Notes from Conference call playback:
Accomplishments
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* cash balances grew despite share repurchase
* reduced receivables
* book-to-bill ratio at end of quarter > 1
* principal focus was on restructuring the company
Goals for next quarter
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* Complete changes in senior management team
* Aggressively seek partnerships with major industry players
* Transform internal processes to prepare for software model
* Realign cost structure
* Retain key employees
Other
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* see moderate sequential revenue growth in 2-3 quarters
* investments in R&D and sales will increase
* SG&A increases last quarter were due to salesforce reorg
* Expenses will go up during the restructuring phase
Q&A Notes
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* sales slow due to distraction arising from mgt. changes
* Clarify, Vantive, Oracle, CSCO, LU, Nortel will be potential partners and/or competitors in the new space. The differentiator will be that ASPT will have a complete offering that mediates between customer and front office apps. Mgt. feels existing players will find it difficult to replicate the model
* will focus on providing technologies for customer facing apps which the CEO predicts will gain a lot of attention after Y2K issues die down
* Will provide a complete package for queuing, routing, reporting, prioritizing, measuring and tracking customer transactions
* New software oriented pricing structure will kick in after internal systems are upgraded.
* reasonably optimistic that Q3 will be a turning point.
* expect operating margins to be in the high teens
* EVP spending a lot of time explaining changes to key employees and getting a lot of buy-in from them
* product margins were low this Q due to 3rd party products and lower volumes of product revenues.
* company sees no meaningful price pressure
* 64% of revenues were from NA
* add on software revenues were down sequentially
* data centric, internet oriented, multimedia applications will be the new products focus. Examples quoted include email routing, self-service, web support, e-commerce and e-business, front office desktop integration
* see modest revenue growth this year and healthy top line growth in 2000
* seeking parternships with larger companies in the voice-data convergence and back-office systems fields.
* not fundamentally changing the guidance issued in Q1. Profitability will evident in Q499/Q100
* CEO thinks CSCO is ahead in the voice-data convergence field with GEOC acquistion. Thinks it is a magnetic attraction between these co's. Said it plays well in the SP space where Geotel plays an important role in pre-routing. Does not consider it competitive given the new focus of the company. This was in response to why CSCO paid such a high premium even though ASPT has 10 times more revenues.
* Employee turnover is in line with the trends in the valley (high to mid teens). Attrition rates in Engg, Sales and Support not out of line. |
