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SUCCESSFUL SIX MONTHS TAKES BIW CLOSER TO PROFITABILITY 05 November 2001
BIW Technologies (BIW), provider of the UK construction industry's leading web-based project collaboration system, BIW Information Channel, won over £3 million of orders in the second half of its financial year ended 30 September 2001 - a flow rate well ahead of its break-even requirements. Keen to dispel any notion that the UK collaboration sector is struggling, BIW chief executive Colin Smith said: "BIW has achieved a consistent level of trading and gross profit well in excess of its requirement to trade profitably. I believe that we are the first provider of collaboration technology to the architecture, engineering and construction industry to achieve this." In the six-month period from 1 April to 30 September, BIW secured orders for the use of its collaboration technology to the value of £3,014,000. These revenues arose from 39 different clients who, between them, commenced 102 distinct projects. Commenting on the latest figures, Smith said: "Our order intake over the second half of last year was consistently ahead of our break-even requirements. We are now in the happy position of having a totally visible cash break-even point, and more than enough funding in place to take us there. "Significantly, the flow of orders over this period was very steady," Smith continued. "Our average order intake was just over £500,000 per month, and sales are spread over a large and growing client list. Of course, at any point in time some clients provide more business than others, but we are not reliant on just a few customers. "These are real orders where clients are paying monthly licence fees for the use of our software technology on specific projects - not clients indicating that they may wish to use our services in the future. "I am sure that this achievement, when compared with the performance of other project collaboration providers, will encourage our existing and potential customers, as it underlines the strength of our business model. "Our infrastructure is all in place," continued Smith. "We have a well established sales force, and a full complement of support and development staff. It is particularly reassuring that our technical and support teams coped comfortably with these high volumes, and that we can maintain the quality of service our clients expect." At 28 October 2001, BIW Information Channel was being used by 9,636 users from 1430 companies, working on over 440 UK projects worth a total of some £3.7bn. It is a sophisticated web-based supply chain integration system, originally designed specifically for construction projects. Each client is provided with a unique, project-specific website created around a knowledge database. Using this, all data can be made available to every project team member - from the earliest concepts and specifications, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, maintenance, operation and improvement, to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility. More information from: - Paul Wilkinson, BIW Technologies - 0845 1300 800 (mobile 07788 445920)
Editor's Note - Collaboration systems from BIW (www.biwtech.com) were first employed in 1998 on UK schemes including construction projects for Sainsbury's. The customer list now includes Capital One Bank, Crest Nicholson, Marks & Spencer, the Wellcome Trust, Manchester Airport, Ikea, the Welsh Development Agency, Asda and developer Garbe. As the technology is adopted by each client's supply chain, growth of the BIW Information Channel user base has accelerated, with 6206 users being added in the 12 months up to 30 September 2001, compared with 2018 added in the previous 12 months.
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