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25.06.2001 Integration of Visma and SPCSAt the end of the second quarter of 2001, most of the details of the integration of SPCS and Visma have been clarified. The Norwegian operations of SPCS will be merged with Visma Business ASA, and the merged company will be named Visma Software ASA. Bjørn Ingier, Managing Director at Visma Business ASA, and Rune Falstad, Financial Director at SPCS, will respectively become the CEO and Financial Director of the merged company. Geir Arne Olsen, Sales Director at Rubicon Norge, will head the Norwegian distribution operations, and Christine Løvli will continue as the head of Visma Consulting, which will now also include training, consulting and support activities for both the Visma and the Rubicon products. Nils Jakob Kringlebotten heads Visma Provider, the ASP company in the Visma Software division. After a review of SPCS's operations in Norway, it has been decided that EMData will become a separate company. EMData is a market-leading software supplier and system integrator in the artisan industries. SPCS acquired the company three years ago, but due to lack of synergy with the rest of the business, the Group management has decided to allow EMData to operate as independently as possible. The business SPCS Global Systems in Helsingborg has been wound up. The company had six employees, and had lost its equity capital. The management of SPCS considered it best to stop the losses in Helsingborg as quickly as possible. The customers, about 30 in total, will be taken care of by resellers and will also receive support directly from Oslo. The operations involving direct sales to end-customers in Norway were separated as a subsidiary to create a sharper focus and to prepare for the Group's distribution strategy. After a review of SPCS's operations in Norway, and because of the focusing of the distribution strategy, staffing has been adapted to the earnings level expected. In addition, one third of the office area at SPCS's headquarters in Byporten, Oslo has been let with effect from 1 September 2001. The annual cost savings resulting from these measures will amount to about NOK 25 million, and will become fully effective from the end of 2001. The measures are not a direct result of the process of merging with Visma, but are based on the wish to restore high profitability to SPCS in Norway. The restructuring will have no significant effect on costs in the second quarter of 2001. It will take a little longer to realize direct synergies from the merger with Visma - but, here too, work has begun. The synergies will primarily stem from a stronger market position, while further cost reductions will play a minor role. Visma ASA will move to SPCS ASA's head office in mid-August, and the Group's headquarters will then be located at these premises in the centre of Oslo. SPCS AB in Växjö, Sweden, is performing well in 2001 as in previous years. This business is largely unaffected by the merger between SPCS and Visma in Norway, and SPCS AB is continuing its expansion according to plan. Extensive collaboration between Visma Business and SPCS AB will be established. The product strategy has also been clarified. Rubicon Pro and Visma Business, which currently account for the largest volume in the Software division, will continue at full speed in both product development and sales. Reservations about Rubicon Global have been expressed in the Press. The product is technologically advanced, but was sold prematurely for projects that were too complicated. Projects of this nature that impeded the development of a generally good product have been stopped, and the management of the Visma Software division has created the conditions necessary for Global to become an important product for the Visma Group. Global will be used as a platform for a new family of products in the market for small and medium-sized enterprises. Rubicon SalesOffice, the Software division's own system for customer relationship management, will be sold as an integral part of all the financial systems in the division. Within the next few years, the various product families in the Software division will share components. The distribution channels for the Rubicon and Visma Business products will be kept separate, as this is expected to result in maximum efficiency in the market. Even though it will take 12-18 months to implement full integration, SPCS and Visma have made the most important decisions within a short period. The combined company will have a cost structure adapted to the difficult times that the IT industry is currently experiencing, the product and distribution strategy is clear, and from the second half-year of 2001 the merged company can focus primarily on customers and the market, and not on internal processes. For further information, please contact: Bjørn Ingier, CEO, Visma Software ASA, mobile tel. (+47) 934 19200 Rune Falstad, Financial Director, Visma Software ASA, mobile tel. (+47) 906 14482 Øystein Moan, CEO, Visma ASA, tel. (+47) 6752 55 00, mobile (+47) 920 800 00. |