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ServicePower eyes cross-selling opportunities as momentum builds

Last updated: 14:32 05 Mar 2014 GMT, First published: 15:32 05 Mar 2014 GMT

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ServicePower’s (LON:SVR) Marne Martin sees significant cross-selling opportunities as the group looks to build on the progress made last year.

The recent trading statement revealed the scheduling and field management specialist boosted revenues by 25% to £14mln in 2013, is sitting on cash and will post a modest operating profit for 2013.  

This is a solid base, although there are opportunities to kick on from there, according to Martin, the former chief financial officer of the company who took over as chief executive in late July, 2013.

The group has announced a steady stream of new contract wins; however, there are self-help opportunities, such as selling more of its products to existing customers.

At the same time the emerging market created by machine-to-machine technology is tailor-made for ServicePower.

“The previous strategy was focused on acquisition,” Martin told Proactive Investors. 

“I have always felt you have to take care of your own brand first. 

“Plum acquisitions are great. The mobility acquisition was great; we got a gain on that.

“But now we have focus on what we do; to retool our go-to-market capabilities top to bottom, make sure our existing customers are happy and then ensure we are winning new customers.

“We want to tie our products together because there is demand from customers to use multiple products from the product suite.”

At its very kernel, what the ServicePower does is simple: it gets contractors or paid employees to the right job at the right time with the correct part.

If it does all of those things seamlessly, a repair job can be completed correctly first time – which is the Holy Grail of field service. 

The company provides its “software enabled services” to larger retailers, manufacturers and insurers.

Its core offerings can be distilled down to scheduling, dispatch and warranty claims.

“The dispatch product is really unique,” Martin told Proactive Investors.

“Our main competitors in the scheduling world don’t even look at how you dispatch and manage contractors.

“This is a huge competitive advantage for us; it is an area that is rapidly growing and will continue to.

“Warranty claims admin is a solid area where don’t have much competition and we will look at what else we can do there.”

Currently, the majority of its customers use just one product so the opportunity lies in plugging them into others.

The newly revamped business now has a client service team, made up of some of the company’s most experienced members of staff, which is able to help “maximize, optimize and configure” systems for customers.

This leaves the sales team free to generate new business.

One opportunity that could be significant is the machine-to-machine market. Most people have seen fridges that tell you when they are out of ice, but the true worth of the technology is in industry, where M2M’s introduction within large plants and factories could revolutionise fault recognition and repair. 

Advances such as M2M technology allow for potential faults to be spotted before they occur.

The key is being able to interpret the welter of data as it flows through and being able to prioritise the workflows.

ServicePower’s platforms are able to do just that. Like doctors and paramedics at the scene of a major accident, it is able to carry out its form of triage.

But rather than sorting out patients into urgent and non-urgent, ServicePower classifies jobs along the same lines and dispatches field engineers at the optimum time to repair faults or change out parts.

Martin calls this business logic triage. “It is really revolutionary,” she said.

“And we are only company fit to do that. We are the only company that can schedule an employed workforce as well as contracted workforces in a unified way.”

This capability then leads on to a concept called preventative maintenance – when a part can be changed out before it goes wrong. As they say in medical circles, prevention is better than cure …

Small savings in downtime caused by breakdowns translate into huge potential savings where physical assets are concerned.

“For many of the big companies even a 1% change in first time fix or using predictive intelligence is millions of dollars,” explained Martin.

“Ultimately what differentiates our software is the ability to optimise costs.” 

There is a major untapped market for these services, which explains why the group is keen to forge alliances with businesses at the cutting edge of M2M and customer relationship management software.

The shares have surged almost 50% in the last six months, suggesting investors are buying into Martin’s vision.

Yet that still only values the business at £13mln, or less than a year’s turnover, suggesting the stock has further to travel.


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