Gresham Technologies Share Discussion Threads

[richjp] 10/4/2015 09:09

Morning jadeticl,

As I think you know I usually attend the Gresham AGMs, although I think I missed 2013. At the 2012 AGM I asked about what was happening with RTN and I was told that it was still in use and it was implied that some of the development work they were doing with CTC could also be relevant to RTN and that RTN might get a sort of a second life.

Last year at the 2014 AGM I asked again about RTN and it was then that I was told that it had been withdrawn and the service closed down. They said that although customers liked the service they did not want to pay for it! So it appears that it really was a white elephant after all. How they managed the relationship with those that were using it, presumably some of whom were paying something, I do not know.

I said that I had not seen any announcement to which I was told that there had been an announcement so I simply assumed that I must have missed it. Later I went through the RNSs for the previous twelve months and could find no mention of RTN. They had however announced closing down their "Payables Financing" operation, which I recall is also referred to in the most recent results. I never knew they had anything to do with Payables Financing, so I wonder if they used that as crafty euphemism for RTN, so as not to cause any alarm in the market.

There you have it.

[jadeticl3] 09/4/2015 21:55

richjp, do you know why RTN was dropped. I had not realised this. I thought they had stopped talking about it due to the better prospects for CTC. What happens to those customers who started running with RTN?

[4-10] 09/4/2015 16:09

Don't you just love these TLA's richjp

[richjp] 09/4/2015 15:23

Well it seems like an old friends reunion here today.

My first purchase was in 2002 which was 5,000 at £1.08. I bought more during the early downward spell but did much better buying more later on the way back up with some at as little as 30P. I now have 80,000 mostly in an ISA with the remainder in my SIPP at an average purchase price of about 52P, therefore all my profit is virtually tax free so I am looking pretty comfortable again now. I hope that is not famous last words!

I last bought in 2012 but am unlikely to buy again because this is by far the largest holding in my portfolio and I am well overweight in GHT by the standards of most conventional advice.

amt - I doubt we will ever see the early expectation of over ten years ago achieved. I assume you are aware that Real Time Nostro (RTN) was quietly dropped in 2013 and that CTC is a completely different offering?

[4-10] 09/4/2015 14:12

my previous post on trades volume is incorrect my abacus is playing up; in fact up to just now the trades for Gresham over the last three days are just over 470,000 now that's a lot I wonder if something is about to happen.

[thebullyboy] 09/4/2015 14:03

I had to look back through my postings to see when I first invested here. I was in 2005 but had to sell out as I required the cash.

But I have now bought in recently and can afford to wait. Feel a bit lucky to what seems like getting another chance at this company.

I seem to have posted a lot of messages on GHT then, I blame my enthusiastic youth for that!

[stewartf] 09/4/2015 13:02

I think I may be one of the longest term holders here. I've been a shareholder in Gresham since about 1980! So that's about 35 years, during which there have been exhilarating highs and depressing lows.

[4-10] 09/4/2015 09:34

I think I have been invested since about 1997 when T Read became CEO so yes a real roller coaster I trust the promises of yesteryear are going to pay off soon, let's trust that this new CEO has the required experience and skills that are currently lacking in Gresham to really move them forward and multiply their success and the stock price.

[amt] 08/4/2015 22:55

I have been in since the days of Cable and Wireless but what was promised 15 years ago does look to be coming to fruition.

[jadeticl3] 08/4/2015 21:54

Amt, are you suggesting that with such an interesting share as this I buy and then don't look at the share price for 5 years?
I have held these shares since 1999 and seen extraordinary movements in all directions-- no need to go to Alton Towers when you have GHT shares to hold on to. However, these shares now appear relatively stable. There is one key word in the previous sentence which you should note!
My original shares cost me 33p, but they climbed to 480p with analysts touting a likely 3000p, based on a company that had not then developed CTC!

So your £10 does not appear far--fetched to us older holders. But thanks for the encouragement.

richjp, don't spoil my post by telling everyone you have held these since you were a boy!

[amt] 08/4/2015 21:33

One to lock away for five years and hopefully find its gone up to ten quid by then.

[jadeticl3] 08/4/2015 19:56

The share price movement since the announcement cannot be equated with the fall when the profit warning came, but it has been a very definite and positive movement for which I an pleased, sort of!

I bought two lots of shares recently at 86p, and was planning to buy another shed load within my ISAs in this new tax year. However, the announcement came before I could get the new money in place, so now I will have to pay so much more!!

[4-10] 08/4/2015 17:02

looks like about 300,000 shares have been traded in the last two days interesting.

[schytalk] 07/4/2015 21:40

richjp

I acknowledge that many bank systems are complex, I have worked with them long enough. The integration and implementation of CTC with such systems is food and drink to Gresham but sure it takes time. I do not believe that this is a factor in the delayed revenues, the answer is provided in the annual report as per my previous posts. As for the Gresham director it would be interesting to know who that was.

And yes onwards and upwards - ramping? The company is in a better shape now than a year ago and yet the share price is significantly lower. Is it ramping to believe that this stock is significantly under valued, I think not.

4-10

Agree that Gresham has a history of almost getting there, good technically but poor at sales and delivery, hence the importance of the new CEO.

amt

I think that this years numbers are conservative, a natural response to the profits warning, so I am expecting over delivery.

Sorry but in my view it really is onwards and upwards, as always DYOR.

[amt] 07/4/2015 18:56

Another step to ensuring numbers for the financial year are in the bag. Perhaps a couple more this year and then after that anything is a bonus.
The market is being very cautious this time.

[4-10] 07/4/2015 18:48

Hi Richjp, he is a new boy on the thread, I agree with your post I think they need to improve their method of implementation (on-boarding) if they can else it is going to be long and tedious to build up a real head of steam as you are hinting. I hope it's not more of the same; history has a way of repeating itself at Gresham. I would love to meet up with the new CEO and see if he has the ability to bring his big company experience to our little company and make it grow in a truly sustainable way. There is a great statement in Alvin Tofler's book Future Shock it is not about managing change it's about managing the rapidity of change and the similarity here is about getting Gresham scaled up to manage these implementations so that they can handle not just a handful but hundreds and once they solve that issue then we can get our stock price going "Onwards and Upwards" LOL
4-10

[richjp] 07/4/2015 18:14

"Ever more complex trading instruments have heightened the need for rapid automation in many market segments which is driving demand for CTC."

schytalk, I do not think you seem to understand the meaning of this statement you quoted. Gresham also repeatedly talk about "rapid onboarding", but that is the rapid onboarding of new financial instruments AFTER the CTC software is initially installed. The initial installation of CTC can be complex. One of the directors said that at the last year's AGM which I attended. That is why CTC revenue from the 2013 major contact wins took so long to build up.

By the way you do not need to say onwards and upwards after each post. That just sounds like ramping.

[schytalk] 07/4/2015 17:04

richjp

Sorry to disagree with you on this one but I don't believe you are correct about lost orders. My understanding is that it is the timing of the orders together with the associated delay in deployment - revenue recognition as Gresham put it - that has caused the issue. I think that rather than talk about individual orders in the annual report - not a good thing in my view - Gresham have commented on the order take up in 2014. So again I quote the annual report, says it all for me -

"Despite this customer acquisition success we were unable to recognise the level of revenue we had expected in the year due to a number of clients deferring projects at a late stage of the sales cycle, either into the last quarter of 2014 or into 2015. It is a characteristic of our business that such decisions can impact short term reported results whereas the underlying business remains strong, as evidenced by a number of significant customer wins in the fourth quarter. Revenue from these wins will be mainly recognised in 2015."

You are right that installing a product like CTC is no easy task but this is where CTC really scores, rapid (relatively) deployment, another quote from the annual report -

"Ever more complex trading instruments have heightened the need for rapid automation in many market segments which is driving demand for CTC."

This latest win is in the insurance sector and it is clear that CTC has a very generic appeal, reconciliation is an issue whenever transaction volumes occur. One challenge is to have a CTC solution for the very many - almost endless - target markets. I would image that some form of channel selling solution will be required to address the various market opportunities, perhaps Gresham will go on the acquisition trail, you heard it here first!

The share price is up 4p on the news.

Onwards and Upwards.

[richjp] 07/4/2015 15:26

jadetic13,

I think you have asked a couple of very interesting questions. I know from my own experience in IT sales that once orders get "deferred" they can go away for ever. In a period of a few months, different customer priorities arise,key players in the customer decision process can move on and you can be almost back to square one. When trying to close a sale it can often be a case of so near yet so far. If the recent orders announced were those that were delayed last year I think that Gresham would have made that absolutely clear and they have not done so.

Having said that I do not think it is important in the greater scheme of things. It is sometimes better to move on to new opportunities, than hoping that older situations, where things may have changed are going to come good. As far as am concerned as long as orders come from somewhere, that is fine.

Coming to your point about the rate of orders, that is a question I have as well. These are complex sales situations. This is not some software product you download off the internet and away you go. CTC has to be integrated with numerous existing client systems and the client has to be totally satisfied that integration can be achieved before proceeding. I think that is why sales are proceeding slower than we would like. Each sale so far has been a laborious process.

Possibly if they start selling to more medium sized prospects in the future things might be simpler but I just do not know.

I think one large contract every three months could keep Gresham on the boil as you put it, but that may only lead to moderate rather than dramatic growth with the obvious implications for the share price.

[schytalk] 07/4/2015 11:01

jadeticl3

Yes good news indeed.

My personal view, having done a little digging around, is that the delayed contract wins have been announced and that the time delay was relatively small but revenue recognition (take up within clients) was the problem. This extract from the annual report is informative in this regard - "Despite this customer acquisition success we were unable to recognise the level of revenue we had expected in the year due to a number of clients deferring projects at a late stage of the sales cycle, either into the last quarter of 2014 or into 2015. It is a characteristic of our business that such decisions can impact short term reported results whereas the underlying business remains strong, as evidenced by a number of significant customer wins in the fourth quarter. Revenue from these wins will be mainly recognised in 2015."

So this is a new 2015 win and yes we need to see many more of these. What I find very encouraging is that this has been achieved with the existing team since the new CEO does not arrive until June because he is working out his notice (not that common these days). Again an extract from the annual report - "We entered 2015 with a strong pipeline for CTC and we are confident of continuing our progress towards becoming a leading supplier in an ever increasing market for financial transaction control."

Once the CEO is in place then I think we will start to see, after a few months, a step change in the levels of new business and customer take up, after all that is why he has been hired. Again from the annual report - "The Board believes there is now a significant market opportunity to accelerate the growth of CTC and to realise our vision of becoming a market leader in real-time financial transaction control. In order to capitalise on this opportunity, the Board has decided it is appropriate to introduce new skills and experience to lead the Company through the next phase of its growth. Accordingly, on 5 March 2015 we announced the appointment of Ian Manocha as Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 June 2015."

Onwards and Upwards.

[jadeticl3] 07/4/2015 10:22

This is indeed good news. I am expecting an announcement some day which says something like " New contract win. This significant contract win is one of those expected in late 2014, but was delayed. However this signing is now completed, and we still expect other delayed contracts to be signed in the near future."

Am I deluded in this expectation? If those contacts, which appeared to be confidently predicted in 2014 are not signed at all, then this leaves me with questions.

Overall, I am still confident that this company is moving forward. Will one big contact (like today's) every 3 months be sufficient to keep this company on the boil, or do we need to see a steady increase in the rate of contract wins?

[schytalk] 07/4/2015 08:44

Another great announcement and is shows that CTC has wide appeal and is simply not just a banking solution.

Any bets how soon the share price will break the £1.00 barrier. As always DYOR but this baby is going to fly.

Onwards and Upwards.


Gresham wins significant CTC contract
By StockMarketWire | Tue, 7th April 2015 - 07:33

Gresham Computing - a leading software and services company that specialises in providing real-time financial transaction control software to the global matching and reconciliation market - has clinched a significant CTC contract win.

Gresham says one of the world's leading insurance brokers has purchased CTC as a strategic control platform for real-time matching and reconciliation of transaction data across global operations.

CTC will assist the broker in improving operational control and delivering efficiencies whilst meeting their growing regulatory obligations.

CTC will initially be used by the insurance broker in two main areas:

(1) matching and reconciliation of non-standardised intercompany transactions

(2) matching and reconciliation of standardised transactions on the London bureau market against the broker's internal systems.

These initial phases will be followed by the use of CTC for the matching and reconciliation of non-standardised non-bureau transactions.

Going forward, CTC will be used for the reconciliation and control of insurance transactions in all global markets, either introducing new controls or replacing existing ones.

[jadeticl3] 02/4/2015 14:32

The market is up slighly, GHT sees two transactions, one buy and one sell, no new announcements, yet the share price falls 2.3% in a company where not much movement occurs. Seems odd to me. It would be less odd if it rose 2.3% on underlying expectations!