Access smashes financial targets for the year

Colchester, UK - 19 October 2010 - Access Technology Group (ATG), the parent company behind mid-market consulting, software, and solutions provider, Access UK, has seen a strong rise in its revenue and profit targets for the financial year 2009/10, achieving 17 per cent profit before tax.

Despite the recession, ATG has also continued to outperform against its other key performance indicators:

• Profit before tax increased by £2.5m (146 per cent) to £4.25m (£4.38m EBITDA)
• Turnover increased by £1.5m (6 per cent) to £24.6m

ATG and Access UK Chairman Paul Druckman commented, "The underlying business growth has been driven by a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. Our bank balances remained strong at £2.25m after paying for acquisitions from retained reserves. This puts us on a strong financial footing, enabling continued investment and growth for the future."

In February 2010, ATG completed the acquisition of Select Software Ltd (now Access Select), the authors of SelectHR which shares the SQL Server and .NET technology footprint of the Access portfolio. This business, including all of its people, systems and infrastructure, has been fully integrated into Access UK. The software has also been closely integrated with the Access product portfolio.

Access has continued to invest significantly in R&D throughout the recession adding new products and completing comprehensive enhancements to the current portfolio. During the last 12 months, Access has released a new stock forecasting module and a significant upgrade and extension of its workflow forms application. Access Document Management Pro was launched and the iPhone for FocalPoint application was extended to include timesheets and expense management. In addition to functionality updates across the range, the graphical user interface has been brought into line with the recent Microsoft Office releases.

Paul continued, "The trend in customers investing in organisation-wide solutions has continued throughout 2010, automating niche processes, integrating systems within the business and providing a return on investment in areas where it was not previously cost effective to do so.

"We're always looking to extend the portfolio and to take our solutions to the next level, providing new ways to help businesses gain a competitive edge," said Paul. "The current financial year will see the launch of the first of a series of cloud-based applications. This coincides with the launch of a web services layer which allows Access solutions to integrate with both on-premise and cloud-based applications."

Access transformed its business model more than a year ago, from that of a channel-only accounting software house which makes some direct sales to that of a direct selling consulting, software and solutions provider that has some channel operations. Having added 50 new staff in the last 12 months the company now has one of the largest consulting teams dedicated to the UK mid-market for business and accounting software.

As a company, Access continues to place environmental responsibility as a central factor in how it runs the business. From development through to operations, it seeks to help itself and its stakeholders to be aware of, and to reduce, carbon impact. Its Accounting for Carbon Emissions (ACE) module continues to win awards and gather momentum in the market. Earlier this year, ACE won the 'Environmental Accounting Software of the Year' in the Green IT Awards.

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