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12 Jan 2010
Trustmarque claims it is 12 months ahead of rival Microsoft large account resellers in its transformation into a services-led outfit, as it posted a 5.1 per cent jump in annual revenue.
The software licensing specialist saw turnover rise from £116.8m to £122.8m for its financial year to 31 August. Pre-tax profit fell 17 per cent to £3.9m, due to higher staff costs.
Professional services now account for 10 per cent of turnover and Trustmarque chief executive Scott Haddow told CRN he hopes that will rise to 25-30 per cent within two years.
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The York-based reseller set up a professional services division in September to drive the transformation, which Haddow said was necessary to satisfy the big software vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle and Novell.
“The vendors are requiring many more services capabilities if they are to give you any support or rebates,” he said. “It is no longer acceptable to just transact licences – they are now expecting demand creation and we are a good 12 months ahead of the competition in terms of getting into this mindset.”
Price erosion, driven by the increased savviness of end users, is also making pure software licensing resale a less attractive model, Haddow added.
Haddow said Trustmarque is also throwing more weight behind six "elite" vendor partners: Microsoft, Novell, Adobe, VMware, McAfee and Symantec.
“We are spending more time with them and have higher growth aspirations with them,” he explained.
Trustmarque’s headcount has risen from 96 to 120 over the past year after it established new offices in Scotland and Windsor.
But Haddow said he was not concerned with top-line growth.
“Revenue is slightly vain,” he said. “We would rather be a £120m-turnover business with £8m profit.”
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