2 February 2010

Maxima Holdings plc (‘Maxima’ or the ‘Company’)

Maxima Holdings plc (AIM: MXM), the integrated IT solutions and managed services business, is pleased to announce its unaudited half yearly report for the six months ended 30 November 2009.

Financial Highlights

• Revenues for the 6 month period were £26.2m (H1 2009: £28.3 m)
• Adjusted operating profit of  £2.9m* (H1 2009: £4.3m*)
• Adjusted profit before tax £2.6m* (H1 2009: £3.7m*)
• Loss before tax of £0.6m (H1 2009: profit £1.3m) after £1.3m of exceptional items
• Adjusted basic earnings per share  7.0p* (H1 2009: 11.0p*)
• Net cash flow from operating activities was £3.4m (H1 2009: £1.7m)
• The Group had net debt of £13.5m at the end of the period  (H1 2009: £17.5m; 31 May 2009: £15.5m)
• Net interest costs in the period totalled £0.3m, covered 9.7 times by adjusted operating profit*
• Interim Dividend of 1p per share (H1 2009: 2p)
• 60% recurring revenue (H1 2009: 54%)

(*before amortisation of intangibles, share-based payments and exceptional charges)

Operational Highlights:

• 58  new clients won during the period (H1 2009: 40) and strong contract renewal rate
• 4 new Microsoft Dynamics AX migrations
• 7 Microsoft Dynamics AX projects reached a live status
• 110 cross business selling orders signed
• Over £6.5m of multi year Network Infrastructure and Communication Service contracts placed by two customers
• 18 new Virtualisation Contracts won
• More than £1m of Business Intelligence orders placed by major UK banks
• Former QAD customers continue to invest in other Maxima solutions and services

Commenting on the results, Graham Kingsmill, Maxima's Chief Executive, said:
 
“We're progressing with our plan to simplify and focus Maxima's organisational structure in order to deliver greater value for our customers.  Our increasingly focused approach is continuing to attract significant attention and support from the major technology providers, who are eager to gain access to Maxima’s substantial customer base.
 
Although trading in the period was down on the previous year, there are encouraging signs of recovery across many parts of the business.  Enquiries, pipeline and order intake are steadily improving, and contribution from new sales hires is starting to have a positive impact.  Overall, today's results and the outlook are consistent with expectations for the year as a whole." 

Enquiries:

Maxima
Graham Kingsmill, Chief Executive Officer - 01242 211211
David Memory, Chief Finance Officer  - 01242 211211

Cenkos Securities plc
Stephen Keys - 020 7397 8926

Smithfield
Reg Hoare/Will Henderson - 020 7360 4900

Director’s Report - Chairman’s Statement

I am pleased to report that excellent progress has been made in executing the strategy presented in Maxima’s 2009 Annual Report by our CEO, Graham Kingsmill.  The company’s plan is on track:  we have continued to invest in those areas where we have identified strong growth potential, and - in line with our strategy - have cut costs in other areas.

Adjusted revenues and profits reported for the first half-year are in line with expectations for the full year following updated guidance issued in October 2009 at the time of the announcement regarding the ending of Maxima's agreement with QAD.    The fall in revenues and profits principally reflects more challenging trading conditions in the IT sector as well as the cost of the investment we are making in growth opportunities.  An increased level of recurring revenues reflects the high priority we have given to broadening and deepening long-term relationships with our customers.  Net debt at 30 November 2009 was better than previous market expectations at £13.5m (30 November 2008: £17.5m; 31 May 2009: £15.5m), reflecting good cash conversion, and comfortably within our banking facilities and covenants.

Maxima continues its consistent policy of returning a proportion of operating profits to shareholders as a dividend, whilst continuing to pay down our debt and retain the headroom to finance investment and acquisitions.  On 31 March 2010 the company will pay an Interim Dividend of 1p per share (H1 2009: 2p) to shareholders on the register on 26 February 2010. 

Once again I should like to thank all of our staff for their continued loyalty and commitment during a time of significant change, particularly as the company works to align its cost base to meet new business priorities.
In summary, the new management team have settled in well, our new business propositions are already proving successful, and Maxima continues to benefit from a large and loyal client base.  I am confident that the changes we have made to the structure and focus of the business position us well for the future.

Kelvin Harrison
Chairman, 1 February 2010

Director’s Report - Chief Executive’s Review
Introduction:

For the six months ended 30 November 2009, Maxima has made good progress towards delivering on its strategic plan presented in August 2009, focusing particularly on areas of core competence where the company can respond best to the demands of key customers.  Our sales and marketing activity is now driven around three main engagement routes:

• IT life extension and managed migration services
• Industry-specific business solutions, and the up-selling of our infrastructure offering
• Sales, support and enablement services with selected technology partners

We differentiate ourselves from competitors by concentrating on a limited number of industry sectors where Maxima has historic knowledge and experience, and through the provision of both Business Solutions and Infrastructure Enablement Services that allow us to offer customers real choice and solutions that support a variable investment scale.

We have also accelerated our plans to align Maxima with the largest and most influential technology partners, taking advantage of demand from customers for the supply of ‘IT-as-a-Service’, and offering an approved and complementary portfolio of products and services that will make Maxima the preferred partner.  As a result, we have now combined a number of core Maxima specialities and competences to create four clear value creation opportunities:

• Virtualisation Services
• Network Infrastructure and Communications Services
• Business Intelligence professional services in the Financial Services industry
• Microsoft Dynamics AX/CRM  “As a Service” for Construction, Manufacturing and Services Industries

We’re already seeing this approach prove successful, with highlights including:

• Growth in Virtualisation Services, with major Citrix orders in both Ireland and the UK
• Securing two major multi-year communications service contracts valued at over £6.5 million
• Winning a number of contracts from major banks for projects relating to our specialist Business Intelligence industry expertise
• Successfully migrated an additional 7 clients onto Microsoft Dynamics AX, and signed 4 new legacy migration projects

Maxima has also focused on delivering a reliable performance, managing headcount, and taking significant steps to reduce costs.  Adopting a centralised shared services function has made a big contribution, as has renewed focus on credit control – allowing us to invest in key areas such as Marketing and Business Development staff and processes that will drive growth for the future.  We’re also working to unlock additional business opportunities through new initiatives, including leveraging our skills to support Cloud Computing*, and setting up new Maxima Competency Centres to drive sales of our specialist capabilities in four key areas.

Over the last six months we have continued to align Maxima staffing levels with our stated business goals.  This process has seen the recruitment of 47 new employees into the business, bringing new skills and experience to strengthen our defined areas of competence, while overall staff levels have reduced by 44 over the period.  We have also started to make greater use of Maxima’s facilities in India to provide more affordable 24x7 services, which is proving a critical part of delivering our ‘IT-as-a-Service’ proposition.  Maxima serves over 1,400 clients, primarily medium-sized UK-based organisations with a turnover of between £5m and £500m.  Increasingly larger organisations are also now contracting with Maxima, particularly in areas where we have unique skills and competencies.

Customer examples include:  Orange UK, Mars, AG Barr plc, The Murphy Group and Caledonian MacBrayne

*Cloud Computing is an IT delivery approach that provides utility-style, on-demand IT applications and services, hosted on a virtualised infrastructure, and typically delivered across the internet or corporate network on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Market Conditions:

Maxima is addressing challenging market conditions by implementing new opportunity management and qualification processes.  Focusing on better quality opportunities has helped deliver an increase in our win rate, and improved our ability to deliver stronger margins.  More recently, there have been encouraging signs that volumes are increasing, complementing the improved win rate.

There has been some reduction in day rates for consulting services compared to the same period last year, but by concentrating on the higher value specialist services, Maxima has successfully controlled the impact on margins.  Customers are more risk averse, taking longer on technology selection and negotiation for new systems, however Maxima has benefited from having a large installed base with customers who are more comfortable investing with a supplier they already know - rather than taking a risk with new suppliers.

Maxima is also seeing an increasing interest in ‘on-demand’, cloud-based services – a technology area where the company is well positioned to succeed thanks to our deep expertise in cloud infrastructure such as communications, data centres, storage and hosting, applications skills, and our proven Managed Services capability.  We’re particularly well placed to support customers looking to supplement their existing IT operations with cloud initiatives, however, although interest is growing, we will continue in the short term to provide a balance between conventional and ‘IT-as-a-Service’ delivery models.

As previously announced, on the 20thOctober 2009 the company was informed by QAD that they intended to end a long standing distribution partnership with Maxima, indicating that they were going to sell direct to customers rather than through Maxima.  Although this was disappointing news, it is encouraging that many of the customer relationships will be maintained as Maxima has been successful in cross-selling many other products and services unrelated to QAD.  Maxima takes pride in the customer relationships derived through the QAD product, which in many cases have been active for 10 years or more.  As a result of our good service reputation, we believe that many customers will remain loyal to the Maxima brand and will continue to invest in other business solutions and services offered by the company.

Operating Review:
The financial year started with the appointment in June 2009 of a reorganised operational management team reporting into me.  The team is divided into two parts, covering customer-centric sales and delivery teams as well as a central shared services operation.  The delivery teams are in turn divided into two groups, Business Solutions and Support Enablement Services, each accounting for approximately 50% of the business in terms of revenue and staff distribution.  The new team has bedded in well, with momentum picking up in August and performing well through to the end of the first half.  The recipe of new management combined with the entrepreneurial experience of existing management has worked well, supporting an improved level of success in cross selling contracts.  There has also been a greater emphasis placed on growing existing customers, working closely with key partners and winning new business.  Highlights include:

• Continuing to maintain the support of existing Managed Services customers who have renewed and extended services with Maxima – including two multi-year service contracts valued at over £6.5m which were part of a group of existing and new customer wins relating to our specialist Network Infrastructure and Communications capability
• Growth in Maxima’s virtualisation capability, including contracts with Dublin City Council and Towergate  – delivered by our Support Enablement Services team
• Concentrated efforts to drive the partnering relationship with Microsoft has paid dividends with 7 customers migrating to Microsoft’s Dynamics AX technology, and 4 new legacy migration contracts signed with organisations such as nPower
• New contracts placed by major banks wanting to access Maxima’s specialist domain expertise in Business Intelligence technology from SAP and Oracle
• Centralised Maxima shared service functions making a big contribution helping to minimise costs, recruit new skills and generate new opportunities
• Focused efforts in credit control resulting in a very pleasing level of cash collection, enabling net debt to be reduced ahead of expectation to £13.5m
• New investment in partner management has supported greater partner collaboration, resulting in new pipeline opportunities being generated and - very encouragingly - new orders being placed including one contract worth approximately £0.5m from IBM
• Investment in new marketing staff and management, enabling the roll-out of a re-branding programme, simplification of marketing messages and a refresh of all communications media

Maxima continues to have high visibility of future revenues with 60% recurring revenues from support and managed services in the period, high levels of repeat business and a good order book for project work.  We have a broad spread of clients across a number of industry sectors with a good mix of transaction values – all helping to ensure that our risk profile is manageable.  While the current economic climate has driven a small number of customers to either reduce or cancel services, we have had very few customers that have been forced out of business.  Maxima’s business strategy is to provide exemplary levels of customer service around market-leading solutions - leading to high levels of customer retention.  We have also adopted a policy of working closely with any customers who are experiencing trading difficulties, and this has resulted in any potential customer and financial losses being minimised.

Financial Results in Summary:

• Revenues for the 6 month period were £26.2m (H1 2009: £28.3 m)
• Adjusted operating profit of  £2.9m* (H1 2009: £4.3m*)
• Adjusted profit before tax £2.6m* (H1 2009: £3.7m*)
• Loss before tax of £0.6m (H1 2009: profit £1.3m) after £1.3m of exceptional items
• Adjusted basic earnings per share to 7.0p* (H1 2009: 11.0p*)
• Net cash flow from operating activities was £3.4m (H1 2009: £1.7m)
• The Group had net debt of £13.5m at the end of the period  (H1 2009: £17.5m; 31 May 2009: £15.5m)
• Net interest costs in the period totalled £0.3m, covered 9.7 times by adjusted operating profit*
• Interim Dividend of 1p per share (H1 2009: 2p)
• 60% recurring revenue (H1 2009: 54%)

(*before amortisation of intangibles, share-based payments and exceptional items)

Trading results:
Revenues for the half year to 30 November 2009 decreased from £28.2m to £26.2m, notwithstanding the £0.8m impact of 1 extra month of trading from DXI which was acquired on 1 July 2008.  The largest contributor to this is a decline in product revenues, whilst a smaller decline in consulting revenues was partly offset by an increase in recurring revenues.  Consulting and product sales have been lower in most areas, reflecting the general market conditions, though we have seen some improvement in consulting sales relating to Microsoft AX implementations.  Recurring revenues have also been strong, particularly in the Support Enablement Services Division and now account for 60% (H1 2009: 54%) of total revenue.  Gross margins have also declined from 69% to 68%, largely in the product sales, but also as we see some pressure on day rates for consulting compared to a year ago.

Administration expenses reduced by £0.3m to £14.9m.  The underlying reduction after allowing for the DXI acquisition was £0.7m with savings principally in people and property costs.  The reduced gross profit described above, less the effect of the reduction in administration expenses gives rise to a reduced earnings before interest, tax, amortisation, share based payments and redundancy and re-organisation costs of £2.9m compared to £4.3m for the first six months of last year.  Amortisation of intangibles was £1.8m (H1 2009: £2.0m), a reduction that reflects the fact that intangible assets valued on the acquisitions of 3Net and Centric have now been fully amortised.

(Loss)/Earnings per share and dividends
Basic loss per share was 2.2p (H1 2009: earnings 3.9p).  Adjusted earnings per share, before amortisation, share based payments and exceptional redundancy and reorganisation costs, fell to 7.0p (H1 2009: 11.0p). An interim dividend of 1.0p per share will be paid on 31 March 2010, to shareholders on the register at close of business on 26 February 2010.

Cashflow and net debt
In the 6 months, the Group generated £3.4m of cash from operations, against £1.7m last year. This reflects stronger cash collection and net debt consequently reduced to £13.5m, down from £15.5m at 31 May 2009.

The Group finances its operations through a mixture of cash generation and related retained profit, and a mix of medium and long term bank facilities with Barclays Bank plc, to ensure that sufficient liquidity is available to meet its foreseeable funding requirements.  The Group’s facilities are floating rate and it uses interest rate instruments to hedge its interest rate risk on borrowing where appropriate.  The Group had committed borrowing facilities of £18.25m at 30 November 2009, comprising a £3.5m term loan facility, repayable in seven instalments until 31 May 2013, a £13.75m revolving credit facility repayable by 31 May 2013 and a £1.0m overdraft facility.  £15.3m was drawn under these facilities at the year end.  Cash balances at the year end were £1.9m, which allows £4.8m of headroom.  At 31 May 2009, £4.0m of the group’s interest rate risk was hedged for the period to 30 June 2010 and a further £4.0m was hedged for the period to 30 November 2011.

Outlook:
The last period has been one of considerable change for Maxima, as the business adjusts and adapts its operating activities to an evolving business climate.  At the core of Maxima is a loyal and committed customer base, which we’re pleased to say has continued to invest its trust and money in the combined skill, knowledge and experience of Maxima staff, and our vision for the future.

I believe that the work we have done in focussing on our core competences means we have an excellent platform from which we can take advantage of future opportunities and there are encouraging signs of recovery across many parts of the business.  Enquiries, pipeline and order intake are steadily improving, and contribution from new sales hires is starting to have a positive impact.  Overall, progress has been made across Maxima and we are excited by the prospects for the Company. 

Graham Kingsmill
Chief Executive Officer, 1 February 2010

Independent Review Report to Maxima Holdings plc

Introduction
We have been engaged by the company to review the financial information in the half-yearly financial report for the six months ended 30 November 2009 which comprises the consolidated interim income statement, consolidated interim statement of comprehensive income, consolidated interim balance sheet, consolidated interim statement of changes in equity, consolidated interim cash flow statement and notes 1 to 8 to the interim financial statement.  We have read the other information contained in the half-yearly financial report which comprises only the highlights and the Director’s Report and considered whether it contains any apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with the information in the condensed set of financial statements. 

This report is made solely to the company in accordance with guidance contained in ISRE (UK and Ireland) 2410, 'Review of Interim Financial Information performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity'.  Our review work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company those matters we are required to state to them in a review report and for no other purpose.  To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company, for our review work, for this report, or for the conclusion we have formed.

Directors' responsibilities
The half-yearly financial report is the responsibility of, and has been approved by, the directors.  The AIM rules of the London Stock Exchange require that the accounting policies and presentation applied to the financial information in the half-yearly financial report are consistent with those which will be adopted in the annual accounts having regard to the accounting standards applicable for such accounts.

As disclosed in Note 1, the annual financial statements of the group are prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union.  The financial information in the half-yearly financial report has been prepared in accordance with the basis of preparation in Note 1.

Our responsibility
Our responsibility is to express to the company a conclusion on the financial information in the half-yearly financial report based on our review. 

Scope of review
We conducted our review in accordance with International Standard on Review Engagements (UK and Ireland) 2410, 'Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity' issued by the Auditing Practices Board for use in the United Kingdom.  A review of interim financial information consists of making enquiries, primarily of persons responsible for financial and accounting matters, and applying analytical and other review procedures.  A review is substantially less in scope than an audit conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) and consequently does not enable us to obtain assurance that we would become aware of all significant matters that might be identified in an audit.  Accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion. 

Conclusion
Based on our review, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the financial information in the half-yearly financial report for the six months ended 30 November 2009 is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the basis of preparation described in Note 1. 

GRANT THORNTON UK LLP
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS
GLASGOW
1 February 2010

The maintenance and integrity of the Maxima Holdings plc website is the responsibility of the Directors: the interim review does not involve consideration of these matters and, accordingly, the company's reporting accountants accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the interim report since it was initially presented on the website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of the interim report differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Click here for full Interim Results for the six months ended 30 November 2009 

Tyco Electronics’ AMP NETCONNECT network cabling system provides high-performance communications for Fidessa’s new data centre with design and installation from Maxima.

London, 18th December 2009 - An advanced network cabling system from the AMP NETCONNECT business unit of Tyco Electronics forms the heart of the internal communications system at a new data centre for Fidessa group plc, a major international supplier of financial markets trading solutions.

The system, designed and installed by Maxima, an approved AMP NETCONNECT partner, includes both Category 6 UTP (unshielded twisted pair) copper and OM3 multimode 50/125 fibre-optic cabling, and is housed in a new purpose-built facility known as Sentrum IV on the outskirts of Woking, Surrey.

Fidessa group plc is a leading supplier of multi-asset trading, portfolio analysis, decision support, compliance, market data and connectivity solutions for firms involved in trading the world’s financial markets. Headquartered in London and with regional operations across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East, Fidessa supports over 24,000 users across 730 clients, serving a broad spectrum of customers from major investment banks and asset managers through to specialist niche brokers and hedge funds.

The nature of the company’s business means that its data-centre capabilities and the associated communications infrastructure are of vital importance, and the Sentrum IV facility is the latest and most advanced of these centres. In selecting the main contractor for the new centre, it was natural that Fidessa should turn to Maxima, who have worked with Fidessa over a number of years – most recently on the company’s GS2 data centre in London.

“The Maxima team has detailed knowledge of our requirements and the design and installation practices that we expect from our suppliers”, comments Mark Brewer, Production Services Manager at Fidessa: “Not only do they ensure that project installations always run smoothly: they are also willing and able to offer innovative solutions that relate specifically to the needs of our industry.”

One of the specific requirements for the Sentrum IV data centre relates to the fact that Fidessa will use it as a showcase facility for existing and potential clients. This meant that the ‘public’ areas needed to be as clean and tidy as possible, with any cabling hidden away beneath floors or in purpose-designed cabinets. Maxima designed the sub-floor cable support system to ensure that cable capacity was not compromised.

The installation proposed and implemented by Maxima includes a total of 125 APC server, communications and switch cabinets incorporating 250 intelligent power units, along with sixteen AMP NETCONNECT cross-connect central patch frames. The fully ISO/IEC 11801 compliant Category 6 copper and OM3 fibre cabling system includes over 9500 Category 6 AMP SL connections and over 6300 OM3 LC AMP connections.

The system carries Tyco Electronics’ 25-year warranty, which will allow Fidessa to accommodate the growing bandwidth needs of IP convergence, reduce expenses associated with download, upload and backup time, and reduce costs associated with future upgrades.

An important feature of the installation is the use of the recently introduced AMP NETCONNECT Hi-D (high-density) network cabling system to provide a centralised high-density cross-connect patching system. The Hi-D network cabling system is positioned at the heart of the data-centre facility to allow for all the server, communications and switch cabinets to connect with the copper and fibre cabling through a centrally located cross-connect facility.

The Class E/Category 6 UTP copper cabling system uses low-smoke zero-halogen sheathing, along with 24-port Hi-D angled patch panels with SL jacks to provide full RJ45 connectivity. To provide a degree of resilience, copper cabling is routed from each panel in groups of 12 cables and follows diverse cable routes. The copper cabling is housed in a containment system under a false floor. The use of pre-manufactured Tyco Electronics harness assemblies between the network switch cabinets and the Hi-D angled patch panels is an important factor in ensuring warranty compliance.

The OM3 fibre cabling system also uses low-smoke zero-halogen sheathing, and takes the form of individual 12- or 24-core cables linking 24- or 12-way duplex panels. As with the copper cabling, the fibre cables are diversely routed between cabinets.     

Commenting on the successful completion of the Fidessa project, Barry Silverman, Maxima’s Cabling Business Unit Manager within Support & Enablement Services, said: “At Maxima, we pride ourselves on being an approved, experienced and responsive network integrator, and we are always seeking to achieve the most resilient and cost-effective solutions for our clients. By partnering with the AMP NETCONNECT business unit of Tyco Electronics, we have been able to offer Fidessa the optimum combination of a high-quality infrastructure backed by Tyco Electronics’ powerful warranty and our own high level of support.”

Maxima are Certified in CASP Program to Support Crossbeam Customers in the UK

BOXBOROUGH, Mass. – November 4, 2009 – Crossbeam Systems, Inc., the leading provider of next-generation security platforms for high-performance networks, today announced that it has expanded its ecosystem of strategic partners with the addition of Maxima to its Crossbeam Accredited Service Provider (CASP) program. CASP is an invitation-only program consisting of global partners who have been qualified and certified to sell Crossbeam solutions and provide professional services, training and technical support. Maxima have joined as a CASP-Support partner, providing 24-hour technical and local language support, as well as advanced remediation to customers in their respective countries.

Maxima are a key addition to the CASP program in Europe, providing on-the-ground support to Crossbeam customers in the UK and Portugal,” said Keyur Patel, director of Worldwide Technical Support for Crossbeam. “Their commitment to obtaining CASP certification, along with their established reputations as leading IT systems solutions providers, will help ensure that customers continue to receive the highest standard of service excellence.”

Based in UK with more than 1,400 customers worldwide, Maxima is a specialist in IT business systems and managed services, helping its customers to plan, build, support and manage their IT infrastructures. 

“One of the reasons customers turn to Maxima is our level of expertise and broad portfolio of IT infrastructure, support and managed services,” said Stuart Brown, business development manager at Maxima. “Crossbeam’s X-Series security platform is a key offering within our security practice. The CASP program enhances our ability to deliver the superior levels of technical support that customers demand for their security infrastructure.”

Crossbeam’s X-Series security platform virtualizes best-in-class security applications on a scalable, carrier-class chassis. Companies with high-performance networks deploy the X-Series to consolidate security infrastructure without compromising extreme throughput or reliability. Because the X-Series is capable of collapsing entire multi-vendor network segments onto a single device, it delivers the lowest total cost of ownership among competing security solutions. For more information on Crossbeam’s innovative X-Series platform, please visit http://www.crossbeam.com/products/x-series.php.

About Crossbeam
Crossbeam Systems, Inc. transforms the way enterprises, service providers and government agencies architect and deliver security services. The basis of Crossbeam’s solution is its Next Generation Security Platform, a highly scalable software and hardware platform that facilitates the consolidation, virtualization and simplification of security services delivery, while preserving the customers’ choice of best-of-breed security applications. Crossbeam offers the only security platform that delivers unparalleled network performance, scalability, adaptability and resiliency. Customers choose Crossbeam to intelligently manage risk, accelerate and maintain compliance, and protect their businesses from evolving threats. Crossbeam is headquartered in Boxborough, Mass., and has offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. More information is available at www.crossbeam.com.

Embargoed until 0700, 24 September 2009

Maxima Holdings plc, the IT business systems and managed services company.

At the Annual General Meeting of Maxima Holdings plc (AIM: MXM) to be held at the Company's offices at Cotswold Court, Lansdown Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2JA at noon today, the Chairman Kelvin Harrison will update shareholders on current trading as follows:

"I am pleased to report that the new management team has settled in well and our plan to give Maxima greater focus on core areas of strength is already showing promising signs of success. The month of August produced the highest monthly sales bookings so far in 2009 confirming our belief that trading remains consistent with market expectations for the full year. We have increased our efforts in cash collection which is supporting the board's cash flow and net debt expectations for the full year. As part of our plan to simplify Maxima we have sold a small part of our communications service business, which was non-core to our support enablement services practice, while further activity to rationalise non core functions within the business is on-going.

"Contracts with new customers have improved compared with the same period last year with first-time orders for Maxima solutions and services from 31 new customers. Enhancing our annuity revenue, a total of 26 multi-year contracts were completed and there were 49 examples of cross selling where existing customers made purchases from Maxima's wider solution and service enablement portfolio.

"We have continued to drive for improvement in service and solution delivery. Some customers have experienced difficulty as a result of the economic downturn and we do all we can to assist them through the provision of a more cost effective IT service delivery. Other customers are enjoying greater success: AG Barr, the FTSE 250 Scottish based soft drinks manufacturer and distributor, signed a major contract with Maxima in August to migrate their existing MFG/PRO ERP business system to QAD Enterprise Applications 2009. This is designed to equip manufacturing companies with robust financial capabilities, supply chain management, enterprise asset management, and transportation and logistics management. Although we continue to invest heavily in sales and marketing at this time, Maxima will continue to put customer value and quality at the top of our agenda."

A further update on current trading will be issued following Maxima’s half year ending 30 November 2009.

For further information please contact:

Maxima
Graham Kingsmill, Chief Executive Officer 01242 211 211
David Memory, Chief Financial Officer 01242 211 211

Cenkos (Nominated advisor to the Company)
Stephen Keys 020 7397 8900

Smithfield
Tania Wild / Reg Hoare 020 7360 4900

Press Release - 3rd September 2009

AG Barr, the FTSE 250 listed plc, Scottish based soft drinks manufacturer and distributor who are enjoying unprecedented success have signed a contract with their IT partner Maxima www.maxima.co.uk to upgrade their existing MFG/PRO ERP business system to QAD Enterprise Applications 2009 in order to form a strategic IT pillar alongside their earlier investment in Siebel CRM and the Oracle based Swisslog Automatic Storage & Retrieval warehousing system.  In parallel QAD's Trade Management solution will be implemented.

Competition for retail floor space is intense; making it extremely difficult for UK based manufacturers to compete with the perceived global manufacturers. Major retailers are using their tremendous buying and IT power to squeeze out higher margins and extract the maximum benefit from expected trade funds received.

To further complicate matters, the introduction of IFRS regulations has placed even greater reporting and tracking requirements on all areas of the business, including pressure on the Sales and Finance areas to implement tighter control of Trade Management processes. These need to be automated, easily audited, and well documented.

QAD Trade Management (QAD TrM) allows manufacturers and distributors to more effectively plan, manage and track trade (promotional) spending activities. QAD TrM provides the information to analyse and monitor promotional programs, track revenue and costs, compare them to budget and last year, track sales by customers and products, plus process and track claims and rebates.

QAD Enterprise Applications 2009 is the latest version of QAD's elegant ERP software. QAD 2009 is a comprehensive fully integrated end-to-end solution designed to equip manufacturing companies with robust financial capabilities, supply chain management, enterprise asset management, and transportation and logistics management. QAD 2009 enables corporate excellence; strong enough for the global enterprise, yet flexible enough for small- and medium-sized companies

Embargoed until 0700

4 August 2009

Maxima Holdings plc (“Maxima” or the “Group”)

Maxima Holdings plc (AIM: MXM), the IT business systems and managed services company, today announces its preliminary results for the year ended 31 May 2009.

Financial Summary

• Results in line with revised market expectations
• Revenues up 21% to £56.6m (2008: £46.7m)
• Recurring revenues remain strong at 56% (2008: 52%)
• Adjusted* profit before tax £7.1m (2008: £8.9m)
• Loss before tax £9.6m (2008: profit £5.2m) includes the impact of exceptional items
  and goodwill impairment
• Adjusted* earnings per share 21.2p (2008: 26.3p); basic loss per share 36.8p
  (2008: earnings 15.1p).
• Proposed final dividend of 2.5p (2008: 3.6p); total dividend of 4.5p (2008: 5.6p) – in line with policy to pay out a proportion of operating profit to shareholders as dividends
• Net debt at 31 May 2009 of £15.5m (2008: £8.6m) following £8.5m net cash outflow on acquisition of DXI in June 2008
  *before amortisation, impairment, share based payments, exceptional costs and fair value charges.

Operational Summary

• DXI Networks Ltd acquired 2nd July 2008 and subsequently integrated
• 87 new clients won, spread across the business and industry sectors
• Important Board changes in April 2009:
  – Appointment of Graham Kingsmill as Chief Executive
  – Appointment of David Memory as Chief Finance Officer
  – Kelvin Harrison appointed Chairman
• Growth in recurring revenues to 56% (2008: 52%) of total revenue
• Major contract extensions at DVLA, Orange and a major UK bank
• Secured the 2nd largest Citrix Xen Desktop virtualisation implementation in Europe

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima’s Chairman said: “This has been a year of major change for Maxima, against a backdrop of difficult market conditions, however we have continued to deliver strong operating profit margins. I am confident that the changes in business focus, direction and organisation introduced by the new CEO Graham Kingsmill, position us well for sustained organic growth.”

An analyst presentation will be held at 9:30 this morning at the offices of Smithfield Consultants, 10 Aldersgate Street, London EC1A 4HJ

For the full results PDF click here

Investor Presentation - Preliminary results -  August 4th 2009

For further information please contact:

Maxima
Graham Kingsmill, Chief Executive 01242 211211
David Memory, Chief Finance Officer 01242 211211

Cenkos
Nominated Advisor to the Company - Stephen Keys/Adrian Hargrave 020 7397 8900

Smithfield
Tania Wild / Reg Hoare / Will Henderson 020 7360 4900

London, England -Maxima Holdings plc (AIM:MXM), the IT solutions and managed services business, has announced their support of The Prince’s Trust through membership of the Technology Leadership Group.

The Technology Leadership Group (TLG) is a unique fundraising and networking forum for leading companies in the TMT sector. TLG patrons include Accenture, Ernst & Young, Fujitsu, Microsoft and Oracle.

The group has raised £7.5 million since 2002, helping thousands of disadvantaged young people start-up in business.

Maxima will be a prominent member of the charity’s Technology Leadership Group to provide its knowledge and expertise to develop the country’s next generation of technology entrepreneurs.  

Kelvin Harrison, CEO for Maxima said: “A key aim for Maxima s to provide the UK’s underprivileged young people with the education, training and skills to build successful careers within the technology field. The Prince’s Trust has an important role in helping young people to reach their full potential and we are delighted to be involved in its Business Programme. We hope that the active involvement of our people will have a strong impact on making the charity’s youth programmes even more successful.”

About The Prince’s Trust

Youth charity The Prince’s Trust, helps change young lives in the UK. It gives practical and financial support, developing skills such as confidence and motivation. It works with 14-30 year olds who have struggled at school, have been in care, are long-term unemployed or have been in trouble with the law. In 30 years, The Prince of Wales’s charity has helped over half a million young people and continues to support 100 more every working day.

Part of The Prince’s Trust, the Technology Leadership Group is a unique high-level networking forum, which brings together leaders from the UK technology industry to help young people transform their lives through enterprise

For more information on The Prince’s Trust Technology Leadership Group’s activities, events and how your business can get involved, visit www.princes-trust.org.uk/technology or call The Prince’s Trust on 020 7543 1356.

For media information please contact Annabel Kirk, PR Manager, The Prince’s Trust – 0207 543 1318

 

 

17 March 2009

Maxima Holdings plc ("Maxima" or the "Company") Birmingham Investor Day

On 19 March 2009, Maxima will be presenting at a Growing Companies Investor Day in Birmingham.  This is the first in a series of events being arranged around the country by The London Stock Exchange to bring together senior management of listed and quoted companies with private client stockbrokers, wealth managers and regional pension funds.

On the day, Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive of Maxima will be presenting the Company's strategy and future growth opportunities. No new information will be divulged.

Details of the events can be found by clicking here

For further information, please contact:

Maxima - Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive - 01242 211211
John Taylor, Group Finance Director - 0141 880 1000
Cenkos - Stephen Keys/Adrian Hargrave - 020 7397 8900
Smithfield - Reg Hoare / Tania Wild / Will Henderson - 020 7360 4900

Wednesday 25th February 2009, Maxima were presented with the prestigious QAD Award - "Partner of the Year" (for financial year ending 31st January 2009) by Pam Lopker, President and Founder of QAD Inc. at QAD's Annual Sales Conference in Santa Barbara, California.

The award reflected a strong year for Maxima with regards to QAD license revenue; FY09's performance eclipsed the record 2008 input despite fierce competition from other partners such as Sopra.

The coveted prize was received by Charles Harrigan - Divisional Director, Maxima Information Group during a formal dinner at the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort; he said, "in the current economic market Maxima has stepped right up to the mark in what is a very competitive ERP space; Maxima's continued investment in only the very best people manifests itself in being viewed by their customers as more than just software and services suppliers but that of Trusted Advisor.   I am extremely proud to accept this award on behalf of our dedicated consultants, programmers, analysts, support, sales and admin folks, without whom this achievment would be impossible".

Theale, UK – 2nd March 2009

Maxima today announced that it was nominated in the Oracle IBM Partner of the year category of the 2009 Oracle UK Partner Awards ceremony.

Oracle judges recognised Maxima’s success in delivering innovative solutions and achieving strong customer success supporting Oracle technologies, applications and middleware through their managed services division.

Alan Hartwell, Vice President. Technology Solutions and Channels, Oracle UK said: Maxima has demonstrated innovative solutions and is a great example of a company that has thought outside the box to bring true business value for customers. The Oracle Partner Network strives to provide support, services and expertise that help our partners succeed and Maxima has leveraged these elements to accelerate their business. We are proud to be involved with Maxima and wish them the greatest success for the future.”

About the Oracle PartnerNetwork
Oracle PartnerNetwork is a global business network of more than 20,000 companies who deliver innovative software solutions based on Oracle software. Through access to Oracle’s premier products, education, technical services, marketing and sales support, the Oracle PartnerNetwork program provides partners with the resources they need to be successful in today’s global economy. Oracle partners are able to offer to their customers, leading-edge solutions backed by Oracle’s position as the world’s largest enterprise software company. Partners who are able to demonstrate superior product knowledge, technical expertise and a commitment to doing business with Oracle can qualify for the Oracle Certified Partner levels. http://oraclepartnernetwork.oracle.com

About Oracle
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world’s largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.

We’re deadly serious about SMEs: Stephen Read

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor SAP has announced the appointment of Stephen Read as its new director of SME for the UK and Ireland. Read will be responsible for managing a team covering the SAP Business ByDesign, SAP Business All-in-One and SAP Business One platforms.http://enterpriseapplications.cbronline.com/news/sap_appoints_new_uk_sme_director_190209

SAP UK: We Can Serve SMEs 'Just as Well as Large Firms’
 
Computerworld, UK - 02/20/2009
SAP can serve SMBs as well as it can large firms, said Stephen Read, the new SME director at SAP UK and Ireland. While SAP is still often known as a company that serves large enterprises, Read denied it had to call on that experience to serve its SME customers. “Our knowledge is from our work with both small and large enterprises,” he said. This was aided by many of the challenges SMEs faced reflecting those of large businesses, he added. “Take a wholesaler that’s turning over £100 million (€111.6 million) and one that’s making £2 billion (€2.2 billion). Essentially the main difference between them is the amount of goods they sell. But they still both face the same challenges when it comes to developing supply chain intelligence.” Nevertheless, Read admitted there could be a reputation problem for SAP among smaller businesses, caused by its well-documented presence in large firms. “To an extent, we’re a victim of our own success among large businesses,” he said. “But we’re extremely relevant for small to medium businesses.”.... Click here for the full article Computerworld, UK

Maxima Holdings plc (‘Maxima’ or the ‘Company’)

Maxima Holdings plc (AIM: MXM), the integrated IT Solutions and managed services business, is pleased to announce its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 November 2008.

Financial Highlights:

• Revenues up 34% to £28.3 million (H1 2008: £21.1 million), with good like for like organic growth
• Recurring revenues represent 54% of total revenues
• Adjusted operating profit* up 8% to £4.3 million (H1 2008: £4.0 million)
• Profit before tax of £1.3 million (H1 2008: £2.0 million)
• Adjusted* profit before tax of £3.7 million (H1 2008: £3.6 million)
• Adjusted*, fully diluted earnings per share up 7% to 10.9p (H1 2008: 10.2p)
• Dividend of 2p per share (H1 2008: 2p)
• Net debt at 30 November 2008 of £17.3 million (30 November 2007 £9.3 million)
  (there was a £11.2 million net cash outflow on acquisitions between 30 November 2007 and 30 November 2008)

*pre-amortisation of intangibles, share based payments and exceptional charges

Operational Highlights:

• 40 new clients won across our diverse range of sectors during the period (H1 2008: 35) and strong contract renewal rate
• 7 clients now live with Microsoft Dynamics AX solution for the construction and facilities management sector
• Acquisition in July 2008 of DXI Networks Ltd, Infrastructure Managed Services provider
• Opening in October 2008 of a new purpose-built 24x7 integrated network operations and customer support centre in Great Leighs, Essex
• Invested in strengthening management, having cut staff and property costs to realise efficiency savings

Commenting on the results, Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive, said:

“The business has always exhibited seasonality, resulting in a stronger second half; this trend is expected to continue.  We also expect net debt  to fall in the second half. We have experienced an increased level of caution in our markets and given the macro-economic conditions, it is prudent to expect this to continue. 

“We remain confident that the diversity and spread of our offerings and client base, together with our strong operational management and sales organisation, position us resiliently in a difficult market.  Our high levels of recurring revenues and cash conversion give us the robust financial foundations from which to continue to deliver against our goals.”

Enquiries:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive - 01242 211211
John Taylor, Group Finance Director - 0141 880 1000
Cenkos Securities plc - Stephen Keys/Max Hartley - 020 7397 8926
Smithfield - Tania Wild/Reg Hoare - 020 7360 4900

Notes to editors:

Interim results for the six months ended 30 November 2008

Directors Report - Chairman’s Statement
 
I am pleased to report good interim results.  Maxima responded well as market conditions continued to toughen over the period.  Revenues, adjusted operating profits* and adjusted fully diluted earnings per share* were ahead of the prior year.  Cash collection was good with net debt in line with plans at 30 November 2008; debt is falling and this trend is expected to continue in the second half.  The Company’s principal loans are committed until 2013 and interest cover is strong.

Like-for-like organic growth continues as Maxima realises the benefits of integration of its carefully selected acquisitions.  Early in the period we acquired DXI Networks Ltd, a specialist network managed services provider, which has been integrated with our existing infrastructure managed service business.  We have refocused our value propositions to demonstrate to clients how we can bring a rapid return on investment, reduced operating costs and increased service levels.  Whilst we have invested in strengthening management, we have cut other staff and property costs to realise efficiency savings across the group. 

Maxima has a declared policy of returning a proportion of operating profits to shareholders as a dividend, whilst prudently conserving cash to finance acquisitions and investment.  I am pleased to announce that in line with this policy an interim dividend of 2.0p per share (H1 2008: 2.0p) will be paid on 13 May 2009 to shareholders on the register on 14 April 2009.

The business has always exhibited seasonality, resulting in a stronger second half; this trend is expected to continue.  As announced in the trading update issued on 15 December 2008, we have experienced an increased level of caution in our markets and given the macro-economic conditions, it is prudent to expect this to continue. 

In summary, we remain confident that the diversity and spread of our offerings and client base, together with our strong operational management and sales organisation, position us resiliently in a difficult market.   Our re-focused value propositions meet our clients’ current needs, but also place us well for when conditions begin to recover.  Our high levels of recurring revenues and cash conversion also give us the robust financial foundations from which to continue to deliver against our goals.

* pre amortisation of intangibles, share-based payments and exceptional charges

Michael J Brooke, Chairman, 2 February 2009

Directors Report - Chief Executive’s Review

Introduction
Maxima has continued to drive its strategy of organic and acquisitive growth and despite difficult market conditions has once again delivered good results.  It is more than two years since we completed our portfolio of offerings and we now enjoy the benefits of both breadth and scale.  We offer IT solutions and managed services across the three main sectors of the software industry: Information Management, Business Applications and Systems Infrastructure.  We continue to be alert to the evolving needs of our clients in each of the industry sectors in which we operate:

• Manufacturing & distribution (40%)
• Public sector & utilities (19%)
• Service industries/other (16%)
• Financial services & insurance (15%)
• Construction & facilities management (10%)

We now have almost 500 staff operating from eight offices across the UK, plus one in Ireland and one in India.  We serve well over 1,000 clients, primarily medium-sized UK-based organisations with turnover of between £5m and £500m, with whom we have a cultural affinity. Critically, our support services are provided on a fully staffed 24x7 basis supporting client sites around the clock and around the globe, principally from our new purpose-built network operations and support centre in Great Leighs, Essex. 

I am particularly pleased that senior appointments made over the course of the last two years have facilitated process improvements and tightened integration of our businesses across the sales, delivery and administrative functions. All the above factors, together with the benefits of scale that we now enjoy, have positioned us well to cope with the current recession.

Market Conditions
Surprisingly given that the UK economy has now entered a recession, industry analysts Ovum continue to forecast growth in the UK Software and IT Services markets in the UK in 2009.  They are predicting a softening of growth in the £8 billion UK IT project services market in 2009 to 2.9% (2008: 3.8%) and in the £5.4 billion UK software market to 4% (2008: 4.9%).  Within the software market, Information Management is predicted to grow at 5.5%, Business Applications at 3.5% and Systems Infrastructure at 4%.  We believe that these forecasts may prove to be optimistic, as were their forecasts for 2008.   (Source: Ovum Market Trends January 2009). 

Merger and acquisition activity in the technology sector fell steeply in the final quarter of 2008.  Valuations fell throughout 2008 reflecting stock market trends.  2009 activity levels are expected to be considerably lower than 2008 and characterised by increasing numbers of divestments by larger corporates. (Source: Regent Associates Annual Review of European Technology Acquisitions: January 2009).

Maxima’s estimated market share remains at less than 1%, whilst financially weaker competitors are being undermined by the onset of recession, both of which factors provide a significant opportunity for us. Our total new client opportunities and gross pipeline value has increased substantially during the period but macro-economic conditions are leading to lengthening sales cycles, notably with some delays in decision making on some of the larger opportunities. Inevitably price competition has also heightened.   We therefore remain wary about the negative impact of market conditions on our business.

Operating Review
Our objective is to foresee and direct our resources to match these market conditions.  This being in terms of:
a) R & D investment: core development of an enterprise software solution for the construction and facilities management sector based upon Microsoft’s flagship Dynamics AX technology was completed during the period and Microsoft accreditation was achieved.  The solution was formally launched in June 2008 and seven clients are now running the system live, with excellent user feedback.   In Information Management we continue to invest in and build our Microsoft Sharepoint business and have launched a Compliance Portal which combines Sharepoint technology with some of our established proprietary document management products; two sales of this solution have so far been achieved.
b) Marketing and Sales: we operate with a single fully integrated marketing and sales team.  Efforts during the period have concentrated on focusing our value propositions on today’s business issues which has resulted in increased cross-sales of our solutions and services into our large and diverse client base. 
c) Efficiency of Delivery: we continue to build our skills base by a combination of cross-training and specialist recruitment.  In particular we have been investing in extending our skills in enterprise resource planning (Microsoft Dynamics AX), collaboration and content management (Microsoft SharePoint) and virtualisation (VMware and Citrix Xen).  At the same time we have proactively reduced costs by consolidating several of our smaller offices and managing out under-performing staff.
d) M & A: the number of acquisition opportunities available at realistic prices has begun to dwindle in recent months.  However, we anticipate an increasing flow of divestments and distressed sales in the coming months and will engage where we find opportunities to create significant shareholder value with low levels of risk.

Maxima continues to have high visibility of future revenues with 54% recurring revenues from support and managed services in the period, high levels of repeat business and a good order book for project work.  We have a broad spread of clients by both sector and scale of revenues, ensuring our risk profile is manageable with no significant individual exposures.  We have a low dependence on hardware and software license revenues (18% of amounts invoiced in the period).  Also, as a result of cross-training we are able to flex our labour force in response to evolving market opportunities in order to keep up utilisation levels and hence profitability.

Our two operating divisions, Maxima Solutions and Maxima Managed Services, have both grown organically on a like-for-like basis, winning significant new clients.  They operate common processes, share central support functions and cooperate closely with each other in delivery.  Our ability to offer integrated solutions and services across the technology spectrum is attractive to our clients as it reduces the burden on their in-house IT teams, who are often over-stretched.

Maxima Solutions embraces our Information Management and Business Solutions practices and won 14 new clients during the period:
In Information Management we have strengthened our partnership with Business Objects, the leading Business Intelligence software vendor now owned by SAP.   We have had successful projects in both the public and private sectors, notably an information warehouse and dashboard project delivered to The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration providing visibility on youth offending in support of initiatives by the Scottish Government to reduce youth crime and re-offending.
In Business Solutions we supply solutions based upon technology from leading vendors such as QAD, SAP and Microsoft.   We were once again honoured as QAD’s “Partner of the Year” in recognition of having the highest sales of their software and have recently had major new implementations and upgrades with clients such as Ryvita/Jordans Cereals, Michell Instruments and Acheson Industries.  We also continue to achieve substantial repeat business from the many clients who run their businesses using our “own brand” enterprise software products.

Maxima Managed Services won 26 new clients during the period across the private and public sectors in the UK and Ireland, as well as high levels of contract renewals, including some multi-year contracts.  The Business Applications support team has had continued success with both Oracle and IBM mainframe technologies.  The Systems Infrastructure project and support teams benefitted from the integration of the skilled staff and facilities of DXI Networks Ltd, which was acquired in July 2008.  Major new projects include a 3-year contract to integrate and support the E-commerce trading platform of Towergate Insurance Ltd.  We continue to augment our Software as a Service (SaaS) capabilities and a major supplier of alternative energy systems has extended the scope of their SaaS contract with Maxima.

Fundamental to Maxima’s business strategy is to provide exemplary levels of customer service around market-leading solutions, leading to high customer retention.  In both operating divisions, rates of client attrition continue to be very low and comparable with previous years.  It is the skills, experience and flexibility of our staff that drive this and once again, we should like to thank them for their hard work and commitment.

Financial Results in Summary
The Group has continued to trade well, with revenues, profits and earnings per share all up on the first half of the prior year.   Seasonality has historically resulted in a stronger second half-year and this trend is expected to continue.

• Revenues for the 6 month period have risen 34% to £28.3m (H1 2008: £21.1 m), with good like for like organic growth.
• Gross profit increased 27% to £19.6m (H1 2008: £15.4m) (This is driven by the mix of business)
• Adjusted operating profit increased by 8% to £4.3m* (H1 2008: £4.0m*).  (The reduction in operating margin is attributable to three factors: the investment in senior management, the reduced margins historically achieved in the former DXI and the general tightening of margins caused by the recession)
• Utilisation amongst fee-earning staff remained strong at 81% (H1 2008: 76%). 
• Profit before tax of £1.3m (H1 2008: £2.0m)
• Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share increased by 7% to 10.9p* (H1 2008: 10.2p*)
• Operating cash flow was £2.4m** (H1 2008: £2.1m)
• Operating cash conversion of 56% (H1 2008: 53%)
• The Group had net debt of £17.3m at the end of the period, having spent £8.4m net to finance the acquisition of DXI Networks Ltd in July 2008
• Net interest costs in the period totalled £0.6m, covered 6.7 times by operating profit*

(*before amortisation of intangibles, share-based payments and exceptional charges)
(** net cash flow from operating activities before tax, after capital expenditure)

Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive Officer , 2 February 2009
 
Independent Review Report to Maxima Holdings plc

Introduction
We have been engaged by the company to review the financial information in the half-yearly financial report for the six months ended 30 November 2008 which comprises the consolidated interim income statement, consolidated interim statement of recognised income and expenditure, consolidated interim balance sheet, consolidated interim cash flow statement and notes 1 to 8 to the interim financial statement.  We have read the other information contained in the half-yearly financial report which comprises only the highlights and the Directors Report and considered whether it contains any apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with the information in the condensed set of financial statements. 

This report is made solely to the company in accordance with guidance contained in ISRE (UK and Ireland) 2410, 'Review of Interim Financial Information performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity'.  Our review work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company those matters we are required to state to them in a review report and for no other purpose.  To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company, for our review work, for this report, or for the conclusion we have formed.

Directors' responsibilities
The half-yearly financial report is the responsibility of, and has been approved by, the directors.  The AIM rules of the London Stock Exchange require that the accounting policies and presentation applied to the financial information in the half-yearly financial report are consistent with those which will be adopted in the annual accounts having regard to the accounting standards applicable for such accounts.

As disclosed in Note 1, the annual financial statements of the group are prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union.  The financial information in the half-yearly financial report has been prepared in accordance with the basis of preparation in Note 1.

Our responsibility
Our responsibility is to express to the company a conclusion on the financial information in the half-yearly financial report based on our review. 

Scope of review
We conducted our review in accordance with International ISRE (UK and Ireland) 2410, 'Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity' issued by the Auditing Practices Board for use in the United Kingdom.  A review of interim financial information consists of making enquiries, primarily of persons responsible for financial and accounting matters, and applying analytical and other review procedures.  A review is substantially less in scope than an audit conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) and consequently does not enable us to obtain assurance that we would become aware of all significant matters that might be identified in an audit.  Accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion. 

Conclusion
Based on our review, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the financial information in the half-yearly financial report for the six months ended 30 November 2008 is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the basis of preparation described in Note 1. 

GRANT THORNTON UK LLP, CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS, GLASGOW, 2 February 2009

The maintenance and integrity of the Maxima Holdings plc website is the responsibility of the Directors: the interim review does not involve consideration of these matters and, accordingly, the company's reporting accountants accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the interim report since it was initially presented on the website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of the interim report differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Click here for full report

At Maxima we recognise that the people we employ are our greatest asset. We therefore seek to attract the best people, provide them with the opportunities to develop their skills and encourage them to make their career with us. Working for Maxima could take you further than you ever thought possible.

We currently have a variety of roles available. To view Maxima vacancies please click here.

17th November 2008, QAD Alliance & Customer Conference.

The prestigous QAD 2008 Distributor of the Year Award was presented to Kelvin Harrison, CEO, Maxima by Pam Lopker, President/Founder of QAD Inc at the QAD conference, which runs from 17th - 19th November 2008 at the Hilton Palace, Sorrento, Italy.

In addition to enjoying the glorious views across the sun drenched Bay of Naples, with the slumbering Vesuvius providing the backdrop, both QAD's customers and partners heard from the experts and authors about how QAD Enterprise Applications 2008 meets the needs of manufacturers now and in the future with a keynote speech entitled The Future of Manufacturing - The Perfect Lean Market by futurologist Ray Hammond.

Kelvin Harrison, CEO, Maxima said, "we are delighted to receive the accolade of Distributor of the Year given the less bouyant economy and the somewhat depressed manufacturing sector in the UK and Ireland; however with the launch earlier this year of QAD Enterprise Applications 2008 we will continue to invest in our people allowing them to deliver even more value to our customers."

Charles Harrigan, Director QAD Division, Maxima said, "we are enthused by QAD's unwavering commitment to their customers and partners. Being honoured by QAD in this way vindicates all the hardwork by the team and Maxima's continuous investment in these challenging times."

Maxima Reaches the First Milestone toward Achieving the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics Accreditation

Cheltenham, 26^th September 2008, Maxima announced today that its MAXcel solution, a business management solution for the construction and service sector, has passed the Software Solution Test for Microsoft Dynamics, which is a major requirement for Certified for Microsoft Dynamics® status.

Certified for Microsoft Dynamics is Microsoft Corp.'s highest standard for partner-developed software. This certification represents a significant step in elevating the standard for partner-developed software solutions for industry-specific business applications. Solutions with a successful software test have demonstrated development quality and compatibility with the Microsoft Dynamics product. VeriTest, a service of Lionbridge, performed independent and rigorous testing on the solution's integration with Microsoft Dynamics. Maxima have also earned the Microsoft Certified Partner designation with the ISV Competency.

"By requiring the software solution to meet our highest standards, Microsoft is assuring customers that these certified solutions work with their investments in Microsoft Dynamics," said Doug Kennedy, vice president, Microsoft Dynamics Partners. "Microsoft congratulates Maxima on the software test results and wishes it success in earning the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics designation."

MAXcel works like, and with, familiar Microsoft software, automating and streamlining business processes and connecting you with global customers, business partners and subsidiaries in a way that helps you drive business success. Through Maxima's long standing experience and expertise in the construction and maintenance industries we have created modules which include Contract Management, Hire Services, Contract Sales, Service & Maintenance, Subcontractor system and a fully integrated Payroll module.

Maxima provide's implementation, training and consultation across the UK for small, midmarket and corporate businesses using business applications. Maxima specializes in Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM with solutions such as MAXcel for construction and service industries plus a construction industry template for Microsoft Dynamics CRM that help leading global companies across the construction sector including Leach Lewis, Murphy's and Heyrod.

Maxima has always been committed to software excellence, and passing the Software Solution Test for Microsoft Dynamics is a reflection of that commitment," said Kevin Binley, Sales Director, Maxima

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that help businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Maxima

Maxima is one of the UK's leading IT solution and service providers, offering a unique blend of deep industry knowledge and specialist technology expertise to deliver real business value to organisations of all sizes across a wide range of commercial sectors.

Our goal is simple: to help you drive efficiencies, cost savings and improved business performance from your investments in IT throughout their full lifecycle. Maxima's portfolio spans a broad spectrum of customer IT requirements, from ERP, CRM, business intelligence and performance management solutions to high quality managed services for your applications and IT infrastructure. Yet this broad reach does not imply a generalist approach: we are proven specialists in each of our business areas, offering a premium service for all of our chosen solutions and industries of focus.

About Lionbridge
Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIOX) is a provider of globalization and offshoring services, including VeriTest software testing services. Based in Waltham, Mass., Lionbridge maintains solution centers in 26 countries and provides services under the Lionbridge and VeriTest brands.

Cullum Capital Ventures invests in a £1 million, 3 year contract for Maxima's Outsourcing Support Services to accommodate its fast growing busine

Cullum Capital Ventures has strategically outsourced its IT requirements to allow flexibility and a rapid response to the ever changing demands from this fast growing business.

The 3 year outsourcing contract from Maxima allows CCV to take advantage of 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd line technical support resources removing the requirement for sourcing their own internal team with the appropriate skill set and the associated cost. As part of the outsourcing contract Maxima will also support CCV's server management, datacenter provision and infrastructure roll out, allowing CCV to integrate their acquisitions into the core business at an impressive rate.

Fraser Fisher, Managed Services Director of Maxima said: "We are delighted to have won this contract with CCV, proving our experience with dynamic fast moving businesses. We retain the philosophy that outsourcing all or part of your IT function actually is a huge strategic advantage in making an organisation more economical and flexible to business change."

Richard Norris, CCV's IT Director added: "We chose to outsource our IT function as we have an acquisition strategy and using Maxima's outsourcing service we can integrate the new acquisitions into our business at a much faster rate gaining the business advantages early. I look forward to a continuous relationship with Maxima."

Editor's Notes:

About Cullum Capital Ventures

Cullum Capital Ventures (CCV) is one of the UK's top 5 largest independently owned insurance intermediaries with more than 650 staff. CCV focuses on investing in regional brokers providing a wide range of specialist and no-specialist general insurance products in partnership with a core group of capacity providers with whom the underwriting risk is placed. Since establishment in 2006, CCV has completed 30 acquisitions and controls run-rate GWP in excess of £230 million.

CCV was formed to provide a range of solutions for both insurance brokers and underwriting agencies who wish to consider a sale or partial sale of their business.

About Maxima plc

Maxima is a UK-based business solutions and IT managed services company with a 25-year pedigree, more than 500 staff and 1,300+ customers.  In each of the core business areas Maxima brings specialist business and technical competencies, able to respond flexibly and rapidly to new customer requirements and changes to their business or technology environment.  Customers also have the assurance that Maxima have the skills, resources and management strengths to resolve the issues that inevitably arise in the use of technology.  

The business implements and supports enterprise and infrastructure software solutions for mid-sized, UK-based manufacturing, distribution and service organisations. These solutions are based upon leading software suites as well as products developed in-house.

From ERP implementations and support, through to 24x7 management of IT and network infrastructure, Maxima customers depend on for their business-critical support.  Delivering high quality services that provide the stability, flexibility and agility customers need for continued business success.

Towergate strengthens their e-commerce trading platform with a 3 year £500,000 E-commerce, Hosting and Server Management contract from Maxima. 

Towergate Partnership Ltd has further strengthened its e-commerce trading platform and position as a market leader with a new 3 year contract for E-commerce Hosting and Server Management services from Maxima.

Centralising all e-commerce activities into one scalable platform allows Towergate to provide a quick and efficient trading experience for clients whilst allowing for sustained organic growth without loss of performance. It continues Towergate's strategy of driving innovation within the UK insurance marketplace.

Towergate and Maxima have developed a trusted partner relationship over the last 5 years, supported by 24x7 service level agreements and guarantees.

Fraser Fisher, Managed Services Director of Maxima said: "We are delighted to have won this contract with Towergate, strengthening the relationship between our organisations. The recent acquisition of DXI Networks has added breadth and depth to our hosting and server management offering, supporting our position as a key player in the marketplace."

Mike Newman, Towergate's IT Director added: "Our investment in the e-commerce trading environment strongly underpins Towergate's innovation and versatility in high performance e-commerce trading within the Insurance sector. Maxima has proven their capability and experience and I look forward to our continued working relationship."

Editor's Notes
About Towergate Partnership

Towergate Partnership is Europe's largest independently owned insurance intermediary controlling more than £1.5bn of gross written premium (latest accounts).

Towergate was established in 1997 to provide insurance in niche markets ranging from holiday homes to cherished cars. Having expanded and broadened their products range to over 200 - the widest range of specialist and traditional products in the UK market.

With over 3,500 committed staff operating out of 100 UK offices. Towergate's reputation for innovation, progression and dynamism is backed up by recognition from the Sunday Times as a Profit Track 100 company.  In 2008 Towergate was voted Private Company of the Year by ACQ Magazine and Management Team of the Year by the Sunday Times Fast Track.

12 August 2008

Maxima Holdings plc ("Maxima" or the "Company")

Maxima Holdings plc, (AIM: MXM.L) the AIM listed provider of integrated IT solutions and managed services, today announces its preliminary results for the year ended 31 May 2008.

Financial Highlights

• Revenues up 47% to £46.7m (2007: £31.8m)
• Operating profit* up 54% to £9.7m (2007: £6.3m), giving an operating margin of 20.7% (2007: 19.7%)
• Profit before tax up 24% to £5.2m (2007: £4.2m)
• Net debt at 31 May 2008 of £8.5m, after net cash outflows on acquisitions of £6.1m
• Adjusted earnings per share* of 26.3p (2007: 25.9p)
• Final dividend of 3.6p per share proposed, making a total of 5.6p for the year (2007: 5.2p), up 8% * before exceptional items, share based payments and amortisation of intangibles

Operational Highlights

• Acquisitions of:
  - Centric Networks Ltd (Infrastructure Managed Services)
  - Eclectic Group (Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management)
  - After year end, DXI Networks Ltd, a very similar business to Centric
• 76 new clients won, spread broadly across the business and by industry sector
• 40 sales achieved of a new Microsoft Dynamics AX based solution for the construction and facilities management sector
• Senior management team strengthened:
  - Appointment in October 2007 of Boris Huard as Chief Operations Officer
  - After the year end, in July 2008 John Taylor was appointed as Group Finance Director

Chief Executive, Kelvin Harrison commented
"Trading continues to be robust with the early months of the current financial year being ahead of the same period last year, despite the slowing economy. We continue to be confident that our high levels of recurring revenues from our large, diverse and stable client base, predominantly in the mid-market, will provide a foundation for continued growth and that we will accrue the expected benefits from recent acquisitions during the year.We continue to find good value opportunities for further acquisitions; we will pursue these selectively and would expect to finance them through a combination of operating cash flows and prudent use of bank facilities."

Click here for full press release PDF - 126Kb

An analyst presentation will be held at 9:30 this morning at the offices of Smithfield Consultants, 10 Aldersgate Street, London EC1A 4HJ.

Images in high and low resolution of Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive, Maxima Holdings plc are available at www.fovea.tv or call 020 7089 2627.

For further information please contact:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive - 01242 211211
John Taylor, Group Finance Director - 0141 880 1000

Cenkos
Stephen Keys - 020 7397 8926

Smithfield
Reg Hoare / Katie Hunt / Will Henderson - 020 7360 490

Microsoft Honors Maxima for Outstanding Customer Commitment and Sales Achievement

Reading - 14^th July, 2008 - Maxima has been named to the 2008 Microsoft Dynamics President's Club, receiving recognition from Microsoft Corp. for its dedicated commitment to customers. This honor reflects Maxima's success in extending the Microsoft Dynamics platform to drive business advantages in companies worldwide.

This recognition came during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 in Houston. The elite club recognizes the top 5 percent of Microsoft Business Solutions partners worldwide and their constant dedication to delivering solutions that meet their customers' unique needs, active pursuit of product and technological advancement, and impressive sales performance.

"Microsoft is proud to congratulate Maxima on being named to this year's Microsoft Dynamics President's Club," said Doug Kennedy, vice president, Microsoft Dynamics Partners. "Maxima not only demonstrated a high level of product expertise, but also provided a superior level of service and commitment to our Microsoft Dynamics customers, ultimately contributing to the overall success of Microsoft Dynamics and companies worldwide."

Maxima works closely with the teams at Microsoft to maintain a comprehensive understanding of the Microsoft Dynamics platform. This knowledge, combined with a deep understanding of customers' business needs, enables Maxima to help customers gain the maximum benefit form their Microsoft investments and achieve the enhanced operational efficiency and service that promotes growth and competitive advantage.

Maxima provide implementation, training and consultation for midmarket and enterprise businesses using business applications. Maxima specializes in Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivering solutions for Business Management, Customer Relationship Management and Business Intelligence that help leading companies achieve success.

 "With our in-depth skills and expertise in our chosen target markets, we have built specialist CRM and ERP solutions using Microsoft Dynamics technologies that seamlessly integrate sales and marketing, ledgers and accounts, and supply and logistics. To compliment these business systems we are able to offer Business Intelligence, Corporate Performance Management, Enterprise Content Management, Document Management, Infrastructure and Networking Capabilities and Managed Services. The outcome for our customers is greater efficiency, cost savings and improved business performance." - Boris Huard, Chief Operations Officer, Maxima

About Maxima

Maxima is a leading IT managed services and systems integration company with a proven track record of delivering innovative and flexible business solutions and services.

Maxima's in-depth knowledge of industry and business, coupled with its skills and understanding of leading software suites ensures its services and solutions deliver real business benefits.

It prides itself on the quality of its services which lead to strong customer relationships and high retention rates. Regardless of size, all companies require effective delivery of business critical operations.

Maxima have over 1000 clients across more than 2000 sites in the UK, Ireland, Europe and USA, including, Diageo, Twinings, Johnson and Johnson, Murphy Group, ROK, Leach Lewis, Orange, Boots, DVLA and Network Rail.

Maxima’s new enterprise software system helps construction businesses to improve operational efficiency, VAT compliance, job control and management of information. 

Coventry 1 July 2008 — Maxima, a provider of software and consultancy to the construction and services sectors, today announced the general availability of its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software; MAXcel. MAXcel is powered by Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, and has been designed by Maxima to specifically address the needs of the construction industry.

Maxima has created this tool in recognition of the fact that to date, the needs of construction firms have been widely ignored by the technology industry. The end result of this is that many businesses operate on archaic legacy systems that provide little benefit to employees or the management of the company. 

MAXcel allows automated planning and reporting - and the delivery of specific information, tailored to individual roles within a company. The tools within MAXcel allow construction firms to overcome in-efficient buying of materials, problems with plant and resource scheduling and inaccurate estimating and bidding on projects. In addition, using MAXcel means that firms can successfully manage and control data to meet increasing government legislation. The benefits of MAXcel include: 

• A compliance centre that provides one central, integrated view of internal controls, key performance indicators and other compliance data 
• Embedded workflows that automate business processes, enforcing standard operating procedures to limit organisational risks while still enabling organizations to respond quickly to rapidly changing market needs 
• A unified customer relationship management (CRM) system that is integrated with other customer information to help improve bidding strategies, customer service, and project management 
• Tools to allow businesses to develop and implement new key business processes while maintaining and improving successful, existing business processes, helping to enhance profitability through significantly improved productivity 
• Systems that help to provide more accurate and timely financial and accounting information to improve management decision-making, risk management, and record-keeping 
• Delivery of real time reports on projects such as profitability by project, customer, or job site

Boris Huard, Chief Operations Officer, Maxima commented, “Completing on time and within budget is essential for construction firms. This means that reliable, up-to-date information is essential to allow the effective management of time and resources within those budgets.  MAXcel delivers this information to construction companies - meaning that they can be sure their projects are being run and monitored successfully"

In April 2007 Maxima signed an agreement with Microsoft that would provide Maxima with the support and backing to develop a construction specific solution.  This support and continuous research and development enables Maxima to concentrate on key business functionality required for the construction industry whilst Microsoft ensures that the application platform is class leading.

About Maxima

Maxima has been providing quality software and consultancy to the construction and services sectors for over 25 years.  Our experience and depth of knowledge means we understand the needs of construction, maintenance and facilities management companies which have many discrete and unique differences from other industries.  Working in partnership with Microsoft, Maxima has developed and built specialist CRM and ERP software that seamlessly integrate sales and marketing, ledgers and accounts, and supply and logistics.

Our clients include Amey, Alfred McApline Business Services, Balfour Beatty Rail, Galliford Try, Hanson, May Gurney, Murphy Group, Severfield Reeve and Rok.  We develop and build long term relationships with client teams from day one of the project through to go live and into longer term support.

For more information about Maxima’s fresh approach to technology tailored to the construction industry visit www.maxima.co.uk/construction  

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that help businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

30th June 2008

Maxima Holdings plc ("Maxima" or the "Company") 
Acquisition of DXI Networks Ltd ("DXI") 

Maxima Holdings plc (AIM:MXM), the integrated IT solutions and managed services provider, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to acquire DXI Networks Ltd. 

Highlights:

• Acquisition of DXI for a net consideration of not more than £8.5m, payable in cash on completion, which is expected to be in early July.  The acquisition will be financed from a proposed increase of existing facilities with Barclays Bank plc.
• The acquisition fits well with Maxima's existing infrastructure managed services business and will add breadth and scale, as well as creating cost synergies.
• The Board anticipates that the acquisition will be earnings enhancing in the company's financial year ending 31 May 2009 (see note 1).
• The acquisition is in line with Maxima's consolidation strategy within the fragmented IT services sector.

DXI is a provider of converged Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services to business customers in the UK.  DXI provides 24x7 fully managed IT infrastructure and communications solutions, including the design, deployment and management of complex converged networks, server hosting, internet, network security, VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and other telecommunications services.  DXI is based in London where it has some 50 staff and its own data-centre.  In addition it has some 30 staff in Hyderabad, India, providing technical and administrative support. Its customers include Berkeley Group plc, Inchcape Retail Ltd, Transport for London and the FA Premier League.

In the financial year ended 31 March 2008 DXI generated revenues of £14.1m, EBITA of £1.25m and profit before tax of £0.8m.  As at 31 March 2008 DXI had net assets of £1.3m. The gross consideration payable is £9.1m and at completion DXI is expected to have cash balances of at least £0.65m.  DXI is a very similar business to Centric Networks Ltd, which has performed strongly since its acquisition by Maxima in July 2007.  Integration with Maxima's existing infrastructure managed service business is expected to yield significant cost savings.

Completion is subject to satisfaction of customary conditions precedent and to finalisation and signature of legal documentation to  increase Maxima's existing bank facilities.  Of the net consideration of £8.5m, £2.3m will be used to repay DXI's bank loans and £0.85m will be held in an escrow account for 2 years, and will be available in the first resort for settlement of any warranty or indemnity claims.

The acquisition of DXI continues Maxima's successful strategy of building a focused IT solutions and managed services group through value enhancing acquisitions and organic growth.  Maxima's acquisitions underpin the group's business model of generating high margins from recurring revenues with strong cash generation.  As Maxima builds scale in the fragmented IT markets in which it operates, acquired businesses will increasingly generate synergies and cross-selling opportunities for the Maxima group.

Note 1: The statement that the acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing in the year ending May 2009 relates to future actions and circumstances, which, by their nature, involve risks, uncertainties and other factors.  This statement does not constitute a profit forecast and should not be interpreted to mean that earnings for any future period would necessarily match or be greater or less than those for any preceding financial period. Earnings in this context represent net after tax earnings [on an IFRS basis], excluding the amortisation of intangible assets and any exceptional items.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's Chief Executive said:
"I am delighted to welcome the DXI team into the Maxima Group.  Their deep skills will reinforce our end-to-end ICT (Information and Communications Technology) managed service capabilities.  In addition their long term customer relationships and high levels of recurring revenues will reinforce Maxima's financial strength."

For further information, please contact:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive Officer - 01242 211 211

Cenkos
Stephen Keys/Adrian Hargrave - 020 7397 8900

Smithfield
Katie Hunt/Reg Hoare - 020 7360 4900

Established more than 50 years ago, Murphy Group is one of most respected names in the building and civil engineering industry. The Group has become a major force in civil and mechanical engineering, pipelines, tunnelling, telecommunications, commercial and residential building and property development. Companies within the Group also specialise in piling, drilling, stabilisation and demolition and pipeline testing and are involved in many of the biggest projects in the UK & Ireland.

 

Based in North London, the Murphy Group employs up to 3,000 staff and has 8 offices across the UK and Ireland.  It was one of the first contractors to win a contract for construction work relating to the 2012 London Olympic Games.

 

The value of Murphy’s projects can easily run into several millions of pounds. With a reputation for high quality work, completed on time with exemplary safety on site, Murphy has won many landmark projects and has doubled its turnover during the last four years.

 

Murphy Group has made the strategic decision to migrate from its current Intellect system to Maxima’s new MAXcel business solution which is based upon Microsoft’s class leading ERP application, Microsoft Dynamics AX. Murphy Group will be implementing the MAXcel modules for Finance, Fixed Assets, Inventory, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Procurement, Contract Management, Hire Services and Human Resources.

 

Vision - Maintaining growth and steady turnover

 

With this success and expansion came a new goal for the future.  Crucially, the company needed to consolidate its increased market share and provide a sound business footing for future development and a stable environment for its loyal, experienced workforce. At this point, the company decided to review its internal computer systems to ensure that it would have the best possible systems and software to support its future development.

 

Murphy needed to equip its staff with modern tools to manage its information. “We needed more interrogation of our project costing information and more powerful reporting tools.” says Tom Cassidy, Costing Manager at the Murphy Group.  There was also an ongoing requirement for specialist software to take care of Contracts, Plant Hire and Services.

 

Murphy had some first hand experience of other software packages for the construction industry gained during joint construction projects with partners and was aware that these were not always easy to learn and to use.  The new software needed to be at least as flexible as their existing package, Intellect.

 

There were certain requirements that the new software had to meet. First, it was important that the new software should allow plenty of room for further growth. Murphy’s project team had identified some new requirements in the areas of Human Resources, Document Management and Customer Relationship Management.

 

Murphy had already made the decision that in future they would standardise on Microsoft based packages. “We needed to be certain that the software would be reliable and robust,” says Tom Cassidy, “and we have great confidence in Microsoft.” They were very pleased to learn that Maxima was offering a solution built around Microsoft’s financial software suite, Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Requirements

• Scalability – software that would grow with the business
• Better management of customer data
• Powerful data interrogation tools
• Flexible reporting
• Specialist applications for Contract Management, Plant Hire and Services
• Easy for staff to use

It was at this stage that Murphy began to talk to Maxima about the possibility of replacing Intellect.

During the planning and discussions, Maxima advised on a suitable hardware specification for the new software solution. In fact, Murphy already had a modern IT infrastructure in place that would be suitable to run MAXcel.

 

The MAXcel Solution

 

Maxima’s MAXcel solution for the construction industry is based around Microsoft Dynamics AX and provides modules for Contract Management, Contract Sales, Hire Services, Service and Maintenance and a Subcontractors System.

 

Being a Microsoft solution, it integrates perfectly with Microsoft Office. It is very easy to learn how to use MAXcel because it looks and feels like Outlook. Also, there is a direct transfer of data between Excel and MAXcel, which makes loading data and reporting quick and straightforward.

 

During discussions, it became very clear that MAXcel offered some additional software functions that would be extremely useful to the business. MAXcel would be easier and more effective to use and, as the information is only stored in one place, there is no need to keep more than one copy of the data. This would save a lot of time, because the data would not need to be re-keyed.

Business Benefits

• Proper integration with Microsoft Office packages
• No duplication of data, no re-keying
• Specialist software modules for construction
• Better information from MAXcel reporting
• MAXcel can be configured to a company’s exact requirements

Murphy Group has purchased a MAXcel solution for 150 users. “MAXcel matches our requirement for business software and we are confident that this product, which is based on Microsoft Dynamics AX, will deliver what we need. We have a sound relationship with Maxima and we are looking forward to working with them long term in this new stage of our development,” says Michael O’Connell, Financial Director at the Murphy Group.

 

Murphy is to implement the Human Resources package in 2008 and will roll out the other applications from 2009 onwards to go live in 2010.

Leach Lewis Group is a major independent supplier of heavy plant and industrial compressed air systems. Motivair, the Compressed Air Division, has grown rapidly by acquisition. Supplying efficient service to their customers is a key objective of the businesses. 

Leach Lewis Group operates from a datacentre in Waltham Cross with depots throughout England. Microsoft Terminal Services are used to control local users’ PC options and also to facilitate faster response. 

The main challenge for Leach Lewis was managing a complex business which includes sale of major plant and spares, installation and service of equipment requires a heavy reliance on an efficient IT system. In 1998 the Group invested in a single integrated package to meet these requirements but heavy customisation meant that the system was restricting the growth and development of the business.  

Group Financial Director, Mick Brown, said, “We want to be the largest independent supplier of product and service in our market and we believe MAXcel will help us achieve that aim.” 

The development of the service function had been identified as a key business area in order to provide a high level of customer satisfaction and to maintain a strong revenue stream for the Group. Therefore any new IT system needed to have a strong and fully integrated service dimension. Several acquisitions in the Motivair Division meant that customers and offices were widely spread and in order to reduce cost and improve efficiency there was a need to centralise the service function and operate using mobile PDA communications for the field engineers.

A further key business requirement was to integrate CRM with the main system so that the customer became the single point of entry whether for sales of equipment, spares or service. 

Maxima is working with Leach Lewis’ Project Manager and team to implement MAXcel. Features of the project are: 

• Extensive Data Migration
• Development of new features to MAXcel service in line with Leach Lewis’s requirements
• Integration of Service with CRM
• Joint Management of Project
• Planning for Document Management and HR as part of Phase 2 of Project

The technologies provided are 150 user licenses for MAXcel software powered by Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 including: 

• Maxima’s own integrated Service and Maintenance module
• Integrated PDA devices for filed engineers
• Servers and System Software required to operate MAXcel
• Data Conversion
• Project Management and Implementation Resources

Deploying MAXcel throughout the Leach Lewis Group has meant growth and development of the company is no longer hindered by an inflexible IT system. The key objective of improving customer service has been achieved by using MAXcel Service and PDAs. By utilising the strong CRM functions in MAXcel this important business function now becomes integral to the system rather than being an adjunct.  

Mr. Brown added, “We looked at many packages before selecting MAXcel. MAXcel provided the only fully integrated Service solution that met our requirements”.

New ERP solution helps businesses thrive in a competitive global marketplace by controlling costs, managing risk and increasing employee productivity.

REDMOND, Wash. — June 2, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, an adaptable business management solution that offers powerful new capabilities to help growing multisite organizations streamline processes, reduce operational costs, manage compliance and drive informed decision-making.

As businesses expand globally, so does the complexity of managing accurate business insights and standardizing operations across multiple locations. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 offers new multisite and shared services capabilities, enabling customers to manage complex financial and supply chain processes more easily. For example, the new software can run multiple legal entities on a central installation and provide a single, integrated view of financial and supply chain information from facilities around the world, helping organizations simplify global planning. Advanced planning and reporting scenarios, such as consolidation and budgeting, are offered through integration with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server.

“With its innovative role-based user experience, improved reporting and BI capabilities, and improving platform harmonization, Microsoft Dynamics products should be on ERP selection shortlists for a variety of SMBs, particularly those that use Microsoft’s server-based products,” wrote R “Ray” Wang of Forrester Research Inc. in the firm’s report “Microsoft Dynamics Gets Renewed Focus” in April 2008. “Multisite companies should consider Dynamics AX.”

Another business challenge that growing companies face is the increasing pressure to meet global and local regulatory compliance, a complex and costly problem that has been a top priority for chief executive officers and chief financial officers. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 delivers core features to help companies limit these risks and lower total cost of compliance, including the following:

“Managing risk is an integral part of my job, and Microsoft Dynamics AX makes my job easier,” said John Elmer, vice president, information systems, and controller, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. “I can access critical company information from within the Executive Role Center and see a 360-degree view of our global IT and finance operations, ranging from compliance risks to how the company is tracking against forecasts.” The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, based in New York, represents a wide variety of entertainment copyrights for more than 200 writers, including Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, through its theatrical, concert and music publishing divisions.

In a fast-paced world, people need software that helps them do their jobs more effectively and with minimal training. To increase productivity and foster more confident decision-making, the RoleTailored design of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 gives employees access to critical business data through the following new features:

“Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 signals a new chapter in enterprise resource planning (ERP) user productivity,” said Mogens Elsberg, general manager for Microsoft Dynamics ERP. “Employees using traditional ERP systems have had to wade through inefficient, time-intensive steps — enter transactional data, run reports, analyze reports — before they can do their jobs effectively. Through Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009’s Role Center, employees from the executive suite to the warehouse have access to role-relevant business intelligence to help them make decision more efficiently. The Role Center provides a centralized view of each person’s prioritized work lists based on their organization’s configurable business processes and clearly identifies specific steps to take, thereby optimizing productivity.”

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solution’s that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

For more information or how to buy contact 08700 730073 or email marketing@maxima.co.uk

Fast-growing North West construction business, Heyrod Construction, selects MAXcel from Maxima to provide foundation for growth.

Heyrod Construction Ltd, established in 1978, has selected MAXcel, Maxima's new software solution for the construction industry, to enable the business to effectively manage its continued growth and streamline its business processes.

MAXcel is a complete set of specialist software modules for the construction and services sectors and is built upon Microsoft's flagship business management application, Microsoft Dynamics AX. As well as the core financial modules, MAXcel includes Project Costing, Subcontractor Management, Hire Services, Service and Maintenance, Contract Sales and Contract Management modules.

Heyrod is one of the most experienced construction companies in the North of England and has been included in the top 30 fastest growing companies in the North West of England for the last 3 years.

Heyrod Construction specialises in structural re-enforced concrete work and undertakes large projects in civil engineering, new build and refurbishment. The company has experienced healthy growth in its business over the last four years. This continuing success, winning major projects with clients such as Manchester City Council, resulted in steady expansion and the directors of Heyrod recognised that they needed to invest in new financial processes.

They needed strong accounting modules, particularly in the key areas of Project Costing, Subcontractors, Contract Sales and Plant Hire. It was also important to have flexible reporting and close integration to Microsoft Office was essential.

Having evaluated MAXcel, they realised that it would meet their needs and would also provide the flexibility they were looking for to support the growth and evolution of the business.

"We realised that we had to upgrade our old, Unix-based software to a new, Windows-based package," says Heyrod's Financial Director, Neil Harrison.

"We chose to go with MAXcel," continued Neil Harrison, "because it is based on Microsoft technologies, so we are confident that it is a good product. The fact that it looks like Outlook, which our staff are already using every day, and its tight integration with Excel are big advantages to us in terms of familiarity and user adoption. MAXcel also offers us the flexibility to alter our business processes, in the future, should we need to."

The Maxima project team is working closely with Senior Managers of Heyrod Construction on the implementation of Maxcel. David Johnson, MAXcel Implementation Manager, Maxima says "Our goal during the project has been to understand Heyrod's requirements in detail and to plan the changeover so that it will go smoothly and Heyrod can hit the ground running with the new software solution."

"We are really looking forward to getting the new reporting system," adds Neil Harrison. "It will make a fantastic difference to the way we work and it will save us a lot of time. It means we'll be able to produce management reports as and when we require rather than at the month end so we'll be able to keep a better eye on the numbers, which is really important in the current business climate."

The MAXcel software is to be installed at Heyrod Construction's 4 acre head office site in Oldham. Heyrod is purchasing modules for Subcontractors, Contract Sales and Plant Hire.

About Maxima

Maxima has been providing quality solutions to the construction and services sectors for over 25 years and we understand the importance of a strong customer relationship linked to a detailed knowledge and experience of your industry Our clients and client relationships are the key to our success. Project success is the key to our future. We develop and build long term relationships with client teams from day 1 of the project through to go live and into longer term support.

MAXcel clients include Ansa, EDS, Fugro Aberdeen, Heyrod, ISS Adviance, Leach Lewis, Pulse, SPI, Connevans. These clients join other well known Maxima clients such as Altro, RIBA Enterprises, The Concrete Centre, Wavin, Hepworth Building Products and Kingspan.

www.maxima.co.uk/maxcel

Tuesday 12^th February 2008, Maxima were presented with the prestigious QAD Award - "Partner of the Year" (for financial year ending 31^st January 2008) by Pam Lopker, President and Founder of QAD Inc. at QAD's Annual Sales Conference in Long Beach, California.

The award reflected a record year for Maxima with regards to license revenue since the relationship began with QAD through Minerva eighteen years ago.

 

 

 

The prize was received by Charles Harrigan - Divisional Director, Maxima Information Group during a formal dinner on board the Queen Mary; he said, "being recognised in front of the entire QAD Executive, sales force and other channel partners is particularly rewarding in itself, however I would like to acknowledge our dedicated QAD team at Maxima, from the Support Desk through Development to Technical and Consulting Specialists, not forgetting Admin, without whom none of it would be possible.   Furthermore I would like to thank our customers who continually show faith in us by investing more and more of their IT budget with Maxima.   Finally, I am looking forward to an even more rewarding twelve months to come with the launch of QAD Enterprise Applications 2008 and our augmented capability in the areas of Infrastructure, Applications Deployment and Managed Services".

Wednesday 13^th February 2008
Maxima presented with award for "Emerging Partner of the Year".     

 

 

Maxima plc is recognized at the Oracle Partner Network Annual Award ceremony in London for its outstanding performance and contribution to Oracle.  The prize was awarded to the specialist Business Intellligence divsion of Maxima, based on the work carried out by Eclectic, a recent acquisition to the Maxima group.

The prize was received by Mark Simpson, Business Development Manager for Maxima plc; "Maxima are delighted to be acknowledged by Oracle for our achievements in the UK.  This award recognises the effort and contribution we have made to Oracle with our outstanding performance, specifically with the delivery of Oracle Business Intelligence solutions.  This puts Maxima in the top echelon of Oracle partners in the UK and we will look to build on this success through 2008."

QAD, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise software and services for global manufacturers, today announced that Consumer Goods Technology magazine has selected QAD as the top provider for customer experience in the Enterprise Resource Planning section of the magazine's annual Reader's Choice Awards, published in the January 2008 issue. The annual Reader's Choice Awards honor winners across twelve different categories focused on service and solutions for consumer goods companies.

Consumer products manufacturers worldwide rely on QAD as a trusted partner to analyze, plan and manage every aspect of their enterprise at every stage in the manufacturing process. QAD develops and delivers enterprise solutions designed to solve the immediate challenges consumer products manufacturers face today while laying the groundwork for future success and lasting bottom-line results.

"We are pleased to be included in this year's Reader's Choice Awards," said Phil Friedman, vice president, consumer products, QAD. "Consumer products manufacturers have to deal with many different layers of suppliers, distributors and channels in taking their product to market these days. QAD is committed to supporting these manufacturers in achieving their goals in brand development, demand management, and new product introduction."

QAD Enterprise Applications are designed to streamline the management of manufacturing operations, supply chains, financials, customers, technology and business performances all in one suite. Built on a deep, foundational understanding of manufacturing and designed for maximum flexibility anywhere in the world, QAD Enterprise Applications are available in 27 languages and can handle multiple currencies. For both single-site manufacturers with customers and suppliers in many locations around the world, and global enterprises with factories and plants in dozens of countries, QAD can provide the solutions and support to operate multi-national businesses efficiently and profitably.

Tuesday 5 February 2008
Maxima Holdings plc (‘Maxima' or the ‘Company')

Maxima Holdings plc (AIM:MXM), the acquisitive IT solutions and managed services group, is pleased to announce its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 November 2007.

Financial Highlights:

• Revenue up 62% to £21.1 million (H1 2007: £13.0 million)
• Recurring revenues represent 56% of total revenues
• Operating profit* up 74% to £4.0million (H1 2007 £2.3million)
• Profit before tax up 43% to £2.0 million (H1 2007 £1.4 million)
• Adjusted*, fully diluted earnings per share up 16% to 10.2p (H1 2007: 8.8p)
• Dividend of 2.0p per share (H1 2007: 1.8p) - in line with progressive dividend policy

*pre-amortisation of intangibles, share based payments and exceptional charges

Operational Highlights:

• Appointment of Chief Operations Officer, Boris Huard
• 35 new clients won during the period, across all business areas
• Good progress on our Microsoft Dynamics AX solution for the construction and facilities management sector with 8 sales to date
• Acquisition in July 2007 of Centric Networks Ltd, Infrastructure Managed Services provider for £6.4million (gross maximum)

Commenting on the results, Mike Brooke, Chairman, said: "The business has always exhibited seasonality, resulting in a stronger second half. This trend continues and our second half will also benefit from contributions from the acquisitions made in July and December 2007. As announced in the trading update issued on 28 January 2008, we have experienced an increased level of caution in our markets, however we continue to win new business across the group. We are confident that the diversity and spread of our offerings and client base, together with our strong operational management and sales organisation, position us well. Our high level of cash conversion and recurring revenues also give us the robust financial foundations from which to achieve our objectives for the future."

Click Here to download the Interim Results

Enquiries:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive - 01242 211211
Linda Andrews, Group Finance Director - 0141 880 1000

Cenkos Securities plc
Stephen Keys - 020 7397 8900

Smithfield
Tania Wild/Reg Hoare - 020 7360 4900

Maxima CEO, Kelvin Harrison, has has been shortlisted for ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award' which is one of the ten categories being recognised at the Quoted Company Awards 2008 sponsored by Grant Thornton. The ceremony will be taking place on 30^th January 2008 at Grosvenor House. 

The Quoted Company Awards 2008 recognises the achievements of quoted companies listed below the FTSE 350. They take a fresh and innovative look at the quoted company market and reward the outstanding contributions of individuals active in public companies.

The 'Entrepreneur of the Year Award' will seek to recognise the entrepreneur at the helm of a young growing company whose flair, professionalism, dedication and opportunism has radically improved the trading prospects and the status of their company. Financial measures will be examined as well as various corporate deals, contracts, product development and product positioning. This award will focus on leaders who are founding shareholders or who hold significant stakes.

Since floating on AIM in November 2004, Maxima has trebled in size through strong organic growth and a series of carefully selected and well integrated acquisitions.

Maxima now has a complete offering of applications and infrastructure software solutions and managed services addressing the needs of mid-market customers in the UK and Ireland. These solutions and managed services are based upon technologies and products from world-class vendors including Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, IBM, Citrix and Cisco, overlaid with proprietary templates, tools and processes developed by Maxima. 

Maxima has a client base across the UK, Ireland & North America, with over 1000 clients, across more than 2000 sites, who consider Maxima as their trusted IT partner. Major clients include: Orange, J Murphy and Sons Limited, Boots & Mars.

07 January 2008

Maxima Holdings plc ("Maxima" or the "Company")

Maxima Holdings plc, (AIM: MXM), the integrated IT solutions and managed services company, today confirms it has completed the acquisition of the trade and assets of Eclectic Group Limited, a subsidiary of Glen Group plc (AIM: GLN), which was announced on 19 December 2007.

The acquisition is in line with Maxima's consolidation strategy within the fragmented IT services sector and is anticipated to be earnings enhancing in the year ending 31 May 2009.

For further information, please contact:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive - 01242 211211
Linda Andrews, Group Finance Director - 0141 880 1000

Smithfield
Tania Wild / Reg Hoare - 020 7360 4900

Friday 23rd November 2007, Maxima was presented with the Unichem Pharmacy Award - 2007 Shortline Supplier of the Year by Paul Forster-Jones, Managing Director, Cordia Healthcare at the prestigious annual dinner held this year at The Intercontinental Hyde Park, London.

Maxima was nominated by Paul Forster-Jones for their sterling work installing, implementing and validating a QAD Enterprise Applications 2007 compliant ERP solution at Cordia Healthcare, on budget and on-time for what was a very tight schedule. 

The prize was received by Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive, Maxima Holdings PLC; he said, "Being acknowledged like this by a demanding organisation such as Cordia, as part of Alliance Boots PLC is very big feather in our cap.   This is exactly the type of service Maxima strives to offer right across the Group regardless of the solution or technical platform.  The award gives us confidence to continue to invest in our people, resulting in a world-class service for our customers"

Charles Harrigan, Sales Director, Maxima Information Group Ltd said, "The Cordia contract was won by the Maxima QAD Division in a extremely competitive environment; however it was our ability to demonstrate and reference the skillsets and experience necessary to deliver a fully compliant and validated solution, encompassing the FDA's CFR21Part11 Electronic Signatures requirement".

Tuesday, 6^th November 2007, Maxima were presented with the QAD Award - 2007 Market Share Builder of the Year by Jean-Claude Walravens, Vice-President EMEA, QAD at the QAD Alliance Conference in Vienna.

The prize was received by Charles Harrigan, Sales Director, Maxima Information Group Ltd; he said, "we are delighted to be acknowledged and honoured once again by QAD for our commitment and drive in promulgating QAD Applications in the UK and Ireland manufacturing and distribution sectors. An intrinsic component of our success is in our ability to present value justification to our customers and consistently deliver on our promise.  QAD and our customers' sales relationships are based (and sustained) on their understanding of the value that Maxima delivers, whether it be a point solution or a fully managed service."

 

06 November 2007

Maxima have been awarded Citrix Gold Partner Status in the UK

Maxima (AIM:MXM.L), the IT solutions and managed service company, is pleased to announce that they have been awarded Citrix Gold Partner Status for the UK.

After a lengthy accreditation process demonstrating dedication to their partnership with Citrix, the Maxima team achieved the necessary qualifications to meet the high technical standard and commercial goals set by Citrix.

Fraser Fisher, of Maxima commented "I am delighted that we have achieved Gold Solution Advisor status in the UK. This demonstrates our commitment and recognises our expertise and value as a Citrix solutions partner, complementing the Citrix Platinum partner status we hold in Ireland."

Maxima is now ranked as one of the most qualified Citrix partners in the UK with many clients choosing them to provide a whole solution in both core applications and infrastructure platforms.

Maxima excels in the arena of Managed Services, offering design, implementation and maintenance of complex infrastructure systems, including live monitoring of critical servers, firewalls, hosting, user groups and applications, ensuring downtime is minimized for customers. All support is in-house and managed by a highly skilled, efficient and qualified technical helpdesk.

Gold Partner status with Citrix is based on a combination of completing sales and technical certifications, sales volume, successful customer deployments and a close working relationship with the local Citrix team

About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) is the global leader and the most trusted name in application delivery infrastructure. More than 180,000 organisations worldwide rely on Citrix to deliver any application to users anywhere with the best performance, highest security and lowest cost. Citrix has approximately 6,200 channel and alliance partners in more than 100 countries.

19 October 2007

Maxima is today hosting a site visit for investors and analysts at their offices in Cheltenham. Case studies will be presented of the activities in both the Maxima Solutions and the Managed Services divisions, as well as an illustration of Maxima's approach to the integration of acquisitions. No material new information will be disclosed in the presentations. At the same time, Maxima today announces the following update on current trading:

Maxima is pleased to report that since the start of its financial year on 1 June 2007 it has won a total of 39 new clients broadly spread across the different business areas. Cross-selling is steadily increasing as the acquisitions become fully integrated within Maxima. Further to this, significant additional business and substantial numbers of managed service and support contracts have been renewed from Maxima's existing client base.  This includes the sale of four of its new IT solutions for the construction sector based upon Microsoft Dynamics AX which was announced in April this year.

The Company is also pleased to announce the successful completion of two important projects.  Firstly, the go-live after a four month accelerated implementation and full validation of the manufacturing solution for a leading pharmaceutical company, based upon QAD applications software.  Secondly, the successful upgrade to Oracle R12 of the systems of a major insurance company, one of the first such upgrades to be carried out in the UK.

Overall trading remains in line with expectations.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's Chief Executive said: "It has been a good start to the year for Maxima as we continue to extend our existing client relationships and grow the pool of new customers in our core sectors.  We are now able to offer our clients full end-to-end applications and infrastructure software solutions and managed services which we continue to develop. We will report our interim results for the six months ending 30 November 2007 in early February 2008."

For further information please contact:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive - 01242 211211
Linda Andrews, Group Finance Director - 0141 880 1000

Cenkos - Nominated Advisor to the Company                 
Stephen Keys - 020 7397 8900

Smithfield
Tania Wild / Reg Hoare - 020 7360 4900

Maxima Holdings plc (AIM:MXM), the IT Solutions and Managed Service Company, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a £3.5 million, three year managed services contract from Towergate Partnership Ltd. The contract is to provide Incident, Infrastructure and Problem Management services to over 100 offices and 3,500 staff within Towergate, the largest independently owned insurance organisation in Europe. Towergate became a client of Maxima following the acquisition of Centric Networks in July 2007.

The agreement expands on the scope of existing Service Desk, Server Support and Datacentre provision contract. Maxima have also been awarded an additional contract to provide disaster recovery services for Towergate.  

Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive of Maxima said: "We are delighted to have extended the contract with Towergate, proving the value in our managed service offering, as well further strengthening the relationship between our two businesses." 

Mike Newman, Towergate's IT Director added: "It is an absolute must-have for insurance brokers to work with a first rate IT provider. I am very pleased with the service we have already received from Maxima. Their proven experience and capabilities with both Microsoft and Citrix made the decision to extend the contract easy for us and I look forward to our continued working relationship."

About Towergate Partnership Ltd

Towergate Partnership is Europe's largest independently owned insurance organisation controlling more than £1.5bn of gross written premium (latest accounts).

Towergate was established in 1997 to provide insurance in niche markets ranging from holiday homes to cherished cars. Having expanded and broadened their products range to over 200 - the widest range of specialist and traditional products in the UK market.

Towergate is now Europe's largest independently owned insurance intermediary.  With over 3500 committed staff operating out of 100 UK offices. Towergate's reputation for innovation, progression and dynamism is backed up by recognition from the Sunday Times as a Profit Track 100 company.

Maxima and Application Lynx have just completed a successful Simply HR Implementation for a major UK Insurance company. The implementation went live successfully on Monday 1^st October.

The timescales for this implementation have made this the fastest Simply HR Implementation that either Maxima or Application Lynx have worked on in partnership. To ensure a successful "go-live" required this successful partnership working in an agile way to meet the deliverables.

Deploying on a Windows platform required working in close partnership with both the client and Oracle.

Maxima feel that adopting R12 has allowed the implementation to meet the very aggressive timescales.

14 August 2007

Maxima Holdings plc ("Maxima" or the "Company")

Maxima Holdings plc, (AIM: MXM.L) the AIM listed provider of IT solutions and managed services, today announces its preliminary results for the year to 31 May 2007 which have come in slightly ahead of market expectations.

Financial Highlights

• Revenues up 66% to £31.8m (2006: £19.1m)
• Recurring revenues remain at 56% of turnover
• Operating profit* up 85% to £6.3m (2006: £3.4m), an operating margin of 19.7% (2006: 17.5%)
• Profit before tax* up 76% to £5.8m (2006: £3.3m)
• Statutory profit before tax up 62% to £4.2m (2006: £2.6m)
• Net debt at 31 May 2007 of £6.6m (2006: £3.1m), after net cash outflows on acquisitions of £15.2m. A placing of shares in May 2007 raised £11.5m net.
• Adjusted earnings per share* up 46% to 25.9p (2006: 17.8p)
• Final dividend up 36% to 3.4p (2006: 2.5p) per share proposed, making a total dividend of 5.2p for year (2006: 4.0p)

* before exceptional items, amortisation of intangibles and share based payments

Operational Highlights

• Four acquisitions made and successfully integrated
• Benefits of scale and cross selling now becoming evident
• Investment in developing a Microsoft Dynamics AX based solution for the construction sector
• Commencement of fully staffed 24x7 support and managed service operations
• Market conditions favourable and organic growth increasing

Chief Executive, Kelvin Harrison commented "Maxima has had an excellent year during which our corebusinesses have performed well whilst we made four further acquisitions. We now have a complete offering of application and infrastructure software solutions and managed services and provide our clients with a onestop - shop for all their IT needs.

The new financial year has got off to a good start with some important contract renewals and key new business wins including our first major Microsoft Dynamics AX project, as well as the acquisition of Centric Networks Ltd. Maxima is in an exciting phase of its development as we now build greater scale within our chosen markets."

Click here for full press release PDF - 90Kb

For further information please contact:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive Tel: 01242 211211
Linda Andrews, Group Finance Director Tel: 0141 880 1000

Cenkos
Stephen Keys Tel: 020 7397 8926

Smithfield
Tania Wild / Reg Hoare Tel: 020 7360 4900

August 7th 2007

QAD Inc. (NASDAQ: QADI), a leading provider of enterprise applications and services for global manufacturers, provides superior Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) per functionality, according to "The Cost of ERP Functionality," a recent study published by Aberdeen Group.

Aberdeen surveyed more than 1,680 companies of all sizes to benchmark ERP in Manufacturing, measuring both depth and breadth of functionality, as well as the cost of ERP in terms of software, services, and maintenance. QAD demonstrated superior TCO per functionality over most all other vendors, owning in part to its ease of use and simplified design.

"We continue to be committed to serving the needs of manufacturing companies around the world by developing and delivering enterprise software that is easy to install, implement, and use for better business performance," said Pamela Lopker, chairman and president of QAD. "This most recent report from Aberdeen validates our strategy to offer deep industry functionality, while remaining focused on the needs of manufacturers."

"In this study, we found that it is important for users to consider various factors when making buying decisions for an ERP system including, but not limited to the price of functionality deployed," said Cindy Jutras, Vice President & Group Director, Aberdeen Group. "QAD continues to deliver at a strong price point in tandem with its ease of use as evidenced by its low service to software cost ratio."

Earlier this year, QAD released QAD Enterprise Applications 2007, a new version of its flagship enterprise software solution. QAD 2007 is a complete suite to address the requirements of global enterprises. Employing Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) capabilities QAD 2007 includes enhanced functionality that enables global manufacturers to better manage supply and demand chains, enterprise assets, transportation and logistics, while streamlining communication and improving manufacturing productivity.

To learn more and access a copy of the Aberdeen report visit www.qad.com

26th July 2007

Maxima (AIM:MXM.L), the IT solutions and managed service company, is pleased to announce that its recently acquired subsidiary, 3net Ltd (3net) has secured a 3-year contract renewal from the leading City law Firm Baker & McKenzie LLP.  The contract covers support of Baker & McKenzie's data network and provision of proactive network consultancy to ensure that its infrastructure keeps abreast of the aggressive growth aspirations of the London practice.

Mark Just, IT Infrastructure Services Manager at Baker & McKenzie, explains "we've had a good working relationship with 3net for over 4 years now and during that time they've helped us evolve our network to one that is inherently robust and reliable." 

Mark Just elaborates, "3net's consultants have always been flexible and totally committed to our relationship.  This means that we have been able to extract the maximum value from our investment.  Above all else, this is why we are delighted to have negotiated another 3-year contract with them."

About Baker & McKenzie

Baker & McKenzie, London is the largest office of one of the world's leading and most internationally diverse law firms giving clients a unique global perspective. Baker & McKenzie plays a key role in the Firm's extensive European network, linking with offices spanning six continents to provide clients with a peerless combination of local and global expertise.

20th July 2007

Centric Networks Limited has been acquired by Maxima Holdings Plc. Centric provides managed services for infrastructure software to a broad range of clients in the mid-market. 

Based near Stansted with 41 employees, Centric will be immediately integrated with Maxima's existing infrastructure managed service business.  The management team will remain with the business as part of the Maxima group.

Centric's skills lie in operating systems, networking, security and remote access.  These skills are packaged into a managed service conforming with ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) guidelines.  The service generally embraces remote monitoring, for which a range of tools have been developed, and provision of helpdesk services. Centric frequently manages the hosting and maintenance of client's systems in third party datacentres.  Centric is a Cisco Premier partner, a Citrix Silver partner, a Checkpoint Silver partner and a Microsoft Certified partner.

Commenting on the acquisition, Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive said:

"I am delighted to welcome the Centric Networks team into the Maxima Group.  This transaction builds upon our existing infrastructure software skills which have been developed since the acquisition of Intertech in November 2006 and 3net in May 2007.  It greatly reinforces Maxima's total of IT solutions and managed services offering to the mid-market."

Fraser Fisher, Managing Director of Centric, added:

"Joining Maxima provides us with the ideal opportunity to increase the range of skills that we can offer to our clients and to continue our strong growth record."

To find out more about Centric Networks Limited please visit http://www.centricnetworks.net/

Johnson & Johnson Goes to Great Heights for CARE International

Since 2004, the Johnson & Johnson Information Technology team has lead a trek across the three highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales in less than 24 hours. The objective: to raise money in support of CARE International - one of the world's top development agencies, which works to help more than 48 million poor and marginalized people, each year, to find a way out of poverty.

Whether working in disaster zones to ease suffering or liaising with local governments and businesses to break the cycle of poverty, CARE International is present in over 70 countries, encouraging prosperity with jobs, savings projects, sanitation, construction and health care.

This year, the Johnson & Johnson team decided to up their investment and set out on a more rigorous journey to benefit this cause. On 16th June, Richard Lee, Jonny Harris, Steve Calderon, Mark Bangerter, and Carl Bedson, with the support of Jag Bhachu embarked upon the 24 Peaks Challenge - climbing the 24 highest peaks in the Lakes District in 24 hours!

The Challenge calls for each team to walk over 50KM and climb over 4000M of some of the toughest terrain in the UK, including Helvellyn, Great Dodd and Scafell Pike.

Despite periods of torrential rain, a knee-injury, which caused the withdrawal of veteran team member, Steve Calderon and a four-hour struggle to overtake a tough competitor, Team COMPEED did finish in 1st place. With a twohour lead over second place and five-hour lead over third, CARE International was able to confirm that the team achieved the fastest time for the 24 peaks in the 10 years the event has been run!!

On behalf of everyone, we would like to thank Maxima for their generous contribution to this year's effort.

Chris Wong
Johnson & Johnson IT Manager

24 May 2007

Maxima Holdings plc ("Maxima" or the "Company")

Completion of Acquisition of 3net Limited ("3net")

Maxima Holdings plc, (AIM: MXM), the acquisitive IT solutions and managed services company, is pleased to announce that the acquisition of 3net Limited, conditionally announced on 1 May 2007 successfully completed today. 

Click here for full press release PDF - 97Kb

QAD Drives Innovation in the Manufacturing Market, Helps Customers Achieve Lean Manufacturing Through Flexibility of Progress Application

Infrastructure Technologies QAD Inc. (NASDAQ:QADI), a global provider of enterprise software applications and services, and Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS), a provider of leading application infrastructure software to develop, deploy, integrate and manage business applications, today jointly announced they have expanded their longstanding Technology Alliance to allow QAD to globally license and distribute a wide range of application infrastructure products from Progress Software. QAD has been an Application Partner(1) of Progress Software for more than 20 years. Under the terms of the expanded agreement, QAD and Progress may extend their joint offering beyond the Progress(R) OpenEdge(R) application platform to include Progress Sonic ESB(R) (Enterprise Service Bus), Progress Actional(R) for SOA management, the Progress EasyAsk(R) Natural Language and Query product, and other best-in-class technologies that deliver the reliability, high service levels and enterprise-wide visibility that a lean manufacturing environment demands. With access to a broader portfolio of Progress technologies, QAD is on course to deliver on its vision of shaping the "Perfect Lean Market" for manufacturing by helping their customers leverage their existing IT investment. QAD and Progress customers alike stand to benefit from this alliance as the two companies continue to focus on their respective core competencies, share market intelligence and product development plans, and ensure that industry-leading technology will be available when needed. For example, Progress' Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) capabilities bring enhanced functionality into QAD Enterprise Applications. Taken together, this enables global manufacturers to better manage supply and demand chains, enterprise assets, transportation and logistics, while streamlining communication and improving manufacturing productivity. "In today's rapidly evolving business marketplace, customers seek efficiency and competitive advantage. It is vital that QAD and its key technology providers work closely to create better, more robust and flexible business solutions," said Pam Lopker, president of QAD. "We view Progress as an important component in our aggressive R&D strategy, and we expect customers will benefit from the investments both our companies are making to deliver on our vision of 'The Perfect Lean Market.'" QAD embeds Progress' technology in its core product offering, QAD Enterprise Applications, which are in use at more than 5,500 customer sites in over 90 countries. "QAD has carved out a significant market-leading position with manufacturing companies around the world with their powerful and flexible enterprise software solutions. QAD, and their customers, will benefit from the high reliability, low administrative overhead and faster application development provided by the Progress best-in-class technologies," said Dave Ireland, president of the OpenEdge Division for Progress Software. "With QAD's deep-rooted industry knowledge and our open technologies, QAD's customers will gain a significant market advantage." About QAD QAD is a leading provider of enterprise applications for global manufacturing companies. QAD applications provide critical functionality for managing manufacturing resources and operations within and beyond the enterprise, enabling global manufacturers to collaborate with their customers, suppliers and partners to make and deliver the right product, at the right cost and at the right time. Manufacturers of automotive, consumer products, electronics, food and beverage, industrial and life science products use QAD applications at approximately 5,800 licensed sites in more than 90 countries and in as many as 27 languages. For more information about QAD, telephone +1-805-684-6614, or visit the QAD Web site at: www.qad.com. "QAD" is a registered trademark of QAD Inc. All other products or Company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. About Progress Software Corporation Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS) provides application infrastructure software for the development, deployment, integration and management of business applications. Our goal is to maximize the benefits of information technology while minimizing its complexity and total cost of ownership. Progress can be reached at www.progress.com or +1-781-280-4000. Progress, Sonic ESB, OpenEdge, EasyAsk, Actional and Progress OpenEdge are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation or one of its affiliates or subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Any other trademarks or service marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

 

16 April 2007

Maxima Holdings Plc ("Maxima" or "the Company)

Maxima Holdings Plc (AIM:MXM), the acquisitive AIM listed IT systems integrator and managed services provider, today announces that it has signed an agreement with Microsoft to become a partner for Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Axapta).

The agreement builds upon its existing partnership agreement for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, its recent acquisition of leading Microsoft CRM partner, SevenThree Limited, as well its status as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.

Microsoft will be working closely with Maxima in this new initiative to build a substantial business around Microsoft Dynamics AX - focusing initially on the Construction Industry.

Maxima has already enjoyed considerable success in this industry with its existing construction accounting and service management solution, Intellect, used by over 300 customers in the UK. Maxima will be extending the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX with specific industry modules for the Construction Industry.

"Today's customers demand complete solutions that meet their organisation's unique needs," said Paul White, UK General Manager for Microsoft Business Solutions. "We're addressing that demand by combining vertical applications developed by companies such as Maxima with the core functionality and deep customisation options offered in Microsoft Dynamics AX."

Paul White continues, "Expanding the industry-specific functionality of all our business management products is key element of our competitive sales strategy worldwide. As one of the first partners in the UK to take this approach with Microsoft Dynamics AX, we will be supporting Maxima every step of the way."

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's CEO said, "We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft Dynamics AX will complement our current solution offering and enable us to offer both existing customers and new prospects a complete business management solution. Its also further strengthens our Microsoft relationship."

For further information, please contact:

Maxima

Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive                                01242 211 211
Linda Andrews, Group Finance Director                     0141  880 1000

Cenkos
Stephen Keys/Max Hartley                                       020 7397 8900

Smithfield
Reg Hoare/Sam Botterill                                           020 7903 4900

 

SevenThree, the UK's leading supplier of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and services, has been acquired by Maxima Holdings Plc. The acquisition has a strong strategic fit with Maxima's existing solutions business and existing Microsoft partnership.

SevenThree is primarily focused on the Construction and Building Products sector.  Maxima believes that there is considerable opportunity for CRM within its existing installed base of over 300 construction clients, as well as its wider base of manufacturing, public sector and financial services clients.  The acquisition further enhances Maximas ability to deliver to its client's solutions and services from the worlds leading vendors.

Based in Coventry, SevenThree with over 50 customers, distributes and implements Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Pivotal CRM in the UK and Ireland. Clients include Balfour Beatty Rail, Dimplex, Hanson, Sisk, Amey and Kingspan.

SevenThree is Microsoft's only recommended partner for Microsoft CRM in the Construction Industry.  This is based upon its commitment and development of a pre-configured solution specifically for the vertical.  The Construction Industry is the UK's largest industry sector, contributing 8% to GDP. 

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's Chief Executive said: "I am delighted to welcome the SevenThree team into the Maxima Group.  We are encountering strong demand for Microsoft CRM software solutions across all the markets in which we operate.  SevenThree enhances our capabilities and perfectly complements our existing construction industry solutions, which are strongly aligned with Microsoft."

Ron Parkin, Managing Director of SevenThree added: "Being part of Maxima will enable us to accelerate our growth as well as help us bid for much larger projects.  There is a great cultural fit between the two organisations and everyone in SevenThree is excited about the opportunities this presents."

To find out more about SevenThree please visit http://www.73.co.uk/

Maxima Holdings plc, the IT solutions and managed services group, announces an update on trading for the six months ended 30 November 2006. The business continues to successfully pursue its acquisitive and organic growth strategy, and will report expected revenues and profits significantly up year on year.

Maxima operates through two trading businesses, Maxima Solutions and Maxima Managed Services. A strong characteristic of both businesses continues to be their success at long-term customer relationships, leading to high levels of recurring revenues, with good operating profit margins. It is also pleasing to see the benefits of strong cooperation between the operating units both in sales and delivery.

Maxima Solutions has grown organically, winning eight new clients during the period, and its business has been strengthened with the acquisition of Cognition Solutions Ltd in October 2006. Cognition has a customer base of almost 300 organisations.

Maxima Managed Services has also grown organically, winning eight new clients during the period, and acquired IIL (Intertech Solutions Ireland) Ltd in November 2006. Intertech has a customer base of some 100 organisations with whom it has managed support service agreements.

Maxima will announce its interim results on 27 February 2007, together with details of the interim dividend payment. The results will be reported under IFRS for the first time. In a separate statement, due to be released later this month, the impact of IFRS will be explained along with a historical half-year and full-year restatement of results for comparison purposes.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's Chief Executive said:

"Maxima has more than doubled in size since floating on AIM two years ago. In 2007 we will continue to grow the business both organically and by acquisition. Major new product releases from Microsoft, such as the Vista operating system, Dynamics, Office 2007 and Sharepoint 2007 strongly position the Group for organic growth. In addition, our pipeline of acquisition opportunities continues to be strong and we expect to make further announcements in due course."

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive                              01242 211 211
Linda Andrews, Group Finance Director                   0141 880 1000

Seymour Pierce
Mark Percy/John Depasquale                                 0207 107 8000

Smithfield
Sara Musgrave/Tania Wild                                      020 7360 4900

Maxima (AIM:MXM.L), the IT solutions and managed services company, is pleased to announce that they have been nominated for this year's Oracle UK Partner Awards in the the category equivalent to "Best Newcomer".   

 

 

This nomination recognises the commitment Maxima have shown towards their Oracle business, their business plans and strategies.

Tim Cromarty, Maxima Operations Director, said "I am delighted that our efforts in the Oracle world are being recognised." 

Maxima is one of four nominees in this category and will attend a gala dinner in February 2007 for the awards ceremony.

Maxima (AIM: MXM.L), the IT solutions and managed services company, is pleased to announce that its recently acquired subsidiary, IIL (Intertech Solutions Ireland) Ltd ("Intertech") has been awarded a contract worth £2.9 million over a four year period for the provision and operation of a large Citrix based IT infrastructure platform.

The contract is for the set up and application management of a global work-share facility on behalf of a multinational petrochemical corporation. The systems will be hosted within a major European data centre. The facility will allow globally dispersed engineers working collaboratively on a major design project to access Intergraph's SmartPlant software via Citrix on a single instance of an Oracle database. The project is innovative in the bringing together of all elements of the latest Citrix Access solution, along with key Microsoft and Citrix third party utilities. The contract also includes the provision of a true 24x7 Managed Services facility for users based all over the world. This solves an age-old IT problem of bringing various databases together at the end of an engineering design project.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's Chief Executive said:

"This news confirms the benefit to Intertech of becoming part of the AIM-listed Maxima group, with its deep Oracle and Microsoft skills. Whilst the client saw greater security in dealing with the larger group, Maxima was also able to assist Intertech in the negotiation of improved contract terms. We are nowstrongly positioned to bid for other similar specialist projects in the future and this contract win helpsunderpin the existing expectations for the Company's 2007 financial year"

On the 13^th November 2006, Maxima were presented with QAD's Major Sales Contributor Award by Karl Lopker, QAD's CEO, at the QAD European User Conference in Prague. The prize was received by Kelvin Harrison, CEO, Maxima Holdings PLC.

 

 

 

Charles Harrigan, Maxima's QAD Divisional Director, said, "we are delighted to be acknowledged and honoured by QAD for our commitment and drive in promulgating QAD Applications in the UK and Ireland manufacturing and distribution sector. Maxima operates in a very challenging marketplace, with our efforts being compared to our colleagues in the more lucrative and buoyant economies. Our success is down to the quality of our people and the foresight and commitment of the board and shareholders."

 

Maxima (AIM:MXM.L), the IT solutions and managed services company, is pleased to announce the acquisition of IIL (Intertech Solutions Ireland) Limited ("Intertech") for a total consideration of €6.1million (£4.1million). Intertech provides IT infrastructure solutions and managed services based upon Citrix technologies. Intertech operates principally in Ireland where it is the largest reseller and only platinum partner of Citrix in the Republic of Ireland. The acquisition is in line with Maxima's consolidation strategy within the fragmented IT services market. The Board anticipates that it will be earnings enhancing in the current financial year ending 31 May 2007.

Intertech has a customer base of some 100 organisations with whom it has managed service support agreements, principally for the Citrix software solutions; these are in the three same market segments in which Maxima already operates, namely manufacturing, public sector and financial services. Citrix Systems Inc provides a suite of application delivery infrastructure software products which provide high speed, secure access to any application software from any location over any network. Citrix has numerous partners in Ireland and the UK, however Intertech has attained a pre-eminent position in the Irish market. It has been partner of the year for the last 3 years and in 2006 won 4 of Citrix's 6 partner awards for Ireland.

Click here for full press release PDF - 105Kb

Maxima (AIM: MXM.L), the IT solutions and managed services company, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Cognition Solutions Limited ("Cognition") for a total consideration of £7.4m. Cognition supplies ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software solutions and services to the construction and facilities management sector, and will fit well with Maxima's existing solutions business. The acquisition is in line with Maxima's consolidation strategy within the fragmented IT services market. The Board anticipates that it will be earnings enhancing in the current financial year ending 31 May 2007.

Cognition has a customer base of almost 300 organisations which have bought solutions based on the "Intellect" product developed, owned and exclusively sold and supported by Cognition. These clients range from major organisations such as Alfred McAlpine Business Services Ltd, The Murphy Group and Accord plc to smaller construction companies and local authorities. 19 new customers have been won in the last year. Functionality has been continually enhanced to meet the evolving needs of the client base; for example, Intellect recently became the first product to be approved by HMRC for use with its new CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) reforms. Features include accounts, costing, payroll and management information systems, as well as specialist modules for plant hire, maintenance management, property management and mobile data solutions.

Click here for full press release PDF - 41Kb

The results and financial statements of Maxima Holdings plc, 2006, are available for download from our Investor Relations pages.

Click here to download the report

Maxima Holdings plc, (AIM:MXM), the acquisitive, AIM-listed IT systems integrator and managed services provider, today announces that it has signed an agreement with Microsoft to become a Microsoft Dynamics Partner.

The agreement means Microsoft will support Maxima in this new initiative to build a new business around the Microsoft Dynamics product suite – focusing initially on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.

The Directors believe that this new partnership with Microsoft will allow Maxima to generate new revenue opportunities, further increase its market share and build on the steady, profitable growth it has enjoyed in what is an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima’s CEO said: "We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will compliment our current solution offering and will enable us to offer both existing customers and new prospects a complete business management solution. It also further strengthens our relationship with Microsoft as we build upon the Gold Partner Status we achieved last year"

Maxima Holdings plc, (AIM:MXM), the acquisitive, AIM-listed IT systems integrator and managed services provider, today announces that it has signed an agreement with Microsoft to become a Microsoft Business Dynamics Partner.

The agreement means Microsoft will support Maxima in this new initiative to build a new business around the Business Dynamics product suite - focusing initially on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a complete Customer Relationship Management solution that enables businesses to consolidate all of the customer information they collect in a single location so they can create a clear picture of their customers from first contact through purchase to post sales support.

The Directors believe that this new partnership with Microsoft will allow Maxima to generate new revenue opportunities, further increase its market share and build on the steady, profitable growth it has enjoyed in what is an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's CEO said: "We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft CRM will compliment our current solution offering and will enable us to offer both existing customers and new prospects a complete business management solution. It also further strengthens our relationship with Microsoft as we build upon the Gold Partner Status we achieved last year"

Maxima Holdings plc will publish its preliminary results for the year to 31 May 2006 on 17 August 2006.

For further information, please contact:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive              01242 211211
Linda Andrews, Group Finance Director   0141 880 1000

Seymour Pierce
Mark Percy/John Depasquale                  0207 107 8000

Smithfield
Sara Musgrave/Tania Wild                       020 7903 0676

Maxima Holdings plc (AIM:MXM), the acquisitive, AIM-listed IT systems integrator and managed services provider, announces an update on trading for the year to 31 May 2006.

The Board is pleased to confirm that it expects revenues and operating profit to be in line with market expectations and ahead of 2005 results.

In line with its strategy stated at the time of the IPO, Maxima has successfully completed four acquisitions during the financial year just ended. All acquisitions have been fully integrated and are performing well. Cost savings and positive synergies from cross-selling and cross-resourcing have been delivered on time and in line with expectations.

As a result of these acquisitions, Maxima has structured the Group to operate as two trading businesses, Maxima Solutions and Maxima Managed Services.

Maxima Solutions delivers and supports enterprise and document management software solutions based upon its own IPR and leading products from vendors such as SAP, QAD and Microsoft. 29 new clients have been won during the year and recurring revenues from the client base continue to be strong.

Maxima Managed Services has been formed by the merger of Hanston Technology Partners, acquired in September 2005 and QED Business Systems acquired in May 2006. Both businesses have secured substantial new orders from their existing client base since being acquired by Maxima, while Hanston has won an additional nine new customer accounts. Cash generation has been strong. There were net cash outflows of £12.1m on acquisitions. A placing of shares in September 2005 raised £4.8m net and at year end net debt was £3.1m.

Maxima will announce preliminary results for the full year, together with details of the proposed final dividend payment, on 17 August 2006.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's Chief Executive said:

"Flotation on AIM in November 2004 has enabled Maxima to successfully pursue its ambitions as a consolidator in the IT services sector. Since floating our headcount has more than doubled to over 200 and we are reaping the benefits of scale, which are showing through in increased operating margins. We continue to uncover a healthy supply of acquisition opportunities of IT service companies that fit our stated criteria and expect further announcements in the coming months."

For further information, please contact:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive              01242 211211
Linda Andrews, Group Finance Director   0141 880 1000

Seymour Pierce
Mark Percy/John Depasquale                  0207 107 8000

Smithfield
Sara Musgrave/Tania Wild                       020 7903 0676

 

Passengers Get New Way to Pay the Ferryman - Lisa Kelly, Computing 15 Jun 2006

Orkney Ferries has introduced a new ticketing system to improve efficiency and accept credit card payments. The company, which runs nine ferries in the Orkney Isles, carrying 300,000 passengers a year, has ditched on-board ticket printers for mobile devices.

 The Maxima ticketing system runs on handheld RW420 printers from Zebra Technologies capable of withstanding poor weather conditions on deck.

"Locals know the ferries accept only cash or cheques but tourists don’t, and we needed a system for the 21st century," said David Sawkins, ferry services manager at Orkney Ferries.

A trial tested Microsoft pocket PCs from Maxima using Bluetooth to connect with printers.

But connectivity problems occurred when ticket collectors were close to smaller vessels’ radars, so Bluetooth has been replaced with cables between collectors’ handhelds and printers.

"We needed a system to work fast enough for card transactions and the capacity with Bluetooth was not there," said Sawkins.

QAD, a provider of enterprise applications for global manufacturers, is now shipping its flagship ERP software with a Microsoft.net framework-based user interface, and will offer support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database technology in the near future. As a result of collaboration with Microsoft, current and future releases of the QAD software suite will utilize the Microsoft platform.

Customers can expect seamless operation across sites using a mix of QAD, Microsoft and other database and platform technologies.

Support for the Microsoft platform is one of a host of initiatives QAD announced at Explore 2006, QAD's annual user conference, to deliver on its commitment to simplifying enterprise technology for manufacturers. QAD claims that its services enhance manufacturers' insight into business operations, response to marketplace change, and collaboration with trading partners.

"In concert with Microsoft, we are paving the way for manufacturers to take advantage of advanced database reporting and business intelligence capabilities," commented Pamela Lopker, chairman and president of QAD. "Microsoft's technical applications stack, combined with the focus of QAD's product suites, is a winning combination for today's manufacturers."

Maxima (AIM: MXM.L), the IT systems integration and managed services company, is pleased to announce the acquisition of QED Business Systems Limited ("QED") for a maximum total consideration of £4.8m. QED is an IT services company providing managed services for critical mainframe and midrange computer systems and applications software. The acquisition is in line with Maxima's consolidation strategy within the fragmented IT services market, and is the fifth acquisition the Company has made since its IPO in November 2004. Due to the timing of the acquisition, it will have negligible impact on the current financial year ending 31 May 2006, however, the Board anticipates that it will be earnings enhancing in the next financial year ending 31 May 2007.

Click here for full press release PDF - 109Kb

Maxima Holdings plc , the acquisitive IT services company delivering enterprise solutions and managed services, today announces that it has won a contract worth up to £4m over a two year period to supply Oracle e-Business suite expertise to a major UK transport infrastructure business.

Maxima will support the client as it removes legacy systems and adds new functionality to its Oracle E business suite as this becomes its core business tool. Applications included are Human Resources, CRM, Supply Chain and Finance along with their processes, all working on one single computer system. Such functionality will improve the flow and control of enterprise data across the business, whilst also delivering new services to both internal and external users for quicker and more consistent decision- making. The client is an existing customer of Hanston, a business acquired by Maxima in September 2005. The agreeme nt demonstrates Maxima's ability to maintain and deepen relationships following its successful integration of the Hanston acquisition.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's Chief Executive said:

"I am delighted that Maxima has been successful in further developing client relationships since integrating the business of Hanston. The contract, which is currently one of the largest projects of its kind in the UK, underpins group forecasts for the current year and demonstrates Maxima's continued ability to provide a comprehensive managed service for the technically complex Oracle e-business suite."

Click here for full press release PDF - 250Kb 

Maxima Holdings plc ("Maxima") the acquisitive AIM-listed software and services consolidator, today announces the acquisition of the MFG/PRO business of Seabrook Research Ltd (“Seabrook”) for a consideration of up to €750,000. The acquisition is in line with Maxima’s stated consolidation strategy within the fragmented IT services market, and is the fourth acquisition the Company has made since its IPO in November 2004.

Seabrook, based in Cork, Ireland, is the Irish distributor of QAD’s enterprise software solution MFG/PRO. It has more than 20 clients in the industrial sector, with a strong focus on pharmaceuticals and food/beverages. The business will be integrated with Maxima’s existing subsidiary, Minerva Industrial Systems, which is the UK distributor for MFG/PRO. No staff will transfer under the agreement, however Sean O’Sullivan, Managing Director of Seabrook will continue to provide consultancy to Minerva. The business will operate from Minerva’s Cheltenham office.

Revenues of the business being transferred in the year to 31/1/6 were approximately €900,000, of which approximately 50% derived from recurring support contracts. Overall gross margin was greater than 50%. The acquisition will be settled by a total consideration of up to €750,000, payable in cash in three stages over 12 months, depending upon performance. The assets being purchased are goodwill and deferred revenues associated with Seabrook’s customer and distribution contracts. The Board anticipates that the acquisition will be earnings enhancing in the current financial year.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima’s Chief Executive said: “I am delighted with this acquisition as it provides Maxima the opportunity to increase our presence in the Irish marketplace, where we already have more than 40 clients. Our priority is to provide first class service to Seabrook’s existing client base, however we are already identifying opportunities for new business in Ireland.”

Sean O’Sullivan, Seabrook’s Managing Director said: “I am happy to be merging Seabrook’s ERP business with Maxima. The two businesses already know each other well, and I am confident that our customers will be well served by Maxima’s skilled team of consultants, developers and support staff, who have an excellent reputation in our market.”

Maxima Holdings plc, the acquisitive AIM-listed IT software & services consolidator, today announces that Azur Group, its first acquisition on flotation, has attained Gold Certified status in the Microsoft Partner Program, with competencies in Microsoft Advanced Infrastructure Solutions and Networking Infrastructure Solutions. The Microsoft award is in recognition of Azur’s client-winning expertise and total impact in the technology marketplace.

The Microsoft Partner Program was launched in December 2003 and represents Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to the success of partners worldwide. The program offers a single, integrated partnering framework that recognizes partner expertise, rewards the total impact that partners have in the technology marketplace, and delivers more value to help partners’ businesses be more successful.

As a Gold Certified partner, Azur has demonstrated its capability with Microsoft technologies and proven its ability to effectively meet customers’ needs. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive a rich set of benefits, including access, training and support, giving them a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The Directors believe that this partnership with Microsoft will allow Azur to further increase its market share and build on the steady, profitable growth it has enjoyed in what is an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Azur has been offering Microsoft infrastructure as an upgrade path to its clients operating on legacy technologies for several years. In particular, its document management solutions, in use with more than 300 clients in the UK and the USA are benefiting from the robust and open solution provided by the Microsoft platform and tight integration with other Microsoft Applications.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima’s CEO said: "We are delighted to have attained Gold Certified status in the Microsoft Partner Program. The Program clearly endorses our capabilities in this arena and our commitment to delivering value to our customers. The benefits provided through our Gold Certified status will allow us to continue to enhance the offerings that we provide."

Allison Watson, Vice President of the Worldwide Partner Sales and Marketing Group at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond commented: "Today Microsoft recognizes Azur as a new Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for demonstrating its expertise in providing customer satisfaction with Microsoft products and technology."

Minerva Industrial Systems received the prestigious 'Direct Sales Award' for 2005 from David Ireland, President, Progress Software Inc., at Progress UK and Ireland Partner Conference Dinner, held at the De Vere Carden Park on Thursday 26th January 2006.

Minerva's Director Sales & Marketing, Charles Harrigan, said, "I am very proud to receive this award on behalf of everyone at Minerva. We have worked extremely hard the past couple of years to consolidate the relationship. Our partnership with Progress is fundamental to the growth of Minerva as a Systems Integrator utilising SONIC Enterprise Service Bus offering customers a true Services Oriented Architecture (SOA)".

Maxima, the AIM listed provider of software and IT solutions, today announces the acquisition of Hanston Technology Partners Limited ("Hanston") for a total consideration of £8.75m. The acquisition is in line with Maxima's stated consolidation strategy within the fragmented IT services market, and is the third acquisition the Company has made since its IPO in November 2004.

The Board anticipates that the acquisition will be earnings enhancing in the current financial year.

Hanston is a fast growing Oracle based managed services and consultancy business, which has demonstrated average organic growth of 50% per annum for the last four years. Headquartered in Reading, Hanston has 37 employees and a broad base of 40 clients in the public and private sectors including major transportation, central government, telecommunication and pharmaceutical organizations. The acquisition will boost Maxima's presence in these markets and allow the Company the opportunity to expand into the fast growing application management outsourcing market with cross-selling opportunities. Hanston will form the fourth business unit within Maxima.

Hanston had revenues of £3.5m in the year to 31 March 2005, 45% of which were application management contracts, which fits well with Maxima's business model of growing the business through a high proportion of recurring revenues. Operating profit was £0.7m and net assets were £0.5m, including £0.5m of cash.

Consideration for the acquisition will be £8.75m, comprising £8.25m in cash and £0.50m of Maxima ordinary shares ("Consideration Shares"). Funding for the purchase will come from bank debt and the net proceeds of a placing, fully underwritten by the Company's broker, Seymour Pierce.

The Company is also pleased to announce that to partially fund the acquisition of Hanston, Seymour Pierce, as agent for the Company, has conditionally placed 3,030,303 new ordinary shares of 1p each in the Company ( "New Ordinary Shares") at 165p per share to existing and new institutional shareholders. The New Ordinary Shares and the Consideration Shares will, upon issue, rank pari passu with the Company's existing issued ordinary shares of 1p each ("Ordinary Shares"), including the right to the dividend of 1.5p payable on 7 November 2005 to shareholders on the register on 28 October 2005. Application has been made for the New Ordinary Shares and the Consideration Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, and dealings are expected to commence on Thursday 22 September 2005. The vendors of Hanston have agreed not to sell the Consideration Shares without permission of the Company's broker, Seymour Pierce, for at least 12 months from the date of completion of the acquisition.

Furthermore, to satisfy institutional demand, Seymour Pierce has conditionally placed on behalf of an existing shareholder of Maxima, 794,002 Ordinary Shares at 165p per share.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's Chief Executive said:

"I am delighted to announce the acquisition of Hanston, Maxima's third acquisition since floating on AIM in November 2004. Hanston is a high growth and high quality business with an impressive client list, which will strengthen our presence in the Oracle IT services market. We are confident that Hanston is an excellent fit within Maxima, and will enhance our opportunities for growing and developing the business."

Gary Hurlstone, Commercial Director of Hanston, said:

"Hanston has had a very successful five years. This deal now gives Hanston a tremendous opportunity to move to the next phase. As such, we are very pleased to be part of the Maxima Group."

For further information, please contact:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive 07801 380 616
Geoff Bicknell, Group Finance Director 07785 361 621

Seymour Pierce
Mark Percy/John Depasquale 0207 107 8000

Smithfield
Sara Musgrave 020 7903 0676

Maxima, the AIM listed provider of software and IT solutions, today announces the conditional acquisition of Ringwood Group plc ("Ringwood") for a consideration of £2.9m. The acquisition is in line with Maxima's strategy, stated at the time of its IPO, of being a consolidator in the fragmented enterprise software market.

The Board anticipates that the acquisition will be earnings enhancing in the current financial year.

Ringwood is a leading supplier of web-based content management and document archiving software. It has a broad base of over 200 clients in the financial services, public and industrial sectors including organisations such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Norwich Union, HM Land Registry, The Met Office and ExxonMobil. It is based in Aylesbury, with a sales office in New Hampshire, USA.

Ringwood had revenues of £3.2m in the year to 31 March 2005, 65% were from recurring support contracts with its existing customer base. Profit before tax was £29K and net assets were £1.0m. (un-audited)

The acquisition, which is conditional on the agreed waiver by the shareholders of Ringwood of the application of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers to the acquisition, will be settled by a total consideration of £2.9m, comprising cash at completion of £2.2m and the issue of 400,000 new ordinary Maxima shares of 1p each, representing 3% of the Company's issued share capital ("New Ordinary Shares").

At completion, Ringwood had net cash in excess of £1.5m and carries forward tax losses in excess of £100k, therefore the purchase price represents an effective enterprise value of approximately £1.3m.

The New Ordinary Shares will, upon issue, rank pari passu with the Company's existing issued ordinary shares. Application has been made for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, and dealings are expected to commence on Friday 12 August 2005. The vendors of Ringwood have agreed not to sell these shares without permission of the Company's broker, Seymour Pierce for at least 12 months from the date of completion of the acquisition.

Kelvin Harrison, Maxima's Chief Executive said: "I am delighted to announce the acquisition of Ringwood, Maxima's second acquisition since floating on AIM in November 2004. Ringwood is a perfect fit with our existing enterprise software operations. It has an impressive range of clients, adding to our existing industrial and public sector client base and introducing us to the financial services sector. I welcome the team and the skills they bring to Maxima."

Mike Crisp, Ringwood's Managing Director said: "I am confident that as part of Maxima, Ringwood will grow profitably. Our product and skills fit well in the Maxima portfolio, creating great opportunities for our staff, and customers. I am pleased to be staying on in a consultancy role to Maxima."

For further information, please contact:

Maxima
Kelvin Harrison, Chief Executive 07801 380 616

Geoff Bicknell, Group Finance Director

Seymour Pierce
Mark Percy/John Depasquale 0207 107 8000

Smithfield
Sara Musgrave/Sarah Richardson 020 7903 0676