18th May 2005 07:01
AVEVA Group PLC18 May 2005 18 May 2005 AVEVA Group plc Acceleration of VNET business and acquisition of Realitywave AVEVA Group plc ("AVEVA"; stock code: AVV), the engineering software andservices group, is pleased to announce a wider rollout of its industry-leadingsolution VANTAGE Enterprise Net ('VNET'). This represents a strategic commitmentby AVEVA to exploit an important market opportunity in IT engineeringinformation asset management solutions. VNET VNET transforms the efficiency in accessing correct information, improvescollaboration between the various teams on a project, highlights inconsistenciesbetween data sources, assists in decision support and better manages the flow ofinformation between applications. As a result, it removes significant costs fromthe engineering process. VNET is a unique internet based technology that enables common applications tobe integrated to create an internet-based information portal. It allowscustomers to view and manipulate information throughout the lifecycle of anengineering project. In addition, it can be integrated with AVEVA and competitorproducts, as well as other complementary applications such as SAP andDocumentum. AVEVA is successfully delivering both the underlying VNET productand the associated integration services to clients worldwide. Acquisition of Realitywave To support the development of this opportunity, AVEVA acquired Realitywave, Inc.for £3.2 million in March 2005. Realitywave's patented technology is a criticalcomponent of the VNET offering, allowing users to efficiently access andmanipulate large amounts of information (be it data or designs) by way of aunique streaming technology. This acquisition supports existing businessrequirements and secures a key technology as AVEVA invests in this importantstrategic opportunity. Market opportunity AVEVA will initially focus on its target sectors of oil and gas, power andmarine. The objective is to establish relationships with leading clients inthese sectors in order to secure first mover advantage in IT engineeringinformation asset management solutions. Over £3 million has already been invested by AVEVA in technology development,generating revenue of £3.2 million since its launch in April 2003. As VNET isrolled out this year, a team of additional resources will be required tostrengthen AVEVA's current development and deployment capability. In addition,AVEVA plans to enlarge its team to provide pre and post sales support andintroduce new sales management processes and sales skills. As the businessgrows, considerable extra resource will be required for implementation andclient support. These extra resources will require an additional investment of£2 million over the next 12 months in addition to our current commitment.Whilst this will constrain earnings in the short term, it represents asignificant opportunity to accelerate profitability in future years. This investment will enable AVEVA to exploit a growing demand for flexible ITengineering data asset management solutions. AVEVA estimates that net revenuesfrom VNET product and services can grow by 50% compound over the next threeyears. To date, VNET has been profitably and successfully implemented on anumber of major projects including BP's Angola FPSO Project, Shell's NanhaiChemical complex, Woodside's EDM project and Jacobs' JIAF Project. Richard Longdon, Chief Executive of AVEVA commented: "VNET is an importantopportunity for us to build on our success in existing markets, and gives us aplatform to penetrate a growing market for data delivery in the maintenance andoperations arena. Moreover, we have a unique product that has enormous potentialwithin the engineering community. Our investment to exploit this majoropportunity represents an additional growth opportunity that will generatesignificant future returns. As a result, it will transform our position as amuch broader supplier of IT engineering solutions and establish AVEVA as an openproduct lifecycle management provider." Enquiries: AVEVA Group plc On 18th May Tel: 020 7796 4133 Richard Longdon Thereafter Tel: 01223 556 611 Paul Taylor gcg hudson sandler Tel: 020 7796 4133 Andrew Hayes Sandrine Gallien James Hill This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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