Tribal Share Discussion Threads

[shamusor] 09/6/2016 20:11

Page 13 of the Daily Telegraph - is in print only.
IT reboot for TAFES
The Baird government will withdraw the controversial Learning Business and Management Reform computer system from TAFEs.
Minister for TAFE John Barilaro is expected to make the announcement later this month, after revelations that more than $600 million - more than the total amount budgeted for the entire scheme - had been spent rolling it out to just 229 of 2218 of the state's schools.
The scheme, which was championed by Education Minister Adrian Piccolo, has been beset with technical problems and, in some cases, has forced pilot schools to employ extra administrative staff to deal with it.

So, this will be front page once formally announced and confirming the recommendation (#14) of the standing committee of the NSW Legislative Council, probably in the next week or two.
Then Tribal will have its bank test at the end of the month knowing full well that this value of this contract $67 million) will not be forthcoming and in fact under the contract other costs may be recovered by the State.
Other parties to the contract are Anderson Consulting and SAP being the big boys on the block so you know they have their lawyers on speed dial.
Then there is Barilaro who is gunning for Piccolo's job as Deputy Leader of the party.
Between the formal announcement and the bank test expect Tribal's share price to plummet as the finger pointing starts and the lawyers get involved.
It will be stormy days ahead for Tribal as this plays out.

[shamusor] 01/6/2016 01:05

Confirmed from sources earlier yesterday that the University in question is Canterbury University in NZ. It has spent its entire project budget (some $15+m) and has only got admissions and enrollments working and lots of problems due to customisations and compromised regulatory reporting processes to their tertiary masters (called TEC evidently).
They are in the interim stopping development of SITS and focusing on delivery of functions from their internal SMS with a call to be made later (as in years later) on whether to take up the implementation again or start over.
As they are still rebuilding from the earthquake, money is tight.
That means to date there is 1 successful implementation in NZ of 3 undertaken or currently underway.
Note in June the NSW government will announce their plans for LMBR and if they will continue with EBS (especially) or ditch it as recommended by the Standing Committee of their Legislative Council. The Australian States and Federal government are all in a current election cycle and the massive blow-out of LMBR is a political football at the moment and a big embarrassment to the state govt and incumbent ministers. The contract is worth $67m to Tribal based on their renegotiation here last year.

[welsheagle] 26/5/2016 13:15

Thanks for the info, shamusor

[shamusor] 25/5/2016 22:47

News out of New Zealand.
It appears that one of the Tribal sites is ceasing its current implementation and will now focus on upgrading their existing Student systems. It is not confirmed yet which client, and if the client will maintain their current Tribal capability implemented to date or if its use will be discontinued.
Whether this has a knock on effect to other sales or pending implementations in New Zealand is also not known.
Scanning the wires and talking to contacts now.
More to follow...

[shamusor] 23/5/2016 21:31

..and so it begins...next will be NSW and Tasmania State govt ($67+m exposure for Tribal), and then the Callista clients Tribal is banking on to implement SITS. Tribal may say it is committed to the Southern Hemisphere but the impact on cash-flows may mean it is not a financially sustainable company anyway.

TRIBAL GROUP AGREES TO END CONTRACT WITH TAFE QUEENSLAND

[ 23 May 2016 07:51 ]
LONDON (Alliance News) - Tribal Group PLC on Monday said it has reached an amicable agreement to end its student management system contract with TAFE Queensland with immediate effect.

Tribal said it will get a final payment from TAFE Queensland for costs incurred in the year to date on the deal, but its expectations remain unchanged.

Tribal said it remains committed to the Australian and New Zealand education markets.

[shamusor] 20/4/2016 22:29

Confirmation out of UBC - Canada that they are not proceeding with SITS.
UBC had installed SITS in their Executive Business School as a pilot and was going through the Design and Verification for the entire University.
What was a locked in - sure thing for Tribal - is no more.

"Armed with this fuller understanding of UBC’s requirements, we also further analyzed Tribal Education’s SITS:Vision platform. SITS:Vision encompasses notable functionality, however given the full scale and scope of an extensive Student Information System (SIS) replacement at UBC, we believe a competitive process will provide the greatest opportunity to evaluate all market solutions against the university’s long term needs. A recommendation has been put forward to proceed with a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process to select a solution for the new student system.

The work carried in out in Design & Validation to date has allowed UBC to further understand its business requirements and determine the architecture and integration required to enable the SASI vision."

[shamusor] 11/4/2016 21:04

From the Sydney Morning Herald.

NSW taxpayers fork out $6 million for KPMG to search for missing TAFE fees

TAFE NSW will pay consultants KPMG almost $6 million to track down missing student fees and course revenue after a software bungle threw TAFE enrolments into chaos.

NSW Auditor-General Tony Whitfield revealed last November that TAFE had a $525 million black hole in its accounts, and had failed its annual audit, because the software couldn't provide evidence of the fees being paid.

Despite assurances given by Skills Minister John Barilaro to Parliament last year that problems with the TAFE software system, LMBR, were being worked on, TAFE is still unable to locate the missing money.

KPMG will be paid $5.86 million between January and September to "produce complete and accurate revenue and revenue related financial balances for TAFE NSW" in time for the 2016 audit, contract notices show.

The work will include restating last year's balances and tracking down the opening balance before the controversial Smart and Skilled TAFE reforms were introduced in 2014.

KPMG has been told to find "sufficient and appropriate audit evidence" for TAFE's accounts.

Teachers had to resort to writing names on whiteboards during the 2015 January enrolments as the computer system crashed.

The NSW opposition has repeatedly attacked the Baird government in Parliament over delays and cost blowouts in LMBR, which has cost more than $600 million.

The Auditor-General was unable to access any records for $47.6 million in student fees that are believed to have been paid, or $477.4 million in course revenue, during his audit – and so couldn't verify the accounts.

Mr Barilaro's office did not return calls.


Add to that the Audit Report - summary as below:

Serious system limitations prevented TAFE NSW from providing sufficient and appropriate evidence to support recorded student revenue of $477 million, student receivables and accrued income of $47.6 million and unearned revenue of $398 million, according to a report released today by the New South Wales Acting Auditor-General, Tony Whitfield.

These limitations resulted in:

* a qualified audit opinion being issued for TAFE NSW
* delays in enrolling students
* inability to fully reconcile cash balances
* difficulties in reconciling student enrolments with revenues recorded in the financial statements
* large volumes of manual processing.

“TAFE NSW should identify and resolve significant issues with its student and administration system,” the Acting Auditor-General said.

The system was delivered to TAFE NSW during October 2014 as part of the Government’s LMBR program.

This was one of the findings the Acting Auditor-General reported in Volume Twelve 2015 of the Auditor-General's Report to Parliament, which covers agencies within the then Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services (DTIRIS) cluster. From 1 July 2015, DTIRIS was abolished and the Department of Industry, Skills and Regional Development was created.

...OK so not the greatest news but so what. How does that affect Tribal?
They have supplied the student management systems and learning components of LMBR which are not reconciling with the SAP Financials. The State govt has spent around $600m on a $386m project and implemented only 10% of schools and are now referring to it as a pilot. Prognosis - The report from the State Legislative Council called for the project to be canned and the State will look to make someone accountable and recover under the contract (e.g. non-performance)the blown budget spent. Fingers will be pointing to Tribal and SAP and its the little guy that normally loses the biggest.

[padelicious] 23/3/2016 11:40

a decent analysis on Tribal, and whether is worth it participating into the rights issue
hxxp://seekingalpha.co.uk/2016/03/23/tribal-trb-ln-tribe-got-new-chief/

[rjmahan] 20/3/2016 23:42

Interesting report - comittee recommends cutting.
Minister - putting more resources in to fix problems.

Auditor general says:
"The Department has not effectively managed the planned outcomes and benefits for
the LMBR program"

Tribal total revenue on this is £20m. Saying they will need to pay it all back is a bit of a stretch.... Need to show many things and will take many years of legal action - IF it is Tribals fault...

[shamusor] 20/3/2016 19:43

Hi Martin - Link is as below (replace the xx as shown with tt in the https address).
Recommendation 14 from the Standing Committee of the Legislative Council of the NSW State Govt. - Kill the existing SALM / LMBR programme and reset it affecting Tribal and SAP.
Full decision by June - however local word down under is high ranking officials are already in discussions with alternate suppliers.

hxxps://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/47c667e2968cfba4ca257f1b00802584/$FILE/FINAL%20151215%20Report%20compile.pdf

If NSW decide to recover money given all of the issues, then Tribal may be in serious strife as they have only allowed 200k as a provision to sort out such issues. The result is likely to be in the millions.

Put the Queensland issues on top of that which Tribal note may result in deferred revenues for years, losing bids in the UK, etc. and the immediate prospects for Tribal are not great; and they want more of our money.
It seems the best thing that could happen is the company is stripped of its performing parts (e.g. Synergy which is profitable, in 50% of councils and all councils need a solution by 2020 (according to legislation passed)) and sell the rest for its client list. Just as well its going on AIM to enable that and have a CE experienced in that area. Greed is Good.
Not a great shareholder / investment outcome however.

[pcmghzx1] 17/3/2016 06:22

Hi,
I am really interested in the NSW government decision. Can you please email me a link to the report you mentioned in your post.

Regards

Martin Harwood

[napoleon 14th] 13/3/2016 19:35

Wow! Glad I got out in 2014 - figured the shares were "underperforming"!

[shamusor] 08/3/2016 23:00

NSW State govt standing committee of the legislative council have (recommendation 14) recommended canning the SALM/LMBR AU$0.5 billion program for which Tribal supplies EBS4 for all TAFE in the State. As an IT program they state it is a complete disaster.
Tasmania are likely to follow NSW lead as they have previously stated.

hxxps://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/47c667e2968cfba4ca257f1b00802584/$FILE/FINAL%20151215%20Report%20compile.pdf

[edwardt] 01/3/2016 09:38

masurenguy -still watching?

[shamusor] 29/2/2016 19:41

University of British Columbia have just announced they are not continuing to implementation with Tribal and are going back out to market (after implementing their Business executive School in July 2015 and completing Design and verification (in February 2016) for the rest of the University.
Tribal has also lost their bid for Lincoln University (UK).
That's two major pipeline cash flows that the company would have been depending on to get it out of the mire.
Tribal has approx 95 million shares (worth about 38 million in market capitalisation) in circulation and at today's price needs to release approx another 90 million to raise the 35 million in capital it needs.
That potentially dilutes the shares nearly 50%, with worsening cash flows and prospective pipeline sales.
Now a CE who has experience in the AIM market and positioning and sale of companies.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out whats going on.

[shamusor] 24/2/2016 01:29

Look for news out of Australia (NSW SALM) and Canada (UBC) - coming to a news wire near you soon. If the price continues to raise that the same rate afterwards then I would suggest it is not based on some harsh realities.

[gucci] 23/2/2016 15:24

chart looks interesting topvest

[topvest] 23/2/2016 11:43

This is all very odd. Maybe they are being bid for. This is not the usual price reaction ahead of a discounted rights issue! RNS long overdue?

[gucci] 23/2/2016 10:39

or
at a higher price?

is there a leak?

[mull3r] 23/2/2016 10:25

Perhaps the rights issue is off?