Onderstaand enkele gedeelten uit het perbericht, welke vragen om rustig en overwogen gelezen te worden, neem er de tijd voor.
Expand to New Markets. Throughout its history, Sopheon has made ongoing, nominal investments in select new markets as a way of evaluating opportunities to leverage existing technologies and drive additional business growth. In 2006, Sopheon announced its expansion into non-food & beverage areas of the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) market.
Today we have a growing client base in this vertical, illustrated by such industry leaders as Electrolux, Freudenberg Household Products, Nautilus, Reckitt Benckiser, and Timex. These customers include several CPG companies that operate in light discrete manufacturing.
Our initial experiences in discrete will dictate the level of investment and effort we undertake towards growing in the large discrete manufacturing market – which includes the auto, defence and aerospace industries. Leveraging our partnerships will be critical to achieving our longer term goals in this area, and we were delighted to announce our first major automobile customer, secured in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard.
Sopheon continues to support its historic position as a supplier to the healthcare protocol market. Our Qualiflow® technology is used by healthcare institutions to provide doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners with procedural guidelines at the point of care.
Conversion of the Qualiflow solution to operate on the Accolade platform is expected to be completed in 2007. Expansion of our protocol management market activity is on hold until this platform transition has been proven successful. Sopheon will then readdress its strategies for growing this aspect of our business.
Expand Partnerships. Sopheon remains committed to growing its business through partnerships. We also know that it takes time and investment to develop a strong network of partners that can add value to the Company.
The Microsoft® Office Project 2007 integration initiative is the latest advance in a continuing strategic alliance between Sopheon and Microsoft. Since its inception, Sopheon’s Accolade software has incorporated Microsoft products such as Microsoft Office Project Server and other components of the Microsoft Office system, focusing the capabilities of these horizontal platforms on helping manufacturers increase the business impact of new product innovation. Based on the strength and success of Sopheon’s business application, the alliance between Sopheon and Microsoft has steadily grown.
Sopheon has earned Microsoft’s designation as a Gold Certified and “managed” partner.
In 2006, we concentrated on working with existing reseller partners to deepen their knowledge and understanding of our value proposition, the dynamics of our markets and the capabilities of our product offerings. Partner relationships resulted in Sopheon’s signing its first clients in Israel, New Zealand, Portugal and Sweden, providing a critical foundation of local references to support expansion in these nascent sales territories. We were also active with our consulting partners, working together on a number of Accolade implementations in the U.S. and Europe. We expect 2007 to be a year of further collaboration and business development efforts with our partners. Plans call for a continued focus on our existing network, as well as the addition of a small number of new members.
OUTLOOK
With the achievement of a breakeven EBITDA result, our business crossed a financial milestone during 2006.
As we approach the next milestone of 100 licensees for our software, the scale and maturity for which we have been striving since the launch of Accolade six years ago is, we believe, finally coming through.
This is contributing both to rising revenue stability, and to rising market recognition. As set out in more detail above, we will build on our achievements by attending to five key areas:
Secure more business from our existing customer base
Extend our hold in established chemicals, materials, food and beverage markets
Expand the Accolade product in depth, functionality, integration and scalability
Enter new vertical markets
Develop and expand our partner network
In addition, we will carefully consider potential acquisitions that offer both strategic and operational benefits.
As always, we recognize the need both to drive Sopheon forward strategically, and to stay focused on financial performance. This challenge will continue to shape our thinking in the exciting times ahead.
Wilt u het hele verhaal lezen incluis de financieele bijdrage, klik dan bij het tiende bericht in dit draadje op url.
vriendelijke groet lucas D