FI Group Plc, the Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire-based systems and software house is approaching its 30th birthday and is proud of its ability to ride the recessions that seem to swamp the UK at least once a decade, whilst competitors such as SD-Scicon Plc are set floundering (CI No 1,643). But that’s not to say that the company isn’t vulnerable to hard times. FI Group – the initials now stand for Flexible Information Systems – went through a tough time in 1990, to which its year end figures to April 30 were testimony. Whereas the company had shown consistent growth over the previous five years, rising from UKP9m in 1986 to UKP19m in 1989, 1990 proved something of a rocky ride, with pre-tax profits that plummeted 71% to UKP433,000 on revenues that fell 15% to UKP16m. This, according to director of the company’s financial services division Jo Connell, was due to the downturn in the financial services market, which accounts for around 25% of total revenues. And FI Group had several software development projects in this sector last year which came to an end. But, quick to turn the company back around, the board switched resources into FI’s two other target markets, public which contributes around 30% of group revenues – and commercial – which accounts for 35% to 40%, and focused on applications support and maintenance – which now accounts for 60% of revenues in the financial sector, 40% of total turnover. General Accident Life Assurance has renewed a major contract for this service, and the company is part-way through a contract to support systems at Midland Technology Services. New customers recruited at the end of 1990 included Pearl Assurance, Sun Life Assurance and Lombard North Central.
Lifespan
Average contracts, said product marketing manager Hilary Calow not to be confused with chief executive Hilary Cropper – have a life-span of around three years and are usually worth between UKP500,000 and UKP1m. According to Ms Calow, FI Group has now recovered and should turn in profits and revenues for 1991 that are in line with those reported for 1989. The company’s success, she says, can be attributed to a focus on software services – FI supports second, third and fourth generation applications, ranging from old assembler code to DB2, and a strategic goal to improve a customer’s productivity, instead of just maintaining it – the company claims to be able to increase a client’s productivity by up to 70% over the life-span of the contract. FI Group has been maintaining British Telecom’s Area Stores Module warehousing system since 1988, enabling British Telecom to release 19 staff, and the company claims to have increased productivity there by 55%. The company provides Telecom with an on-site service desk in Cardiff, and has a remote maintenance group at FI’s work centre in Altrincham, Cheshire. Another of the company’s selling points is that it hands over its know-how to the customer – Calow smiled at the suggestion that FI Group’s second acquisition might be a training company. At present the company employs over 800 staff, only 20% of which are full time. FI Group has work centres in Altrincham, Solihull, Basingstoke and Hemel Hempstead, and has a Scottish operation in Edinburgh this contributes 5% of group revenues. Last year, FI acquired Teddington, Middlesex-based AMP Recruitment Ltd (CI No 1,547), which brought a database of 6,000 contract staff. Says Connell, FI has a lot of cash in the bank and is on the lookout for more suitable acquisitions – as to continental Europe, FI will have to grow some more within the UK first, but expansion abroad through acquisition in the future seems inevitable.
