Atlantic Global excited over future prospects

A STRONG performance and excitement for a new product launch has given Cleckheaton software firm Atlantic Global reasons to be cheerful in a sector hard hit by the credit crunch.

The specialist provider of integrated business and resource management software, today reported a 179% rise in pre-tax profits from £72,000 to £201,000 for the six months ended June 30, although revenue dipped slightly from £1.158m to £1.120m.

To reflect its strong financial position the company is issuing its first dividend since floating on AIM in 2001 of 0.25p per share.

The attraction of new customers including GETECH, Alliance Boots and Netstore has certainly helped boost the developer’s profitability, but it’s the imminent launch of its OnDemand software as a service (SAS) that is causing greater excitement.

According to Rupert Hutton, Atlantic’s finance director, the new service, which is delivered over the internet, will not only open up new markets but give better access to existing ones.

“Software as a service means that companies don’t have to spend time implementing or spending as much on third party hardware and software,” he explained.

“It can be downloaded through a link and used by one department rather than a whole organisation. It’s something that people have predicting for a while but now it’s here.”

Mr Hutton said that SAS will be particularly attractive for smaller firms with smaller budgets. He believes that it will also help take the bureuacracy out of buying software, reduce sales lead times and cost of sales and increase scaleability.

Such is the firm’s confidence that it is also actively seeking out acquisition targets in an effort to boost its market position.

“We have been pro-active in our trail and have looked at a number of firms but we need to get the right deal,” added Mr Hutton.