Strong earnings a highlight for Spescom

By Candice Jones for Spescom

Johannesburg, 23 May 2008

JSE-listed ICT group Spescom reported a dramatic increase in operating profit, now at R4.94 million, from R137 000 in the same period last year.

Spescom CEO Jen'e Palmer says the increase is one of the company's financial highlights for the period. "The impressive increase can be attributed to the work procured in the contact centre business, where the company uses its own technology."

Palmer took the helm of the company last July, following the departure of co-founder and CEO Tony Farah. At the time, investors expressed concern that Palmer was too young to take on the company's top spot.

The interim results for the six months ending 31 March 2008 represent something of a coup for Palmer, showing a complete turnaround for the company's net profit, at R3.10 million, up from a loss of R1.56 million last year.

"The highlight for us in these results is definitely the improved earnings, which can be attributed to the success we have had in the contact centre market, as well as the continued success in the telecommunications space," says Palmer.

The company has sustained these financial figures since its annual results in November last year.

The company's DataVoice division also turned its profit around. "The repositioning of its product suite to enable effective workforce optimisation and risk management, in line with the evolving market, has started to pay off," says Palmer.

Spescom also concluded a contract with one of the local mobile operators. "Without their permission, we can't say who it is. However, it is quite a strategic deal for us."

Palmer says the deal has no rand value specified; however, Spescom will supply the operator with voice recording and quality management products. "We have been assigned several sites where we will be supplying the technology. We also see this as a huge growth opportunity, because the contract may expand past these few identified sites."

The future for Spescom will be to sustain the good performance it has showed, says Palmer. "Our aim is to continue to improve on these results."

The company wants to broaden its hosted and managed services and benefit from new business.

Investments in telecommunications infrastructure and deployment of additional bandwidth will drive increased national demand for greater business communications needs, adds Palmer. "The trend towards converged communication infrastructure and solutions will continue to drive opportunities for Spescom to deliver innovative convergence solutions."