I-DOCUMENTSYSTEMS growth

Former Innovation Centre tenant I-DOCUMENTSYSTEMS the software and services firm that employs most of its staff in Glasgow, said yesterday it had drastically narrowed its losses and expects to be profitable throughout the next 12 months.

The company, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market, said it had cut losses to £595,060 for the year to the end of October, compared with £1.5m the previous year.

Idoc, which works primarily with local authorities and web-based software packages that allow complex paper-based processes to be automated and stored online, also upped its turnover 48% to £4.47m.

Investors took heart and shares in Idoc climbed 4.3%, or 0.5p to 12.5p.

Andrew Fraser, the company's Scots chief executive, said Idoc had broken into profit-ability three months ago and that it expected to announce its first full-year profit this time next year.

Fraser said: "Actually we intend to be profitable every month for the next 12 months. The current revenue streams have increased quite dramatically."

The company, in fact, said that it had doubled its recurring annual revenue stream to £2.25m.

Fraser said this had been achieved through acquisitions and an increasing demand for its software and services.

He said the company now had 157 local authority customers under its belt, and that it was "expanding within its current client base" with sev-eral departments in a number of local authorities now using Idoc's software.

"We now have £20m pipe-line, looking ahead over the next 12 to 18 months," Fraser added.

Idoc employs 55 of its 93 staff in Glasgow.

It also employs about 20 in London and the remainder in Manchester, since Idoc acquired Mandoforms, an e-commerce software group, in September.