Final Results

i-documentsystems Group PLC
10 December 2001

 
                         i-documentsystems group plc 
 
                 Results for the year ended 31 October 2001 
 
                                   Highlights

 
 
* Turnover £1.2m 
 
* Cash in bank £2.37m 
 
* Business built in line with plan 
 
* Development of strategic alliances 
 
* Successful penetration of local authority departments outside planning 
 
* 15 new council customers 
 
* Two new products developed 
 
* Strong pipeline 
 

John Wisbey, Chairman, commented: 
 
'i-documentsystems has fulfilled its objectives for the year which were to
float the Company, build the infrastructure and personnel base, and to win a
significant number of local authority contracts. These goals have been
achieved, which provides a firm base for the Company to build on and
strengthen its position as a dominant player in its chosen sectors of
e-government, and to achieve very strong revenue growth through winning more
contracts and recognizing the revenue associated with recent contract wins.' 
 
 
For further information please contact: 
 
John Wisbey, Chairman                              020 7353 5330 
 
Andrew Fraser, CEO                                 020 7427 0660 
 
Tim Bowen, CFO                                     020 7427 0660 
 
Jonathan Rooper / Nadja Vetter, Cardew & Co        020 7930 0777


CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT 
For the year ended 31 October 2001

Introduction 

i-documentsystems group plc specialises in Local Government document, content
and information management systems. These are the first full year results
since the Company floated on AIM in December 2000. The Group now has 27 local
authority clients (against 19 at the end of April 2001) which represents
considerable growth. We are pleased with the Group's progress in winning
customers. Next year will be an important year as the Group seeks to build
upon its position in the market and to achieve very strong revenue growth
through winning more contracts and recognising the revenue associated with
recent contract wins. The number of deals in the pipeline is increasing and
the Group's expected partnership with a number of major systems integrators
should open up further channels to winning new business. 
 

Operating and Financial Review 

The Group made a loss of £1.18m for the year ended 31 October 2001 based on a
turnover of £1.20m. This equates to a loss per share of 0.97p. Comparative
figures for the last period (7 months to 31 October 2000) were a loss of
£0.24m based on a turnover of £0.50m, which equated to a loss per share of
0.33p.  
 
Staff costs increased from £0.44m to £1.30m reflecting the addition of 26 new
staff in the year under review. Net cash at the year end was £2.37m. This
compares to £0.73m at the same time last year. 


Local Authority Business 

The Directors continue to believe that the best indicator of the Group's
progress is the number of local authorities that have committed to the
Group's products. The Group fell one short of its target of 28 local
authority customers by the end of the financial year. The number of local
authority clients is still anticipated to increase to 40 by 30 April 2002. 
 
In addition to the seven contracts outlined in the Interim Report, new
contracts awarded in the six months to 31 October 2001 were from Angus,
Calderdale, Cotswold, Gosport, Lincolnshire, Rother, Tewkesbury and
Winchester - worth a total of £0.75m in the first year. The 22 local
authorities using or committed to use Image-Gen in planning represent a 78%
share of the 28 local authorities believed to have document management
solutions in their planning departments. In addition, the Group now has
business with several local authorities in areas outside planning (i.e.
Glasgow, Gosport, Hillingdon, Lincolnshire and Western Isles) such as
Education, Revenues and Benefits, Chief Executive's Department and more
recently Social Services. This makes the Group increasingly credible as a
provider of total corporate solutions for councils. We have also provided
several Internet solutions to customers. Camden, East Northamptonshire,
Hackney, New Forest and Wandsworth are now live on the Internet with
Chichester, Oxford, Rother, Tewkesbury, Tower Hamlets and Westminster
expected to go live over the next 12 months. 
 
There are 468 local authorities in the UK, all of which are expected to
comply with the Prime Minister's directive to ensure that the bulk of Local
Government services are available electronically by 2005. In addition to this
pressure from Central Government, there is a strong cost saving and
efficiency argument for electronic availability of documents in planning
departments. Consequently the Group continues to believe that it is well
placed to gain significant additional contracts from the remainder of the UK
local authorities. An example of this drive has been the Group's involvement
with a Pathfinder solution for Wandsworth; this is an initiative funded and
promoted by Central Government to demonstrate to other councils how
e-Government within planning can be delivered. In addition, the 'Invest to
Save' project at Nottingham City Council, funded by Central Government, has
been successfully implemented in recent months within the planning
department.  
 
The revenue model for the Group's income from a local authority is partly
determined by the size of the local authority, by the timing of when the
contract arises in the financial year and by the degree and timing of rollout
into other council departments over time.  
Customers using Image-Gen include Westminster, the local authority with the
greatest number of planning applications in the UK, and East
Northamptonshire, which has one of the smallest numbers. The Group's local
authority business is now UK-wide. The Group has continued to enjoy a 100%
customer retention rate among its local authority customers.  
 
Our participation in relevant trade shows has been very successful resulting
in a significant number of opportunities. In addition, the Group won an award
for the best workflow product at the IM2000 awards. This adds to Image-Gen's
historical success where our sites have been awarded the Freedom of
Information Society Award, SOCITM Website of the Year (Wandsworth) and where
we assisted our clients (Wandsworth & Camden) in achieving Charter Mark
status for which the assessors commended the public access software as
'outstanding'. 


Banking and Financial Business 

The Group has a number of important banking customers and although the
Group's main focus is not currently on banking, we see some potential in the
future for this sector.  


Strategy and Alliances 

The Board believes that, while significant opportunity to provide
e-Government solutions exists, this should continue to be its major focus,
given the Group's market leadership position in planning departments of local
authorities. The Group will seek strategic partnerships wherever possible,
which will further strengthen its position in new local authority departments
in addition to opening new market sectors. During the past six months the
Group has entered such a partnership with Hyder Business Services (HBS). HBS
was responsible for the outsourced contract in Lincolnshire. 
 
Earlier in the year the Group established a relationship with MVM Consultants
plc, a subsidiary of Anglian Water plc, as a reseller, which gives the Group
access to 300 council customers of MVM. This has not yet generated business,
but is expected to do so over the coming year. 


Product Development 

There have been significant developments in our key suite of products. In
order to establish ourselves as a corporate provider we have incorporated
additional functionality into Image-Gen. Some of this has been achieved by
enhancing our own software. We have also incorporated a third-party product
which delivers the immediate benefit of electronic forms with an output in
XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) delivering compliance with e-GIF
(Government Interoperability Framework), a mandatory component within Local
Government.  
 
The Group announced in its flotation prospectus its intention to develop the
UKPlanning system, an ASP (Application Service Provider) model for local
authorities to store and index planning documents in order to make them
available for public inspection on the internet. Rather than each council
separately developing the expertise, the Group would provide this service on
an outsourced basis using its existing Image-Gen technology. This would allow
each participating council's planning applications to be accessed through a
single internet portal known as UKPlanning.com. This new service has received
considerable interest from the user community. The Group has made significant
headway in implementing this service and had two customers, Hackney and
Wandsworth, testing the system in a live environment. Wandsworth has
continued as a fee paying client. Phase 1 of testing was completed in June
2001. Outstanding development tasks will be complete by March 2002, and the
Group is now in a position to market UKPlanning to a wider audience. In
Scotland the service is being offered as ScottishPlanning.com. 
 
These developments have added significant new functionality to our product
portfolio. We have added Image-Gen i-forms, a tool which allows us to build
any type of electronic form. The addition of Image-Gen i-xml server delivers
integration capability to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM), legacy
and vertical application systems which are used extensively within Local
Government. We have also improved the handling of electronic documents within
Image-Gen and considerably expanded the functionality of our i-flow product. 
 

People 

The Group has seen staff numbers grow over the past year as the Board has
implemented the business plan announced at flotation. In October 2001 staff
numbers were 45 as against 19 in October 2000. This expansion has been
centred on the sales and marketing areas and in the recently established
Glasgow office, taking advantage of a skilled and highly competitive pool of
information technology talent available in Scotland. Technical and sales
support for Scotland and much of the North of England will be carried out
from Glasgow.  


AIM Flotation 

Despite a very difficult market for the technology sector at the end of 2000,
the Group, using Noble & Company Limited as Nominated Advisors and Brokers,
raised £3.40m on AIM at a price of 12p per share (£3.00m after issue costs
and expenses). The shares commenced trading on AIM on 19 December 2000. At
the same time a further £1.97m of preference shares already issued by the
Group were converted into ordinary shares at an average price of
approximately 9.5p per share. Since admission to AIM, the ordinary shares
have traded in a range of 10.75p to 23.25p. 


Dividend 

As stated in the prospectus, earnings for the foreseeable future will be
re-invested to finance the growth of the Group's business. The Directors do
not recommend the payment of a dividend.  


Outlook 

The Board is positive about the Group's future. This is based on the
investment that has now been made in infrastructure, the significant increase
in pipeline revenues, the rise in brand awareness, and finally on the
continued e-Government push towards total electronic services by 2005. The
Group has not detected any indications of cutbacks in Local Government
expenditure. However, given the variation in length of time between contract
award and revenue recognition, the speed of revenue growth remains difficult
to forecast.  
 
Current economic conditions would probably make it harder, in the short term,
for the Group to make significant inroads into market sectors other than
Local Government. The Board will watch for opportunities, but intends to
focus attention on its core Local Government market which continues to have
the greatest potential. 


Summary 

The year has been a period of major expansion, laying firm foundations and
beginning to capitalise upon them. The Board is intent on developing the
Group as a major player in its chosen marketplace. The Board's primary focus
now is to continue to build market share, having already put in place most of
the team and infrastructure required to achieve this. While it is likely that
revenues will rise very strongly over the next 12 months, it is unlikely that
the Group will move into profit during this period. As indicated in the
Interim Report, it is hoped to achieve profitability by the year to October
2003. 
 
John Wisbey 
Chairman      
 
7 December 2001 
 
 
The announcement was approved by the Board of Directors on 7 December 2001.
 

CONSOLIDATED PROFIT AND LOSS ACOUNT
For the year ended 31 October 2001
                                                                             
                                                  Year ended    7 months to  
                                                 31 Oct 2001    31 Oct 2000  
                                                      £              £       
                                                    (audited)      (audited)  

  Turnover                                         1,201,192        501,648 
  External charges                                  (431,730)       (80,631) 
                                                     769,462        421,017 

  Staff costs                                     (1,296,372)      (438,624) 
  Other operating charges                           (800,885)      (192,607) 

  Operating loss                                  (1,327,795)      (210,214) 
  Net interest                                       146,522        (32,556) 

  Loss on ordinary activities before taxation     (1,181,273)      (242,770) 
  Tax on loss on ordinary activities                       -              - 

  Loss for the year transferred from reserves     (1,181,273)      (242,770) 

  Loss per share                                                             
  Basic and diluted                                   (0.97)p         (0.33)p 
 
 
 
All operations are attributable to continuing operations. 
 
There are no recognised gains or losses other than those set out above. 
 

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
At 31 October 2001
                                                                              
                                                          2001          2000  
                                                          £             £
                                                      (audited)     (audited) 
  Fixed assets                                                                
  Tangible assets                                      124,094        32,963 

  Current assets                                                              
  Debtors                                              797,096       244,826 
  Cash at bank and in hand                           2,371,758       729,766 
                                                     3,168,854       974,592 
  Creditors: amounts falling due within one           (625,862)     (275,093) 
  year                                                                        
  Net current assets                                 2,542,992       699,499 
  Net assets                                         2,667,086       732,462 

  Capital and reserves                                                        
  Called up share capital                            1,283,172             2 
  Deferred share capital                             1,112,014             - 
  Share premium account                              2,789,389             - 
  Other reserves                                     1,239,471     3,308,147 
  Profit and loss account                           (3,756,960)   (2,575,687) 
  Shareholders' funds                                2,667,086       732,462 

  Equity shareholders' funds                         2,667,086    (1,072,360) 
  Non-equity shareholders' funds                             -     1,804,822 
                                                     2,667,086       732,462 

CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT
For the year ended 31 October 2001
                                                                              
                                                    Year ended   7 months to 
                                                   31 Oct 2001   31 Oct 2000 
                                                        £             £       
                                                      (audited)     (audited) 
  Net cash outflow from                             
  operating activities                              (1,477,539)      (28,358) 

  Returns on investments and                                                  
  servicing of finance                                                        

  Interest received                                    145,439         5,150 
  Interest paid                                              -       (37,706) 

  Net cash inflow/(outflow) from         
  returns on investments and                                                  
  servicing of finance                                 145,439       (32,556) 

  Taxation                                                   -             - 

  Capital expenditure and                                                     
  financial investment                                                        

  Purchase of tangible fixed           
  assets                                              (142,921)      (33,866) 

  Sale of tangible fixed assets                          1,116             - 
  Net cash outflow from capital      
  expenditure and financial                                                   
  investment                                          (141,805)      (33,866) 

  Financing                                                                   
  Issue of shares                                    3,115,897     2,563,530 
  Repayment of borrowing                                     -    (1,947,524) 
  Net cash inflow from financing                     3,115,897       616,006 
  Increase in cash                                   1,641,992       521,226 


NOTES TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT
For the year ended 31 October 2001 

1.     BASIS OF PREPARATION 
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with applicable United Kingdom
accounting standards and under the historical cost convention. The principal
accounting policies of the Group have remained unchanged from the previous
period. 
 
The financial information set out in this announcement does not constitute
statutory accounts as defined in section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The
consolidated balance sheet at 31 October 2001 and the consolidated profit and
loss account, consolidated cash flow statement and associated notes for the
year ended 31 October 2001 have been extracted from the statutory accounts
upon which the auditors opinion was unqualified and does not contain a
statement under section 237 (2) of the Companies Act 1985. The statutory
accounts for the period ended 31 October 2000 have been filed with the
Registrar of Companies. 
 
2.     LOSS PER SHARE 
The loss per ordinary share is calculated by reference to the loss
attributable to ordinary shareholders divided by the weighted average number
of shares in issue during each period, as follows: 
 

                                                                             
                                                 Year ended     7 months to   
                                                31 Oct 2001     31 Oct 2000  
                                                     £               £       
  Loss for the year                              (1,181,273)       (242,770) 
  Weighted average number of shares in issue    122,139,763      74,079,000 
  Loss per share                                      (0.97)p         (0.33)p 
 
The loss attributable to ordinary shareholders and weighted average number of
ordinary shares for the purpose of calculating the diluted loss per ordinary
share are identical to those used for basic loss per ordinary share. This is
because the conversion of preference shares or exercise of options would have
the effect of reducing the loss per ordinary share and is therefore not
dilutive under the terms of Financial Reporting Standard no 14. 
 
The number of shares for comparative periods has been restated to reflect the
sub-divisions of each £1 ordinary share into 100 ordinary shares of 1p each. 
 
 
3.     DIVIDEND 
 
The Company does not intend to pay a dividend at this time. 
 
4.     FURTHER COPIES 
 
Copies of this announcement and the full annual report and accounts are
available, free of charge, for a period of one month from the Company's
Nominated Adviser and Broker Noble & Company Limited, 1 Frederick's Place,
London, EC2R 8AB, Tel: [phone] or from i-documentsystems group plc,
10th Floor, 21 New Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1AJ, Tel: [phone]. Copies
of the full financial statements will be posted to shareholders on 10 December
2001.