Annual Report Accounts 2012 - Tribal

06Tribal Group plc Annual Report and Accounts 2012 | Chief Executive’s reportAdvancing confidently with ourstrategic planTribal has evolved rapidly over the past year.Technology is becoming a natural part of all that wedo. Our view is now firmly international, while weremain committed to our core customers and marketsin the UK. Tribal’s people have accomplished a greatdeal in the last twelve months, and we are lookingforward to building on our achievements during 2013.Keith Evans, Chief ExecutiveGathering momentumThe year ended 31 December 2012 was the first of our strategicplan. We set an ambitious target of more than doubling earningsper share over the three years ending 31 December 2014.The year was a period of investment during which westrengthened the foundations on which our plans are based,delivered strong financial performance, and advanced confidentlytowards our goals. We have made a good start, althoughwe will need to sustain our strong progress notwithstandingthe challenges of managing a business in an uncertaineconomic environment.Delivering our three-year strategic planOur strategy places emphasis on organic growth initiatives.At the heart of our strategy, we have two key goals.1. Retain our market leading positions in the UK:• Creating new modules and services for our existingcustomer base;• Developing new systems for the children’s services andschools markets; and• Creating scalable software based tools to supporteducation providers.2. Internationalise our systems and solutions to English speakingmarkets:• Continue to grow in Australasia;• Undertake selected projects in the Middle East; and• Explore North American markets.Our investment in 2012 has focused on enhancing our softwarebased systems and tools, and growing our resources in ourexisting and new countries of operation.Competitive advantage through technologyTribal’s investment in new software development is based oncareful analysis of our customers’ requirements, keeping oursoftware fresh and relevant. We have increased the level ofinvestment substantially, rising from £3.6m in 2011 to £6.2min 2012.Our development programmes continue to benefit from theclose relationship between our solutions activities, which give usinsight into our customers’ needs and the challenges they facein delivering education today, and the technology skills of oursoftware developers.During the last year, our software development investmenthas targeted both our major education management systemsand software tools within our evidence-based educationimprovement solutions. We expect to continue to investstrongly in new software development during 2013, astechnology becomes a core component of all our major systemsand solutions.Strengthening the foundations for growthOur growth into international markets has been underpinnedby enhancement of our capabilities outside the UK. A simpleorganisational structure, with clear lines of accountability iskey, with increasing operational resilience to support our widergeographic coverage.We have aligned our sales and marketing activities regionally aswe enter new high-growth-potential markets outside the UK. Toensure effective follow-through on new business wins, we havealso put in place a robust global software development andoperating model.Tribal’s software development teams have been internationalised– in addition to our core teams in the UK and Australia,development partners are now also based in Brazil and China,and our teams provide customer support around the clock.