The financial week ahead - Recognition improves global links.
Chartered accountant duo Bryan Black and Martin Andrews, chief executive and finance director at Birmingham-based Recognition Systems, hope the company will this year become the global leader in customer relationship management systems, writes Jerry Frank.
The developer and vendor of CRM systems and e-commerce solutions will next Thursday release annual figures that are set to build on a strong threefold increase in revenue to #3m announced in interims earlier this year.
CRM is one of the hottest growth areas in software and independent forecasters see the market growing by 45% over the next four years.
In August, Black and Andrews announced the company had received #3m orders for its CRM software, Protagona, software for designing and executing marketing campaigns, and extended its relationship with SAP of Germany, becoming a software partner.
The group is also an implementation partner with Andersen Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Braun Consulting, Logica and Cedar Group. New customers this year included Standard Chartered Bank, American Express and have opened offices in Hong Kong and Australia. Last November Black and Andrews raised #17m through a placing and open offer on the London Stock Exchange, and at the end of the half year had stockpiled #15.8m in cash compared to #1.9m the previous year.
Black, 47, previously a business alliance manager with Oracle and managing director with Pilot Software, while Andrews was a group finance controller with Amberley and trained with Price Waterhouse.
www.protagona.com.