Commenting on the company’s 1990 results (alongside), Sherwood Computer Services Plc chief executive Richard Guy says he is satisfied with the company’s solid recovery from its crisis point of 1988. Although the year-end figures appear to be down on 1989, Guy points out that the company has invested UKP2.6m in research and development over the year, designing new products and services, and orders for these new products, in excess of UKP11m, should show up in the figures for the current year. The main focus of research and development was on Sceptre, a product targeted at the Lloyd’s insurance market – UKP2.5m has been spent on the open system so far – Senator, an extended version of Sceptre which will be applicable beyond the Lloyd’s market, will be available soon. Orders worth UKP5m have been received for Sceptre. In the life assurance market, the company’s traditional product Bliss, and Envoy, one of Sherwood’s early open systems products, continue to bring in the money, with Austalian insurance company Colonial Mutual among Envoy’s recent customers. Threshold, the company’s local government housing product, has seen UKP1.1m investment but as yet has taken no revenues, with six sales of the system to date. And the acquired assets and contracts of Wootton Jeffreys have paved a way into central government. The big disappointment of the year was Sherwood’s disaster recovery business, which suffered from the heightened competition, especially following ICL’s entry into the marketplace, and contributed only 11% of company revenues financial services accoun-ted for 75% and public services for 14%. Other reasons given for the poor performance of Disaster Standby were the UKP3m investment Sherwood made in a northern site in Manchester which is taking longer than expected to recover, and the distraction caused by negotiations a proposed sale of the division. The offer was rejected and Sherwood is now looking towards collaborative ventures as the future for its disaster recovery activities. Net group assets at the year end stood at UKP4m, including UKP900,000 cash in the bank. Future objectives include the expansion into continental Europe through Sherwood’s connection with World Software Group BV, the Dutch company, which has a 19% investment stake in Sherwood.
