There were more than 60 shareholders in attendance at our annual meeting and the senitment was quite positive, which I believe has been reflected by the recovery of our stock price in the subsequent weeks. We do have a detailed plan for growth. The following is a brief encapsulation which may be of help:
BCB's immediate plan for growth are built around the following action items:
ú Expand BCB's channel management field team from 3 to 6 people;
ú Aggressively recruit and train independent Lanier Worldwide Inc. dealers (Lanier offers mostly analog recording products);
ú Selectively recruit and train former Philips Inc. and Digital Voice Inc. dealers (recent channel reorganizations have made them available);
ú Prepare and distribute (through dealers) sales support tools such as turn-key demonstration software, on-line sales literature and testimonial videos;
ú In co-operation with dealers, plan and implement a focused, country-wide, road show of BCB product demonstrations in major U.S. cities and markets;
ú Recruit and train a 4-person sales, software customization and installation team focused exclusively on the courtroom and legislative systems market;
ú Expand production and technical support staff as needed;
ú Continue to integrate BCB systems with third party products such as PC DOCS document management, HTI transcription and workflow software and leading voice recognition software applications.
If these action items are quickly executed, BCB can build a major beachhead in the U.S. market that should lead to high revenue growth through the upcoming 3 years.
Although still far behind our major competitor's (Dictaphone's) revenues and market reach, we will be building real and sustainable market momentum. Given the demonstrable superiority of BCB's products over Dictaphone's, there is tremendous room for growth.
Currently Dictaphone employs 3,000 people and has 300,000 customers. 1,600 of Dictaphone's employees are marketing representatives covering 190 cities in 5 countries. By comparison BCB employs 38 people and has approximately 1,000 customers. The U.S., U.K and Canada are currently handled by 3 full-time and 3 part-time marketing representatives. Obviously, if BCB can beef up its market presence through dealer recruitment and training, focused marketing and direct sales support, a considerable dent can be made in gaining market share at Dictaphone's expense.
BCB's outlook has never been better. Major product development has been completed while a variety of successful installations and a growing sales backlog proves BCB's products are marketable. In addition, an experienced and dedicated management team is in place and the foundation for a focused distribution infrastructure is already under construction and showing positive results.
Now, the only major restraint to BCB's potentially explosive growth is access to capital. However, as both sales and market victories over Dictaphone and other competitors grow week by week, it is only a matter of time until enlightened investors awake to the opportunity BCB provides.
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