce that trading in the first six months of 2010 has been very positive, building on the company's performance last year”, Gater stated.

“We are continuing to experience a strong demand for smartFOCUS' solutions as organisations invest more in marketing to retain and grow customer value and improve business results. Consequently, the company expects that its results for the first half of the year will be ahead of the board's expectations with increased top line growth and expected profitability.”
Furthermore, the company said it is now examining options to pay a dividend to shareholders.

SmartFOCUS is a specialist provider of multi-channel marketing software. Last year the company switched the focus of its business model in favour of Software as a Service (SaaS). Subsequently, In April, in the company’s full year results to 31 December 2009, smartFOCUS reported that revenues in FY09 climbed 15% to £11.9m (FY08: £10.4m), 66% of the total revenues were generated from SaaS contracts (2008: 50%).The demand for SaaS software helped smartFOCUS swing to a full year pre-tax profit of £0.5 million from a loss of £1.2 million in 2008.

According to smartFOCUS, investment in the marketing software sector was being driven by a number of long term trends, including increased online competition, increased consumer sensitivity to invasive marketing and pressure on marketing budgets for increased return on investment (ROI).

Indeed, in response to this morning’s update, London-based stockbroker Finncap said: “The group is clearly seeing strong demand from enterprises looking to invest more in advanced digital marketing and customer analytics to retain and grow customers and improve business results ... Given the rapid transition to a SaaS business model for SmartFOCUS, the positive 1H10 trading update should also boost revenue and profitability for FY10 and FY11”.

Last week, the company landed its latest new contract, with a deal with PartyGaming (LON:PRTY) to provide high performance analytical marketing software, to increase both the volume and value of player activity across PartyGaming’s brands - including PartyPoker, PartyCasino, PartyBets and PartyBingo.

The addition of this latest high profile contract further expands the company’s strong client list. smartFOCUS provides marketing software to a wide range of blue chip companies – including Rank (LSE:RANK), Carnival Group (LSE:CCL) and Easyjet (LSE:EZJ). Its software helps to improve customer responsiveness and retention, hence a number of smartFOCUS’s clients operate in sectors where effective communication with their customers is a key corporate objective.

In the current financial year, smartFOCUS has also won contracts with lastminute.com, Myprotein.co.uk and Hachette Filipacchi Media US.