TOWER Software Reports Record Revenues and Profits
Strong International and Private Sector Sales Make TOWER Software Largest Australian Enterprise Content Management Vendor
Canberra, Australia – November 28, 2007 – TOWER Software, a proven global leader in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions, today reported record revenues and profits for the financial year ended June 30, 2007.
The private company’s revenues grew 32% to AUD$45.2 million in FY2007, up from $34.4 million in 2006 which represents almost three times the market growth rate*. The figure was boosted by a strong growth in international sales, particularly in North America and Europe, and increasing demand from private sector companies for compliance solutions. Overseas revenues grew by nearly 40%, while Australian revenues grew at a healthy 25% compared with 2006. FY2007 was the second year that overseas revenues exceeded domestic sales.
TOWER Software also increased its EBITDA by over 52% to $8.5 million after fully expensing R&D in FY2007, up from $5.6 million in 2006, a record result for the Canberra-headquartered software vendor. The record revenue and profit result mean that TOWER Software is now the largest Australian-based developer of ECM solutions.
“We are seeing increased demand across the board for our enterprise content management solutions,” said Martin Harwood, TOWER Software’s CEO. “There is strong demand in all of the geographies for our full enterprise suite, with many of our existing customers adopting the broader range of ECM functionality.”
TOWER Software doubled its number of offices around the world from 10 to 20 throughout 2007 to support the company’s strong international and domestic growth. New offices opened in Denver and Orlando in the U.S., Vancouver and Ottawa in Canada, Dublin in Ireland, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart and Darwin in Australia and Wellington in New Zealand. Staff numbers increased to 210, with 100 employees based overseas.
While the company expanded its geographic footprint, it also increased profitability by maintaining a strong focus on product development and support, said Harwood. “Services are a relatively small part of our business. We look to our business partners to do most of the implementation work while we focus on developing and supporting our product.”
Harwood also commented on the company’s rapidly increasing sales to private industry organizations. “While TOWER Software has been best known in the government sector, we have made huge inroads into the private sector in recent years. A large part of our customer base is now made up by companies in the energy and utilities, banking and finance and pharmaceutical industries. In fact, seven of the world’s top 15 pharmaceutical companies rely on TOWER Software’s enterprise content management solutions.”
Harwood said that TOWER Software would continue to grow strongly in 2008, with similar aggressive rates of revenue growth to 2007 and a proportionate growth in profitability expected.
* Gartner predicts that total software revenue from the worldwide ECM market will grow at a compound annual rate of 12.9% through 2011. Forecast: Enterprise Content Management Software, Worldwide, 2005-2010, Update (Executive Summary) 24th May, 2006 by Tom Eid
