Blur Group Share Discussion Threads

[kemche] 19/11/2014 07:25

I suspect the market may fixate on the following:
"Whilst revenue growth has been strong, a small number of large projects, which have been submitted to the exchange, will not kick off until early 2015, which will impact the Group's revenue and therefore profitability for the full year ending 31 December 2014."

Ebitda positive Q4 2015? So REAL profitability when? Q9 2025?

[pyglet] 19/11/2014 07:22

Trading UpdateNo real numbers mentioned...mmm

[yump] 17/11/2014 15:58

Erm, from where I'm sitting, the 2020 Enterprise is already happening.
Its just that we don't make a song and dance about it.

From memory (and I'm thinking back to the 80's) its called outsourcing, but I may be wrong ;-)

[bookbroker] 17/11/2014 14:38

Well the share price is once again reflecting a lot of skepticism, to put it mildly it's going nowhere, keep thinking that we will see a sustained tick up, but no it's just marking time, we need a very positive statement from the co. to boost the momentum. The above comment suggests a presentation is imminent, not sure why Christmas will make any difference, so far the info. on this board is simply a repeat of what has been addressed before, they don't seem to update their platform very often these days, same project listings been there for weeks, the whole small cos. sector seems to be well in the doldrums, totally becalmed, is that a sign of things down the line!

[haydock] 15/11/2014 12:22

This week has seen the start of a sea change for Blur.
They have opened the windows & we have started to have a peak inside.
The coming presentation will be a chance to see the way things are progressing.

Perhaps we can expect the reaction on the share price to be negative in this mkt until Christmas is in site.

There was a hint at progress this week in the diary :

Over 50,000 businesses use its platform growing by another 2,000 per month.

That's 4% growth per month, nearly 50% a yr.

When you remember that Blur has been issuing figs for a while, it would be interesting to compare this to, say 2012, probably a date at which most peoples perception of this company seem fixed.

[j777j] 14/11/2014 21:42

Clearly above your miserable bitter old head.

[bookbroker] 14/11/2014 10:23

Children, children, you beg to differ, just let the co. do the talking!

[j777j] 14/11/2014 09:17

From acorns grow oak trees.

[stegrego] 14/11/2014 08:18

Dear diary,

Must pump SHAREPRICE with some sound bites and reviews, as it's just been going nowhere....

[j777j] 14/11/2014 08:15

Philip’s Diary – The 2020 Enterprise

Philip Letts | November 13, 2014 | blur Group B2B ecommerce blur Group ecommerce Enterprise The Orange World

Networked Enterprise


The concept of the ‘Enterprise217; is changing.

PWC call it ‘The Orange World‘. McKinsey call it the ‘Networked Enterprise‘. David Cushman and Jamie Burke call it ‘The Open Business‘.

They all point to a similar future. We call it ‘The 2020 Enterprise’. Tomorrow’s enterprise will have fewer full time employees and will use networks of external resources, typically service providers, to drive a more flexible, innovative and agile entity. These enterprises will use technology tethered to clouds of external resources to deliver a more profitable and responsive business.

Some have outlined that for every ten people that work on the future business just one will be a full time employee. The other nine will work for ‘partner’; organisations. Some will even be freelancers. This 90% of your future human capital will act as plug and play resources that you will rapidly flex up and down or even change out as new trends, products or markets come along.

The 2020 vision…

We believe that the 2020 Enterprise will be able to effect change 3-5 times faster than today’s enterprise. They will embrace new products, new markets and new people, technology or process innovations more rapidly and cost effectively than ever before. Their cycles of innovation will be shorter and more profitable.

Full time employees of The 2020 Enterprise will be tech savvy, connected, project and performance managers. Their task to run teams of external resources no matter where they come from to deliver performance based projects.

The 2020 Enterprise will have mastered Social Networks, Cloud Computing, mobile technology and Big Data. They will have embraced Cloud based ERP systems, collaborative platforms and business to business e-commerce platforms.

…is blur’s vision.

blur Group not only provides the platform of choice for The 2020 Enterprise but, more importantly, it is a 2020 Enterprise. Next year blur’s top line performance will be similar to that of Tradaq when I joined them as CEO in 2000. They had 700 employees. blur Group today has 70 employees. We are a more profitable, more flexible and more innovative organisation. We operate more at-scale. Our competition is thinner because we move at pace. A pace unimaginable just ten years ago.

blur will reach a model where only one out of ten people that work on its business will be a full time employee. That means scaling through our platform and its vetted service providers – delivering brand, marketing, design, technology, content, process improvement, product, finance, legal and HR services in the cloud, out of the box.

At blur we have never had a target for number of full time employees and never will. We just set financial and market based targets, plan outcomes and define projects and processes to deliver them. Projects that are briefed, managed and delivered through our platform.

blur is not alone. Over 50,000 businesses use its platform growing by another 2,000 per month. They could all become 2020 Enterprises. They could each out-perform the norm. Mind you, if you’re not already planning to become a 2020 Enterprise it may be too late.

[j777j] 13/11/2014 23:18

blur Customer Success


As the end of the year draws nigh, seasonal ads hit the airwaves and business decision-makers put their 2015 budgets to bed we thought it would be good to reflect on how some of the 50,000 businesses who buy or sell services at blur rated their experience this year.




Let’s start with ‘5 stars’ from an innovative Irish company who create products and games:



“The team at blur Group including the platform itself is an extension of our team and the most efficient way of achieving our vision. However, the distance they have as external constituents to Mipineye is key in the knowledge industry – they tell us the truth.

Maybe its something in the water over there but everyone we’ve worked with has been open to our ideas and where many would pull the plug and give up on an idea, the guys at blur get creative with us to find a different way of achieving our goals.

We are able to exaggerate our resource pool by using blur but it’s not exaggerated too much. We still have control without suffering a middle man brokering the relations; our partnership is from idea to delivery across multiple projects from several service providers from various disciplines.”

-Matthew Maxwell, CEO, Mipineye Millions





Sometimes it’s real practical support that shows the difference that blur provides:



“blur made a huge impact on my ability to brand and market my new handbag company. My Support person helped me write my brief and worked with me to get the best Experts for my project. I was really careful about all my choices (this is my first business) and they asked all the right questions and guided me to an Expert who delivered a fantastic brand for me at the budget I requested.

The project manager kept everything on track and I’ll be launching my website soon. I couldn’t be happier with them. They worked really hard to get everything right. I tried elance but my Experts always disappeared after a few days and I never got anywhere there.”

-Tina Schaeffer




And Tina’s not the only fan of the approach where the unique combination of blur’s technology and great teams make things happen fast:



blur Group did all the due diligence. The core principle of what blur do is exactly what I needed – top of the list at that time was not to be inundated by a barrage of vendors. blur really took the pain out of finding the best service providers for our individual, specific needs.

I’m amazed at how blur understands all the aspects of how a business works, covering all touchpoints internal to a company from legal to HR, from accounting to marketing. Even better, they have given me honest appraisals of where they can’t help; there’s a real understanding of the level of expertise in blur’s communities so the blur Support team give meaningful and credible advice on what’s possible and what should be expected – not just the frosting.



I know where to click first. Thank you blur.

-Elizabeth Patrick, CEO Swift Judgment




We’re also really proud to hear not just from early stage businesses but how we help larger companies develop their path to buying services online. Here’s what one of the world’s largest e-commerce sites had to say:



“Working with blur Group has really helped us to understand and engage with local markets. The speed in which projects are turn around is amazing!” and that speed can lead to some great results:

“Revenues (from the campaign) have gone up 30% in the six weeks from the campaign starting”

-Regional Marketing Manager, Amazon




The global leader in speciality chemicals and materials, Momentive is a big fan of using blur and let’s wrap up these ratings with this great benefit:



“Working with blur Group gives us ongoing checks and balances on supplier relationships which helps us remain competitive. When upper management looks to make savings, we can confidently say that we’re delivering in the most cost advantageous manner possible.”

-Mary Guenther, Strategic Marketing Communications, Momentive

[j777j] 13/11/2014 11:16

Large volume went through yesterday.

[haydock] 12/11/2014 11:04

The heads are appearing above the trenches.
just listened to the interim broadcast, the figs are really very encouraging.

They should be able to confirm a fast moving growth company with as the old Pro-Active webcast, still on the page from 2013? says:

We have first mover advantage in S commerce.
We are in the U.K. not in the States.
We have a fast growing working platform.

if that is still the case, you can count the days on your fingers before a big Yank company comes buying !!!

[aim_trader] 12/11/2014 10:51

FD Stephen Harvey and Director of Financial Reporting Barbara Spurrier presenting on 20th November. To register please click here:

[haydock] 10/11/2014 17:32

hxxp://www.blurgroup.com/blogs/group/project-space-4-0-phase-2-expert-control-is-here/

Moving ahead with no fanfares.

[salpara111] 10/11/2014 17:15

The beauty of the current situation here is that you don't need to be invested before they prove themselves.
All the "hope value" as I call it, has been stripped out of the share price
I have them on my watch list but wont jump in until I see the next set of results.

[hamidahamida] 10/11/2014 09:44

If Blur meets current year's market forecast the share will fly broker said that their forecast are conservative compare to managements more ambitious forecast. This basically means management are working on meeting or beating market forecasts. We wait and see

[hamidahamida] 10/11/2014 09:36

Extracts from brokers note blur Group's H1 bookings update shows that the flow of business into the exchange continues to gather momentum. While preceding events have been a chastening experience, with the balance sheet strengthened and tighter receivables policies, blur is in better shape to grow into the significant opportunity ahead.Forecasts updated to reflect evolving businessThe shift to larger and longer-duration projects, together with a change in the revenue recognition policy, means this strong momentum in bookings is not yet visible in reported revenues, which for FY13 came in at $4.8m. With year-end receivables over 100% of sales, net cash fell to $5.6m in April, precipitating a $22m (£13.1m) fund-raising. We update our forecasts to reflect the evolving business dynamic. Assuming progress is made on cash collection, we now forecast cash flow break-even in FY16.A non-executive chairman is being appointed and the search for a new full-time CFO is also underway. Much more stringent financial controls are being put in place to improve cash collection and ensure compliance with the revised revenue recognition policies.Change in forecastsWe are updating our model and forecasts to reflect the reported results and:? the change in revenue recognition policy; previously, we had forecast that 50% of revenues were recognised on project kick-off and 50% on completion, with an average project life of three months. We now forecast on the basis that 20% of a project's value is recognised in the year it is started, 40% in year two and 40% in year three;? stronger than forecast KPIs; management will no longer report briefs submitted or projects kicked off. Instead, it will report 'bookings', which management regards as a clearer indication of its revenue pipeline. For FY14, we forecast total bookings of $50m ($16m was reported in 1H14 – in line with that reported in H213, and +200% y-o-y). To achieve our forecast, bookings in H214 will need to be double those taken in H213;? a larger provision for project failure and bad debt. Until there is more visibility on the rate at which projects listed are converting to cash, we are taking a more cautious approach to forecasting the conversion of bookings to projects completed. We assume receivable days reduce by 30% in FY14; and? the fund-raising and investment plans.The above changes to our model result in a 30% reduction to our revenue forecast in FY14. We forecast EBITDA break-even in FY16 (previously FY15). Assuming the credit control record normalises, we believe the recent fund-raising will be ample to see the group to break even. Our forecasts are slightly more cautious than management's targets of EBITDA and pre-tax profit break- even by Q415, with cash flow break even in Q216Potential to scale up has strengthenedImportantly, momentum of the platform does not appear to have been affected and the global growth opportunity remains very exciting. With 10 service categories launched, the planned opening of an Asian hub, an expanding partner network and the recent launch of blur 4.0, the company is increasing its footprint and appeal to high-value, global enterprise customers.Valuation: Foundation to grow – value at these levelsblur Group needs to demonstrate its ability to monetise business into the exchange to improve confidence, but in simple terms the current market capitalisation versus the opportunity and momentum looks very interesting.

[haydock] 07/11/2014 10:55

It's an interesting guide, but that's all.

The problem with the figs will be that under the accounting change they can only list cash sales at a point down the line.
We have gone past the worst,a blocking event, & have profits in hand down the pipeline, but they will always be historic.

Better to watch the Googles of the world pay for successful platforms & try to follow the development of the Blur business, overall, rather than the booked profits.
It's the more comforting U.K. method, but about as relevant as Arthur Lowe looking at the business in reality these days.

It will however be the yardstick for the U.K mkt. for some time.

As an article I read the other day, pointed out nobody bothered about ARM in c2000 after the crash as they were too small to be on the U.K. mkt radar.

[supersturrock] 07/11/2014 10:50

Bookbroker, since they stopped the running meter, I have been logging the weekly total of projects since early September and this is pretty well stuck at around 70 although I suspect the average value is creeping up.

[bookbroker] 07/11/2014 10:33

Does anyone have an idea on the timeline of the platform in terms of project listings, and often they are updated, although largely irrelevant I'm curious none the less in terms of potential future earnings, the total listings now stuck on £300m+, has been for a while!

[hamidahamida] 07/11/2014 10:22

Well blur needs to double up on 1st half revenue to meet market forecast. No Room For Disappointments

[bookbroker] 07/11/2014 09:35

They seem somewhat optimistic looking at the significant uptick in revenue forecasts, are they realistic, share price down last two days, could do with a statement on 3Q!

[hamidahamida] 07/11/2014 08:15

Broker forecast for current year Full year Revenue forecast $17 million Achieved @interim stage $5.695 million 2nd half revenue needed $11.3 million to meet forecastFull year Bookings forecast $39 million Achieved @interim stage $16 million2nd half bookings needed $23 million to meet forecast