Broadband  |  2023-02-15

Streamwide Announces Strong Growth due to PCSTORM and other French Critical Communications Projects

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

The new PCSTORM contract for maintaining the platform in operating condition will generate a significant increase in recurring revenue over the coming months.

STREAMWIDE, the expert in critical communications and business-critical software solutions, posted revenue of €17.6 million in 2022, up €0.9 million (5%).

As such, as announced when first half revenue was published on 18 July 2022 and confirmed on 19 September 2022, 2022 revenue increased again in line with the trend over several consecutive years of strong growth in the team on mission and team on the run critical communications platforms, which generated revenue of €12.3 million in 2022.

CONTINUED GROWTH IN 2022

Growth and development of new solutions: the critical communications team on mission and business-critical team on the run platforms, which generated full- year revenue of €12.3 million, up 12%, now account for 70% of total Group revenue (up 4 percentage points versus 2021).

This growth (€1.4 million increase) was driven by continued deployment of the PCSTORM project (substantial order for user licenses in 2022 and new maintenance contract covering the next four years), as well as new contracts and projects for French government agencies and private companies deployed in 2022, notably with Société du Grand Paris (user licence order recognised in 2022).

The partnership with Airbus Secure Land Communications continued to generate significant revenue, albeit down €0.4 million versus the previous year mainly due to the sliding-scale price reductions applied to the most recent user licence orders.

Platform revenue of €12.3 million in 2022 consisted of:

  • licence revenue (€8 million), up €1.5 million
  • service revenue (€3.7 million), down €0.2 million
  • maintenance revenue (€0.6 million), up €0.1 million

The increase in license revenue reflects the Group’s strong sales momentum. While maintenance revenue is still limited (€0.6 million), it also continues to grow significantly, up 20% in 2022. The new PCSTORM contract for maintaining the platform in operating condition will generate a significant increase in recurring revenue over the coming months.

Relative decline in “legacy” business revenue to €5.3 million: the legacy business (telecom operator solutions), which requires little or no further capital expenditure, still accounts for 30% of annual revenue after a limited €0.5 million decline in 2022. Licence sales, which are intrinsically non-recurring, were down €1 million year on year (a new contract won in 2021 in North America significantly affected the comparison with 2022) and amounted to €0.9 million in 2022. “Legacy” services (€0.9 million) remained stable, while recurring maintenancerevenue increased €0.5 million to €3.5 million in 2022.

OUTLOOK: PROFITABLE GROWTH AND STABLE FINANCIAL STRUCTURE

As announced, revenue growth was stronger in the second half (up €0.6 million or 7% to €9.5 million) than the first half (up €0.3 million or 4% to €8.1 million), which should enable the Group to achieve another year of profitable growth thanks to strong second half operating margins and earnings, an improvement on the first half.

Current 2023 revenue projections are satisfactory, even though the level of growth versus 2022 is not yet certain.

Although several major projects are still underway, mainly in Southern Europe and UK, the volume and timing of the first orders have not yet been finalised, although they could still have a positive impact on the 2023 financial year. New business partnerships, particularly in the United States, are also showing promise and could pave the way for the first major deployments of the Group’s technology (platforms) in North and South America.

Recurring revenue from the legacy business is expected to remain stable in 2023. Furthermore, a number of platform migration projects in Europe and the United States could take shape over the coming months, generating slight growth in business.

While major technical developments on team on mission are still in progress, they are expected to stabilise over the coming months. The Group will then be able to continue to invest in the deployment and development of team on the run in line with the “end-to-end” developments carried out in 2022: FSM modules (Field Service Management: management, organisation, coordination and optimisation of field services) and “geofencing” (virtual physical barriers and the associated alarm system).

These developments further enhance the value of the solution, already highly comprehensive, thereby meeting the multiple requirements expressed by industrial giants operating in the aeronautics, transport and energy sectors.

All of these developments are carried out in secure, scalable and sovereign technical architectures, which are important differentiators compared to the other solutions on the market. The integrated collaborative suite, advanced telephony features, SDKs and the various APIs available bring real operational value to the solution, thereby freeing it from the current technical and organisational constraints.

The Group is therefore still aiming to maintain strong and profitable growth momentum and secure the human and technological resources required to achieve this. While the speed of widespread adoption of new critical communications and business-critical technologies remains unknown, the Group, which has become a major player in these areas thanks to the suitability and technological edge of its software solutions, remains ideally positioned to take advantage of the inevitable future growth of these markets.