Q1 2013: An Update on Comptel’s Business and Strategy

Yesterday, we announced Comptel’s financials for the first quarter of 2013. In the first quarter, Comptel’s business developed as per our expectations. Net sales grew 6.2 per cent from the previous year.  Especially license sales increased our net sales. Profitability improved significantly and operating result was positive.

Our order backlog growth was also strong.  During the first quarter we secured 6 significant orders, valued over EUR 500,000. We also closed a major license deal in Argentina. Market situation in Europe, however, remained challenging.

The outcome of the costs savings that we initiated last year was reflected in our first quarter operating result. Improving profitability is our key target for 2013 and I am pleased that we proceeded in achieving this objective as planned.

We updated our strategy and objectives for the next three years in the beginning of the year. The strategy for 2013 – 2015 focuses on growth by accelerating the execution of the Event-Analysis-Action strategic framework and scaling up the sales with partners.

According to our strategy, we continued investments in R&D in Q1, especially focusing in the service fulfillment automation and in advanced, real-time analytics to leverage the exponentially growing data traffic and services. Both of these focus areas facilitate Comptel’s growth strategy.  In addition, we are further developing our integrated software platform which will enable a cost-efficient and solution-based R&D.

To accelerate the strategy execution of analytics, we aligned our organization by centralizing sales, delivery and R&D functions under Analytics Business Unit. With these changes we want to ensure full alignment to our strategy and faster response to diverse customer needs in that field.  We seek global Thought Leadership in advanced analytics, which help solve the key business challenges of operators and service providers.

For example in the emerging markets, majority of the end-customers are pre-paid customers. Understanding the behavior of those customers and reading for example early warning signals of in-activity helps operators better meet their customer needs and reduce churn as well as improve return of investments in acquiring new customers.

In mature markets where the data usage is more advanced and the customers are largely invoiced monthly, advanced analytics integrated with Comptel’s other assets such as Comptel Fulfillment and Comptel Policy Control helps operators automate their customer interaction from service provisioning to personalized quality of experience.

Overall, during the first quarter of 2013 we have taken good steps in executing our strategy and the results are beginning to show.  We will work persistently to continue the successful execution.