Annual Report 2017 2
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Annual Report 2017 2 “A high-performance software portfolio is at the heart of SNP’s business model. Our goal is to become the global standard for software-based data transformation. We will succeed in this objective with CrystalBridge as SNP’s new central software platform.” Dr. Andreas Schneider-Neureither 3 SNP – The Transformation Company Companies are subject to a process of continuous change. The reasons for this include mergers, company sales or re- structuring. Many companies also recognize the growing need to invest in the replacement of their existing IT structures to keep pace with technological change as well as the increased networking and digitalization of entire business models. Every change directly affects IT and, in particular, companies’ enter- prise resource planning (ERP) systems. SNP focuses on the transformation of business-critical and highly sensitive data in ERP systems. SNP software and services help companies to rapidly adapt their business models through an automated and risk-mini- mized process. After all, transformation projects are among the greatest challenges for companies and their IT depart- ments. Dr. Andreas Schneider-Neureither 4 Letter of the CEO LETTER OF THE CEO DEAR SHAREHOLDERS, The SNP Group maintained its successful growth trend A high-performance software portfolio is at the heart in the 2017 fiscal year. At the same time, we have of our business model. Software licensing fees are a achieved some important strategic objectives. SNP key benchmark and thus a significant success factor in has reached a new dimension of growth in terms of its the software industry. These fees in turn result in high- revenue and also its internationalization and, not least, ly profitable long-term maintenance fees, which gene- its market position. rate positive cash flows. Technological innovations and improvements also increase the benefits to our custo- In the 2017 fiscal year, we clearly exceeded the € 100 mers, while tapping into additional sources of licensing million revenue threshold, while our number of emplo- income for us. Licensing fee growth will therefore be a yees increased from 712 to in excess of 1,300. Moreo- core aspect of SNP’s business in the coming months ver, SNP’s conversion into a European stock corporati- and years. on (SE) strengthened its international focus, and we have taken important steps to ensure the Group’s In the Future, our CrystalBridge Will Serve as operating and strategic development. SNP’s Central Software Platform Our prospects for the future and our market potential It is a fact that strategic business decisions, the related are excellent. Signs already point to a huge increase in process of technological change and IT landscapes are demand in the coming years for our services and soft- rarely in harmony with one another. On the contrary: ware solutions. Existing IT architectures are frequently seen as an obstacle to the transformation of companies. We know In terms of our overall development, one thing remains this from more than 7,000 transformation projects that consistent: We are working on becoming the global we have now successfully implemented. standard for software-based data transformations and are clearly succeeding in this respect. To realize our With our latest software project, CrystalBridge, we are goal, we are following three strategic approaches on a closing the gap between our customers’ business and long-term basis: IT strategies. By combining all of our SNP software under the CrystalBridge umbrella, we are creating a ■ Automation homogeneous software platform with considerable ■ Internationalization potential – above all, for the sake of our customers. ■ Global delivery capacity We are quite sure that CrystalBridge represents a quan- tum leap in terms of the execution of transformation Letter of the CEO 5 Dr. Andreas Schneider-Neureither, CEO projects: This new software is a kind of “ship’s bridge” and advanced training, which will enable them to inde- from the point of view of IT, which enables our custo- pendently execute SNP software-based transformati- mers to visualize a project even prior to the implemen- on projects in our global markets. tation of a company transformation and to simulate it with the highest level of reliability. In the future, this will SNP Meets Digital Megatrends thus enable a significantly higher level of automation than is currently possible, with all of the associated As a provider of technologically leading software solu- benefits: increased transparency, enhanced security tions and services that are unique in its industry, SNP and lower costs. supports and promotes changes in companies. The drivers of digitalization include, in particular, the intro- Increased Globalization duction of the new SAP Business Suite S4 with the database SAP HANA. This is one of the largest update In order to become the global standard for data trans- drives in the SAP ERP world. SNP has already success- formation with our software and service portfolio, we fully completed more than 30 SAP S/4 projects and has have accelerated our internationalization strategy and also assembled an interdisciplinary SAP S/4 compe- secured further access to foreign markets; following tence team for the internal changeover process. We acquisitions in Asia, North America and the United intend to shape this highly attractive market via soft- Kingdom, we completed further purchases in Poland ware-based ERP transformations. and South America in 2017. Key Performance Indicators for the 2017 Today, SNP has a presence in all of the commercially Fiscal Year Confirm Our Successful Strategy relevant regional markets. SNP’s early positioning ena- bles us to prepare for the foreseeable worldwide boom Our balance sheet and earnings figures for 2017 con- resulting from digital transformation worldwide and to firm the growth trend of the past few years: be counted among the winners of this development. ■ Significant revenue growth – Group revenue in- Through these acquisitions, SNP’s workforce has in- creased around 52% to € 122.3 million. In the final creased considerably. Attracting new specialists is and quarter of the year, we achieved the strongest quar- has always been a key success factor in our growth terly revenue in our company’s history, at € 41.3 strategy. By having greater access to customers, we million. are able to offer SNP software worldwide. At the same ■ Excellent order situation – At the end of the year, time, we will provide our new employees with initial our order situation amounts to approximately € 131 6 Letter of the CEO million – software and maintenance account for ■ Operating margin loss – We have decided to allo- around € 16 million of this. Around two thirds of cate strategic priority to SNP’s growth – particularly these incoming orders are attributable to the DACH in terms of its market presence and the develop- region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). The re- ment of the workforce – for a limited period of time maining orders, which amount to approximately and in anticipation of companies’ increasing trans- € 43 million, are thus from other regions around the formation requirements. This has resulted in an world. operating margin loss in our income statement for 2017. In the 2017 fiscal year, the operating earnings ■ Increasing software revenues – In the second margin (IFRS) was -0.4%. This is mainly due to ext- half of the past year, we already began to adjust our raordinary expenses and growth investments. In software and sales strategy. For this purpose, we addition, we have not yet achieved our goal in terms have expanded our software portfolio and are alig- of software licensing revenues for SNP’s in-house ning it even more strongly with the sales opportuni- products. We are not satisfied here and will do all ties in the U.S. and Chinese markets. The tangible that we can to change the situation. increase in our software revenues in the fourth quarter has encouraged us in our efforts. In summary, as an internationally active company, SNP has reached a new level of efficiency and ability to deli- ■ New management structure – We have reacted to ver for its customers. We have everything that we need our strong growth over the past few years by intro- in order to succeed. We must now exploit our full po- ducing a new management and organizational struc- tential in order to profitably maintain our strategic ture. The Group relies on uniform processes world- growth trend of the past few years on a long-term ba- wide and clear global responsibilities, which safegu- sis. ard its successful ongoing development. Letter of the CEO 7 We would be unable to harness the benefits of transfor- mation software and to deliver genuine added value for our customers without a highly competent team. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to offer my special thanks to our dedicated employees, who, with their commitment and above-average motivation, are contributing to SNP’s progress. I would also like to sin- cerely welcome the new members of the SNP family, and I really look forward to all of us working together. Furthermore, I would like to thank our customers and all of our shareholders for the trust they have placed in us. We will continue to do everything possible to maintain your trust in the future. Dr. Andreas Schneider-Neureither, CEO 8 The Transformation Company The Transformation Company 9 CHALLENGES Digital Business Transparency Companies are still struggling to identify the change pro- IT landscapes and data volumes are increasingly complex cesses unleashed by digital technologies as an opportuni- – due to the heterogeneous IT systems of various provi- ty. This means that urgently required steps for successful ders, various release versions, subsidiaries and foreign digital transformation are tackled only superficially or not sales offices with entirely autonomous ERP systems as at all. In view of the fact that industry data is available to well as sector or company-specific proprietary develop- be harnessed as the most important and complex form ments.