I-Document systems on course to break even as pre-tax losses narrow to £460,000

I-DOCUMENTSYSTEMS, the software and services firm that employs 60 of its 80 staff in Glasgow, yesterday reported narrowing losses and said it was on course to break even by the end of October.

The London-based firm, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market, posted a 64% rise in turnover to £1.9m for the six months to the end of April, and a decrease in pre-tax losses to £460,000, compared with £560,000 in the same period last year.

Andrew Fraser, I-doc's Scots chief executive, said the company, whose web-based software packages allow complex paper-based processes to be automated and stored online, now has 117 local authority customers under its belt, compared with 40 at the end of the same period last year.

"The infrastructure, the main production engine of the company, is now in place - the flotation was all about paying for that - so we're set for significant organic revenue growth as we attract more and bigger clients during the second half of the financial year," said Fraser.

"We're also looking at the possibility of further acquisitions."

I-doc last May acquired Planning Exchange, now re-named Idox Information Services, which allows the company to provide data on the economic and environmental impact of proposed construction projects to housing, planning, transport and other local government departments.

The company yesterday also said that it had increased from one to 11 the client base of its UKPlanning package, which allows residents and businesses to submit, pay for and track the progress of planning applications online, instead of travelling to council offices to sift through reams of paper.

Fraser said: "The pipeline and order book continue to grow, and the group is on track to achieve its stated aim of profitability on a regular monthly basis by the financial year-end in October 2003."

He added that over the next year the company planned to "gradually" grow its Glasgow operation, which it opened in October 2001.

Fraser said: "Our Glasgow base is responsible for all the UK planning side of the business, and most of the company's software development and information technology. There is plenty of room for growth there."

Shares in I-doc yesterday closed up 4% at 12.25p - a decline, however, from the 13p at which the company was floated at its initial public offering in December 2000 through Edinburgh-based merchant bank Noble & Co.

MARK SMITH The Herald 10th June 2003