Public Sector Watch, IDOX

So many companies today do business in one form or another with the public sector. Some may rely too heavily on Government contracts while for others it is part of their business. Given the austerity measures that Government is taking right now, it is probably better to find companies that do the latter than the former. Those that rely totally on contracts with the public sector have little to fall back on if the money dries up.

IDOX is an AIM company that reported today in positive terms about its business with the public sector.

The Group's three key metrics being revenue, EBITDA and adjusted* pre-tax profit, are all expected to be comfortably ahead of consensus market expectations for the full year. Like-for-like organic growth has also been particularly encouraging in both the public sector and engineering software divisions which, together with our active acquisition programme, will deliver significant top line revenue growth for the year.

The Public Sector division continues to benefit from assisting local councils to achieve their cost savings and is expected to perform better than forecast, together with organic growth at a higher level than anticipated, due to the successful implementation within UK councils of our managed services and hosting products. The Group has been awarded a framework agreement by the Government Procurement Service for G-Cloud Services following an application and review of its Cloud offerings.

The CEO gives a good description of what is now expected from those companies doing business with the public sector.

"We continue to develop new and innovative methods to drive productivity within the Public Sector, a market which is now focused on managing costs and efficiency. Our strategy to differentiate within the Engineering Information Management sector, by being the only provider to offer a cross platform interoperable solution, is now beginning to show results and, in 2013 this division will continue the process of adding new markets to its North American core. "

The shares are up around 10% today on the expectation that the company looks forward to being comfortably ahead of consensus market expectations for the full year when it reports on 12th December. Looks like one to watch out for.

http://www.digitallook.com/news/rns/20490361-30992/IDOX-Trading_Update_html

IDOX to beat expectations in 2012