Innofactor Plc's Interim Report for January 1–September 30, 2023 has been published on October 24, 2023, at 9:00 am Finnish time: Innofactor swam against the current in a challenging market and achieved its highest-ever third quarter net sales and EBITDA in spite of the order backlog decreasing
Innofactor is the leading driver of the modern digital organization in the Nordic Countries for its over 1,000 customers in commercial and public sector. Innofactor has the widest solution offering and leading know-how in the Microsoft ecosystem in the Nordics. Innofactor has about 600 enthusiastic and motivated top specialists in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The Innofactor Plc share is listed in the technology section of the main list of NASDAQ Helsinki Oy. #ModernDigitalOrganization #HybridWork #PeopleFirst #CreatingSmiles
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Innofactor's CEO Sami Ensio's result interviews by Evli Research's analyst Jerker Salokivi and Inderes' analyst Joni Grönqvist after Innofactor's Q3 2023 result.
Innofactor Q3 interview with CEO Sami Ensio - Evli (In English, 7 min)
Innofactor Q3 2023 interview with CEO Sami Ensio - Inderes (in Finnish, 14 min)
October 24, 2023
Net sales in the third quarter of 2023 amounted to EUR 18.0 million, representing year-on-year growth of 8.0 percent. The operating margin (EBITDA) grew by 10.9 percent year-on-year and came to EUR 2.0 million (10.9 percent of net sales). Innofactor's net sales grew in Finland and Norway. EBITDA was positive in Finland but negative in other countries due to the challenging market situation.
Net sales for the first nine months of 2023 amounted to EUR 58.3 million, representing year-on-year growth of 15.3 percent. The operating margin (EBITDA) grew by 19.7 percent year-on-year and came to EUR 6.2 million (10.7 percent of net sales).
Price competition in the markets remained intense in the third quarter, although the weighted average prices of new contracts increased slightly from the preceding quarter. We anticipate prices will continue to rise in the fourth quarter, although we expect the situation to remain challenging until the end of the year. Carrying out loss-making business activities is not part of Innofactor's strategy, which is why new sales in Q3 were still below target and led to a decrease in the order backlog. The order backlog decreased from the preceding quarter and amounted to EUR 71.4 million at the end of the review period, representing a year-on-year decrease of 7.6 percent. Nevertheless, our strong existing order backlog, framework agreements and other purchases by existing customers enable Innofactor to operate profitably in the short term. We expect to be able to increase the volume of new sales in Q4.
Generative artificial intelligence (ChatGPT, Microsoft Azure Open AI and Microsoft Copilot) has received growing attention in the market. Generative AI presents our customers – and Innofactor – with significant opportunities for improving operational efficiency. Above all, it opens up significant new business opportunities for Innofactor, and we have quickly developed new offerings in response to these opportunities. We see Microsoft 365 Copilot as particularly significant. It will become available on November 1, 2023, and we expect it will enable us to grow our business in co-operation with our main partner Microsoft.
The Board of Directors appointed Antti Rokala, M.Sc. (Econ.) as Innofactor Group's new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He will take up his post on January 2, 2024. At present, Rokala is working as Group CFO at the educational company YrkesAkademin in Stockholm. Rokala has previously worked in several financial management and leadership positions for the elevator company Schindler, such as Nordic CFO. Antti's experience in Sweden and the other Nordic countries will help Innofactor further develop our business. I want to take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to Antti.
Based on feedback from shareholders and analysts, we have decided to expand our reporting starting from the financial statements for the year 2023 by reporting key figures separately for our four solution areas. The reportable solution areas are as follows: 1) Digital services, 2) Business solutions, 3) Information and case management, and 4) Secure artificial intelligence, data and cloud platform. The following key figures will be reported for each solution area: net sales and the distribution of net sales, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, order backlog and the amount of product development. The key figures will be presented for the reporting period and the comparison period, and the percentage change for each key figure will be indicated.
Innofactor's aim is to be the leading provider of organizations' digital transformation in each of the Nordic countries. We believe in our chosen Nordic strategy and in reaching our long-term goals. This requires perseverance and determination from the company's management and employees as well as investors. Innofactor is still actively looking for new strategic partnerships in the Nordic countries. The Group's goal is to grow both organically and through acquisitions.
Sami Ensio
Innofactor's founder, major owner, and CEO
The market outlook and business environment are published in their entirety in the financial statement and in the Annual Report.
The price competition that began in the market in the second quarter remained intense and, in our assessment, the weighted average prices of new contracts stayed at a low level in the third quarter, particularly in the case of public sector customers, in spite of a slight increase from the preceding quarter. We expect the average prices of new contracts in the public sector and large tenders to continue to rise and return to a commercially sensible level in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Generative artificial intelligence (ChatGPT, Microsoft Azure Open AI and Microsoft Copilot) has received significant attention in the market, and this has happened exceptionally quickly. Generative AI presents our customers – and Innofactor – with significant opportunities for improving operational efficiency. Above all, it opens up significant new business opportunities, and we have quickly developed new offerings in response to these opportunities, for example, regarding ensuring the privacy of customers' data when introducing generative AI. We have also shifted our sales focus more to the private sector, where more commercially sustainable price levels can be found.
We estimate that market growth in the Nordic countries will be weaker in 2023 than in the previous year.
Innofactor's strategy comprises our purpose, mission, vision, strategic choices, values, working principle, employer promise, and long-term financial goals.
Innovating to make the world work better
Driving the modern digital organization
Leading Nordic digital transformation partner in the Microsoft ecosystem
Read more about our values.
Our principle is to put people first in everything we do. We want to create solutions that make people's everyday work and life run smoothly and bring a smile to their faces.
Be the real you
Innofactor's net sales in January–September 2023 amounted to EUR 58.3 million (2022: 50.6), representing year-on-year growth of 15.3 percent. Approximately EUR 55.7 million (10.0%) of the growth was organic, excluding the net sales derived from the Invenco acquisition. We are lagging behind our strategic growth target. We aim to further improve our operational performance to drive growth. Our goal is also to increase the number of chargeable personnel, which is slightly easier than before in the prevailing market situation. During the review period, the number of personnel at Innofactor increased by 9.5 percent year-on-year. We also look for acquisition targets to enable inorganic growth.
The operating margin (EBITDA) was 10.7 percent of net sales (2022: 10.3%). EBITDA for the review period increased by 19.7 percent year-on-year. While profitability has improved, continued attention and efforts by the management are still needed in the coming years to reach the long-term target of approximately 20 percent. We aim to further enhance our operational performance to improve profitability.
Innofactor's operating cash flow for the review period January 1–September 30, 2023, amounted to EUR 3.5 million (2022: EUR 3.0 million) and the equity ratio at the end of the review period was 46.3 percent (2022: 43.7 percent). Innofactor's strong operating cash flow supports the company's strategic goal of profitable growth and securing a solid financial standing in all situations.
2022 |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
|
|
Net sales, EUR thousand |
71,130 |
66,364 |
66,164 |
64,198 |
63,144 |
|
Operating profit before depreciation |
7,808 |
10,111 |
7,164 |
5,089 |
-1,029 |
|
percentage of net sales |
11.0% |
15.2% |
10.8% |
7.9% |
-1.6% |
|
Operating profit (EBIT), EUR thousand |
4,751 |
6,519 |
2,501 |
795 |
-3,872 |
|
percentage of net sales |
6.7% |
9.8% |
3.8% |
1.2% |
-6.1% |
|
Earnings before taxes, EUR thousand |
4,178 |
5,730 |
2,050 |
12 |
-3,811 |
|
percentage of net sales |
5.9% |
8.6% |
3.1% |
0.0% |
-6.0% |
|
Earnings, EUR thousand |
3,320 |
4,504 |
1,761 |
418 |
-3,462 |
|
percentage of net sales |
4.7% |
6.8% |
2.7% |
0.7% |
-5.5% |
|
Shareholders' equity, EUR thousand |
24,799 |
25,404 |
23,444 |
22,145 |
21,303 |
|
Interest bearing liabilities, EUR thousand |
14,349 |
9,818 |
15,386 |
16,853 |
15,418 |
|
Cash and cash equivalents, EUR thousand |
1,956 |
1,963 |
3,066 |
963 |
258 |
|
Deferred tax assets, EUR thousand |
4,090 |
4,830 |
6,413 |
5,602 |
5,602 |
|
Return on equity |
13.2% |
18.4% |
7.7% |
1.9% |
-13.8% |
|
Return on investment |
14.5% |
20.6% |
11.1% |
2.3% |
-7.7% |
|
Net Gearing |
50.0% |
30.9% |
52.5% |
71.8% |
71.2% |
|
Equity ratio |
44.8% |
51.1 % |
42.2% |
40.2% |
41.2% |
|
Balance sheet total, EUR thousand |
55,815 |
51,057 |
56,607 |
55,720 |
51,875 |
|
Research and development, EUR thousand |
4,153 |
3,504 |
3,618 |
2,795 |
2,860 |
|
percentage of net sales |
5.8% |
5.3% |
5.5% |
4.4% |
4.5% |
|
Personnel on average during the year |
536 |
516 |
544 |
534 |
591 |
|
Personnel at the end of the year |
564 |
500 |
541 |
538 |
550 |
|
Number of shares at the end of the year |
37,388,225 |
37,388,225 |
37,388,225 |
37,388,225 |
36,188,225 |
|
Earnings per share (EUR) |
0.09 |
0.12 |
0.05 |
0.01 |
-0.09 |
|
Shareholders' equity per share (EUR) |
0.68 |
0.68 |
0.63 |
0.59 |
0.59 |
Innofactor's business operations were focused on Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. During the period January 1–September 30, 2023, approximately 72 percent of the net sales came from Finland, approximately 13 percent from Sweden, approximately 11 percent from Norway, and approximately 4 percent from Denmark. Net sales grew in the third quarter in Finland and Norway, and decreased in Sweden and Denmark.
During the period January 1–September 30, 2023, approximately 53 percent of the net sales came from commercial customers (including third-sector customers) and approximately 47 percent came from public sector customers.
Innofactor's net sales for the review period of January 1–September 30, 2023, were derived from the following sources:
Innofactor's 10 largest clients accounted for approximately 29 percent of the net sales for the review period January 1–September 30, 2023.
In line with our mission, we continue to build Innofactor as a modern digital organization. We develop our operating models to support the daily work of our employees within our Nordic organization. Highly competent and motivated employees, good leadership practices, self-organization, effective teamwork, and company-wide practices support Innofactor’s long-term goals. Our principle is to put people first in everything we do. We want to create an inspiring hybrid work environment for our employees and also have fun while working.
Innofactor primarily monitors the number of active personnel. The number of active personnel does not include employees who are on leave for more than three months.
The average number of active personnel during the period January 1–September 30, 2023, was 585 (2022: 555), representing an increase of 5.4 percent. At the end of the review period, the number of active personnel was 594 (2022: 554), representing an increase of 7.2 percent.
At the end of the review period, the average age of the personnel was 42.1 years (2022: 42.6). Women accounted for 27 percent (2022: 26%) and men for 73 percent (2022: 74%) of the personnel.
At Innofactor, employees work at the office, at the customer’s premises, and remotely, depending on what is the most appropriate choice in each situation. Teams agree on their operating models and rules concerning their working methods. Choices are guided by customer requirements. Teams are recommended to choose in-office days – for example, one or two days per week – when the team works together in the same physical location, either at the office or at the customer’s premises. We have also made changes to our offices to support hybrid work even more effectively. For example, at our head office in Espoo, we opened several new team rooms that enable productive in-office work for teams. We also completed a new studio at our Espoo office in 2022 to enable high-quality virtual broadcasts and webinars.
Our operating models are based on a self-organizing culture, which means that teams are empowered to plan their work. At the same time, we want to support a strong sense of community and team spirit, which is why we encourage teams and units to have common in-office days.
In late 2022, we opened a new office in Oulu, moved our Kajaani and Jyväskylä offices to larger premises, and modernized our office in Stockholm. We also began expansion work on our office in Tampere in late 2022. We believe that physical offices play a role as important meeting places and hold the potential for attracting talent from various parts of the Nordic region.
In 2022, we recruited over 100 new professionals to work at Innofactor, many of whom are returnees, and we also welcomed nearly 50 new professionals to Innofactor as part of the Invenco acquisition.
One of the best things about 2022 was being able to get together with co-workers at various events. After a few years of COVID-19 restrictions, we again had the opportunity to invite all of our personnel in the Nordic region to our Espoo Campus for our annual InSpirit event, which included a seminar and an evening party. We also had pre-Christmas parties in all of the cities we operate in, and we were able to organize unit-specific gatherings. A strong sense of community and social events are a big part of Innofactor’s culture and the creation of team spirit.
Microsoft also selected Innofactor as the recipient of the Tech for Good Partner of the Year 2022 in Finland in recognition of our performance in realizing our purpose of innovating to make the world work better.
Innofactor aims to invest in competence development at the Nordic level. At the beginning of 2022, we adopted a new performance indicator to actively monitor the certifications of our specialists. Innofactor's strategic goal is to have the most competent Nordic teams. Certificates are a key aspect of demonstrating our competence. Innofactor employees completed over 100 new certifications in 2022.
We organized diverse trainings through Innofactor Academy in 2022. Innofactor Academy brings together Innofactor's training activities at the local level as well as the Nordic level. We organized training related to Microsoft technology, basic induction training, as well as ITIL, PRINCE2, and Scrum training. In our managerial training, coaching-style leadership was one of our key themes in 2022.
We want to focus on training young people and offering jobs to new graduates. We organized our fourth Innofactor DigiStar Trainee Program, the purpose of which is to provide a diverse induction training period for new professionals, followed by learning on the job. We hired 37 new graduates in the Nordic countries in 2022. Our DigiStar program was implemented at the Nordic level for the first time in 2022, with the intake doubling from the previous year. Our target for 2023 is to increase the number of DigiStar participants to over 60.
Innofactor's goal is to build a company with Nordic integration. Common systems, processes, and culture support Innofactor's strategic targets and cooperation between countries. We want to build a genuinely Nordic culture. In 2022, we added a Nordic onboarding day to our induction training for recruits, allowing new employees to get to know each other and Innofactor's operations. This initiative was received with enthusiasm.
At the end of 2022, we started negotiating a company-specific collective agreement in Finland. With the company-specific collective agreement, we wanted to enable us to agree on issues that are important to our personnel and to have a simpler and more understandable collective agreement that reflects who we are as a company. The new benefits we introduced in the collective agreement include the possibility to participate in voluntary exercises of the Defence Forces without loss of earnings and equal treatment for the paid part of parental leave. Innofactor's company-specific collective agreement was approved and signed at the beginning of 2023.
We believe that every Innofactor employee has the right to good leadership. The continuous development of leadership is a high priority for us. In addition to the quarterly employee satisfaction survey, all managers participated in the annual comprehensive 360° evaluation. According to the results, the quality of leadership at Innofactor is higher than the European benchmark by a clear margin. We want to continue our strong development, build self-organization and a coaching-style leadership culture that supports and develops our specialists while making Innofactor an even better place to work in the future.
At Innofactor, people work together and support each other. We want work to be both meaningful and fun. This is underpinned by good leadership and common working practices, but especially by great colleagues, customers, and a fantastic team spirit.
We organize recreational events for our personnel, both in teams and at the corporate level. In 2022, we focused particularly on in-person meetings between people. Having organized many virtual events during the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided it was time for our employees to get together with their co-workers in person. Our InSpirit summer event was held at the Espoo Campus, with over 400 Innofactor employees coming together to learn, get to know each other, and party. Several local events were also organized at our various operating locations. For example, we celebrated the opening of our Oulu office with employees and customers in attendance.
#ModernDigitalOrganization #HybridWork #PeopleFirst #CreatingSmiles
Technology is revolutionizing how organizations function at an ever-increasing pace. However, taking advantage of digitalization is still often a challenge. That’s why here at Innofactor we have made it our mission to help our customers transform into Modern Digital Organizations, which take full advantage of the opportunities brought by hybrid work, data, and the cloud.
In fact, making it easier for people and organizations to work wonders is the end goal for everything we do. It’s this passion to make the world work better that’s enabled our talented cloud technology professionals to successfully collaborate with approximately 1,000 private and public sector customers across the Nordic region.
To do this, we work in six solution areas, which we consider the building blocks of a Modern Digital Organization.
While the technology and solutions we provide might sometimes seem complex, the objective is always the same: A more efficient, more effective organization with happier customers and more motivated employees, empowered by technology that makes daily work and life more meaningful. It should come as no surprise, then, to learn that putting a smile on people's faces is the best way to measure our success. To ensure we carry on doing this, we never stop enhancing our own skills and expertise. As a result, we have achieved all six Microsoft Solutions Partner Designations and four highly valued Microsoft Specializations. In addition to these, Innofactor also held 16 company-level Microsoft Gold competencies, the renewal of which Microsoft discontinued in September 2022. Read more about the awards.
Our delivery model is based on years of experience in the successful design, adoption and development of modern services. It consists of five stages, each of which delivers our customers quick, tangible value in each of the six solution areas of our offering. The value of our deliveries is based on not only helping our customers to design and implement a specific solution, but also supporting them all way from defining a vision and governance to adoption and continuous development.
read more about our solutions for modern digital organization
20 June, 2022
Innofactor signed a contract to acquire the entire share capital of the Finnish company Invenco Oy.
See Stock Exchange Release for more details.
To clarify the group structure, the merger of Innofactor Invenco Oy's subsidiary Innofactor Invenco Software Oy into Innofactor Invenco Oy was initiated in 2022. The merger process is intended to be completed in spring 2023.
31 December, 2020
During the first quarter of 2020, Innofactor increased its holding in Arc Technology Oy by 26.94 percent to a total of 45.13 percent. Starting from the Q2/2020 interim report, Arc Technology Oy was reported as a subsidiary, because Innofactor has had control over the company since April 2020. Innofactor's holding in the company increased to 100% on December 30, 2020. For 2020, Arc Technology Oy increased Innofactor's net sales by approximately EUR 0.8 million. Arc Technology Oy was renamed as Innofactor HRM Oy in early 2021. See the Press Release (in Finnish).
10 October, 2016
Innofactor signed a contract to acquire the entire share capital of the Lumagate group.
See Stock Exchange Release for more details.
22 December, 2015
Innofactor signed a contract to acquire the entire share capital of the Swedish company Cinteros AB.
See Stock Exchange Release for more details.
22 December, 2015
Finnish Arc Technology, which is focused on HR systems, bought Innofactor Plc's HRM (Human Resources Management) business.
See press release for more details.
31 December, 2013
Innofactor signed a contract to acquire the entire share capital of Enabling Group.
See Stock Exchange Release for more details.
30 September, 2013
Innofactor acquired Dynamic Team (company name Lainetar Oy, based in Tampere, Finland) and its business in order to strengthen its offering in the Microsoft Dynamics AX business area.
See press release for more details.
6 June, 2013
Innofactor signed a contract to acquire the entire share capital of atBusiness Ltd.
See Stock Exchange Release for more details.
30 November, 2012
Innofactor signed a contract to acquire the Microsoft project and project portfolio management solutions business from Tietotalo Infocenter Ltd.
25 June, 2012
Innofactor signed a contract to acquire the entire share capital of Bridgeconsulting A/S.
See Stock Exchange Release for more details.
3 December, 2010
Westend ICT Plc and Innofactor Ltd merged to become the Innofactor Plc Group.
See Stock Exchange Release for more details.
3 June, 2010
Visual Management Ltd became part of Innofactor Software Ltd.
12 October, 2009
Innofactor Software Ltd acquired Software Innovation Finland Ltd.
1 April, 2007
Innofactor purchased the Enfo Ltd business unit responsible for electronic business solutions.
15 December, 2004
Innofactor Software Ltd acquired TietoEnator Plc's parish-software business.
Innofactor considers sustainability as one of the cornerstones of its long-term success. Sustainability is not only a condition for the continuation of operations. It also represents a way of responding to stakeholder expectations. Technology companies play a significant role in the mitigation of – and adaptation to – climate change. The IT sector also makes it possible for other organizations to reduce their carbon footprint.
Innofactor's operations are guided by our Code of Conduct and environmental policy, in addition to which we comply with the leading international sustainability standards, such as the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the principles of the ICC Business Charter for Sustainable Development.
Innofactor's internal operations are managed through predefined core processes and standards. The key processes related to sustainability include the company's processes relating to legal affairs, risk management and human resources, which govern many of the main aspects of corporate responsibility. The framework for Innofactor's operations is provided by the ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 13485 and AQAP-2110 standards, which the company's various processes adhere to.
Innofactor is committed to supporting the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Accordingly, we have mapped the main objectives from the perspective of our business operations.
In autumn 2021, Innofactor signed the Microsoft Partner Pledge to commit to the development of digital skills, diversity, ethical AI and environmental responsibility.
In 2022, Innofactor established a new sustainability task group that aims to develop Innofactor's sustainability at the strategic and tactical levels. The group consists of approximately 15 Innofactor employees based in the Nordic region. The group reports to the Chairman of Innofactor's Board of Directors, Anna Lindén.
Innofactor's net sales and operating margin (EBITDA) in 2023 are estimated to increase from 2022,