By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor
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Wednesday 9th January 2002 |
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A tally of NZSE shares in December showed CommSoft had fallen from $1.05 at the start of the year to around 7 cents - a fall of around 93%.
The software company floated on the market in September 2000 amid much hype but began a quick descent after it revealed just three months later that it was having considerable problems being paid for sales it had already made.
Group MD, Mark Lunt, was brought on board last April and admits the receivables issue has been a challenge.
"We have gone up pretty aggressively against people who owe us money, taking legal action against more than 20 customers to get paid," he says.
"What we've been concentrating on in the past year is dealing with the legacy problems, such as debtors, while improving the management."
Mr Lunt says the company has also cut costs considerably, with staff numbers down to around 60 from a high of 150.
However while costs are still being watched closely and the company is in much better shape going into this year compared with last year, Mr Lunt confirms that the main priority continues to be improving product sales.
CommSoft has four products in its stable. Three of these help companies to manage telephone or internet use - Callmaster, Netmaster and Cellmaster. The other is a customer relationship management tool called Brains.
Mr Lunt estimates that Callmaster earns the lion's share of revenue for the company at about 45-50%, while Brains has 30% and Netmaster the rest.
Cellmaster, which helps a company track mobile phone costs, has not even been sold in New Zealand or Australia but has had a couple of successes in the UK.
Of all the products, Mr Lunt believes Netmaster offers the most opportunities for growth this year, and the company hopes to leverage off a positive review for the software due to be published in a US-based magazine in the next few months.
CommSoft raised around $21 million when it floated but has spent a reasonable amount of that on acquisitions, including buying the Brains business for some $5.75 million.
While Mr Lunt won't say exactly how much cash the company currently has on hand, he says the cash position continues to be very tight - hence even further pressure to put runs on the board this year.
CommSoft has a December end interim balance date and is due to update its financial progress before the end of next month.
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