Sabien Technology Group Plc (LON:SNT) shares were up around 15% on Tuesday after the company told investors return to profitability in the year to end June 2018.
The boiler optimisation specialist highlighted good progress in its pilot programme which is designed to lift sales.
As reported previously, in a new five year strategy to improve sales and to significantly scale up large multi-site M2G projects in the UK and overseas it was to offer free pilots to potential clients in a bid to bag larger contracts faster - such as with governments.
Sabien sells monitors (called M2G) that are fitted retrospectively to heating boilers, so they function more effectively, leading to savings of 15-25% per heating season (October to April).
The target for the 2015-16 heating season was to run up to 35 pilots compared to 8 in 2014-15, the firm said, adding that as of today, 35 clients have signed up for pilots in this year's heating season.
Of these 10 have been completed with reports submitted to clients, 21 are in measurement, two are awaiting installation and two are being surveyed, the firm said.
The 10 reports all demonstrate the expected savings for the clients and the firm believes that 32 UK pilots will be completed this financial year with a further three completed after June.
Significantly, one of these clients has already placed an initial order for £110,000, Sabien noted.
Its updated pipeline now includes only those prospects where it is in active discussion with the client on implementation.
The sales pipeline at end April 2016 stood at £7.4mln, it noted.
"The group expects to update the market on trading for FY2016 at the beginning of June,” it said.
“With the results of the 2015-16 pilot programme and the interest already shown in the group's pilot programme for the 2016-2017 heating season, the directors are confident that the strategy to return the company to profitability in the 2017-18 financial year is achievable.”
On Tuesday, Sabien shares gained 0.75p, 15%, to trade at 5.75p each – earlier in the day shares changed hands as high as 6.5p.
A revised sales strategy to grab bigger contracts faster
Last summer, the AIM firm revealed it aimed to speed up its sales process by waiving around £20,000 of charges on client pilot programmes in a bid to bag larger contracts faster.
With a five year plan, the company said it would scale up large M2G pilots annually.
It is aiming to run 35 pilots in the 2015-16 heating season, compared to just eight in 2014-15.