- Strong growth in turnover continues (+25.8 percent)
- EBIT at EUR 3.58 million significantly higher than in 2016
Turnover rose by one quarter to EUR 44.10 million (2016 H1 = EUR 35.08 million), according to provisional figures. Powered by strong growth in the licence business during the 2nd quarter, it was possible to more than double the EBITDA figure (without any currency effects) to EUR 5.29 million (previous year: EUR 2.31 million); this represented an EBITDA margin on turnover of 12.0 percent. EBIT too significantly exceeded the figures from the previous year (EUR 0.31) and therefore created an EBIT margin on turnover of 8.1 percent.
Based on the results achieved and the sales potential for the remainder of the financial year, the Management Board continues to assume that the company will be able to increase its turnover in comparison with the previous year in line with expectations; it is continuing to stand by its forecast for the year 2017 and its medium-term forecast as published in the financial statement for the year 2016 without making any changes.
The report for the first six months of the year will probably be published on 30 August.
Raleigh, NC – January 10, 2017 – GK Software today announced the U.S. launch of its highly successful Mobile Customer Engagement platform. With over 10,000 stores and 5 million consumers already connected to the platform worldwide, GK Software now offers North American retailers the benefits of incorporating the platform’s business-critical capabilities into their omni-channel strategy.
The GK Mobile Customer Engagement platform turns shoppers’ smartphones into a retailer’s ally by bringing a wealth of consumer-friendly capabilities to a retailer’s established Android or iOS mobile application. The simplicity of connecting the application to the retailer’s POS, ERP, CRM and other enterprise systems delivers rapid ROI with minimal business disruption.
The Mobile Customer Engagement platform’s white-label capabilities include:
- Self-Scanning Using Shoppers’ Smartphones: Consumers can use their smartphones as a self-scanning device to eliminate the traditional pain points of the checkout process. They can check in by using a QR code to connect with the store’s POS system, scan items as they go without associate support, and then pair with the POS at checkout to pay and complete the transaction. All of this is as secure and simple as using traditional mobile payment solutions widely available today, while utilizing the retailer’s current checkout infrastructure.
- Personalized Promotions: Through seamless integration with SAP’s ERP and hybris Marketing, or other existing enterprise systems, GK’s Mobile Customer Engagement platform leverages personal shopping history to provide unique offers to consumers as they browse physical or digital storefronts, anywhere and at any time. This includes location-based services that utilize geofences to deliver coupons and vouchers based on consumer location.
- Loyalty Programs: Digital loyalty programs deliver vouchers and rewards on the go, and can entertain campaigns across various suppliers. In tandem with personalized offers, integrated loyalty programs help provide a new level of excitement and value for shoppers.
- Award Redemption: Automated redemption of all relevant offers through a “one tap” process to enable identification of the individual shopper, redemption of ALL coupons, vouchers, points, etc., collection of new points and credits for future purchases, and the transmission of the e-receipt to the mobile wallet. This maximizes customer throughput for the retailer, and convenience for the shopper!
- Customer Data: The Mobile Customer Engagement platform allows retailers to understand real-time, in-store consumer behavior at the same level at which they track web store behavior. By analyzing in-store decision-making, retailers can better understand their consumers throughout the omni-channel journey, enabling them to improve operational and merchandising efficiency at every step during the path to purchase.
“GK Software is excited to bring our comprehensive suite of mobile capabilities to the U.S. retail market,” said Michael Jaszczyk, CEO, GK Software USA. “Engaging customers in-store via smartphones is a business-critical component of omni-channel retailing. Retailers can now empower consumers in new and exciting ways, while maintaining complete control through easy integration with their enterprise infrastructure.”
GK Software will demonstrate the Mobile Customer Engagement platform, along with its portfolio of point of sale, mobile POS and store/back-office solutions, at booth #1853 of the NRF Big Show, January 15-17, 2017. SAP will also demonstrate GK’s Mobile Customer Engagement as part of the complete customer journey at booth # 1921.
- GK Software takes a majority holding in prudsys AG
- Expansion of the omni-channel services through a solution based on AI and machine learning
The takeover of the spin-off from Chemnitz University of Technology is a further component in the consistent, unified commercial strategy at GK Software. As a result, the opportunities within the GK range of solutions for cross-channel, personalised customer contact have been considerably enhanced. The prudsys solutions is a leading product on the international market and the company is listed in the Gartner Market Guide for Digital Personalization Engines as a “representative vendor”.
In addition to integrating the prudsys solution, GK Software is expecting the takeover to generate an inflow of expertise for the ongoing automation of processes in the retail sector. After all, the trend towards preparing or making more and more decisions on the basis of self-learning systems is now irreversible. Intelligent corporate software will therefore increasingly be based on AI and machine learning. This will introduce changes to many areas in processes in the retail sector – ranging from planning product ranges to dynamic pricing and even issues like the automated, optimised deployment of personnel.
Self-learning, real-time solution for recommendations, marketing automation and dynamic pricing
prudsys AG, which has largely focused on the e-commerce sector so far, offers a market-leading solution for the following three fields of application: recommendations, market automation and dynamic pricing. The Realtime Decisioning Engine (prudsys RDE), which has been developed in-house at prudsys, forms the basis for handling these issues; it incorporates artificial intelligence and is based on a large number of innovative, mathematical processes – e.g. reinforcement learning or real-time scoring. The algorithms and methods used by the prudsys RDE can be flexibly used to handle a wide variety of requirements in the retail sector. The USPs of the prudsys software include a self-learning, real-time solution, which analyses customer behaviour every second and immediately responds to any changes. To match GK Software’s product strategy, the prudsys solution is cloud-based, internationalised and is available as software-as-a-service.
Market-leading personalisation solution for omni-channel retailing
Personalisation has no longer just been an issue for e-commerce as part of omni-channel concepts for some time. After all, consumers expect individualised offers at each touch point – and they need to be precisely tailored to their needs, whether at a web shop, on a mobile device or at the point of sale. GK Software is closing this circle by integrating the prudsys solution and can offer consistent personalisation and end-to-end interaction with consumers on all the channels. One example of this is the integration of prudsys RDE as an app in GK Software’s POS solution – this has been already demonstrated at recent trade fairs. As a result, it is possible to offer consumers consistent recommendations in real time and on all channels – ranging from web shops to smartphones and “advice tablets” and even tills. Individualised coupons, which can be directly sent to customer smartphones via the GK Mobile Customer Assistant solution, are another scenario for deployment.
The prudsys solution
The prudsys products are centred on the prudsys RDE, which enables retailers to handle innovative real-time scenarios that are perfectly tailored to the retail sector. The software with its modular structure offers three major components: 1. The self-learning Recommendation Engine enables personalised customer contact via all the sales channels. However, it does not just issue individual product recommendations, but also personalised content of any type – ranging from banners to editorial content and even photos and videos. 2. The Marketing Automation component is used, among other things, to draw up forecasts of individual customer shopping behaviour by including the latest behaviour information and master data. This provides answers to the questions about which marketing tool suits a particular customer or who will probably respond to a particular offer. The practical applications for this system include the issue of individual incentives at the online shop to prevent people cancelling their shopping basket or the automated selection of the suitable target group for a planned advertising campaign. 3. The Dynamic Pricing tool handles the best possible price finding system in real time for millions of products. The prices are adapted to the customer’s behaviour and the constantly changing market and company situation completely automatically. Prices are calculated both for the store and the web shop based on the forecast price acceptance of consumers – and the prices of competitors are included as an important factor too.
About prudsys AG
prudsys AG is a leading provider of omni-channel personalisation in the retail sector. The prudsys RDE enables companies to maximise customer value along every channel in real time. The company, which was founded in 1998, is a pioneer in the field of real-time personalisation and has been actively shaping the development of online shopping from the outset. By closely dovetailing recommendations, marketing automation and dynamic pricing, the prudsys RDE offers a unique shopping experience in more than 200 online shops. prudsys AG has several patents and has been maintaining close ties with renowned academic institutes for many years. The company is a member of the DMG and OMG standardisation committees and therefore has a direct influence on the development of the guidelines for intelligent data analysis. Customers of prudsys include leading retailers like babywalz, bonprix, Conrad, Coop, Douglas, Klingel, Otto, Obi, SportScheck, Thalia or Würth.
- GK gains several new projects with global top 50 retailers
- First major project in South Asia
Not only has the first major existing customer decided to implement a complete switch to OmniPOS within a new project, but two other retailers, which are also among the global top 50, also opted to introduce the solutions sold by SAP and developed by GK Software. While one of the projects is based in southern Europe, the second will be introduced in Asia and South Africa. The company was also able to gain business from a supermarket chain in Switzerland and a DIY store operator in Canada during the second quarter. The new projects involve introducing OmniPOS to approx. 4,300 stores located in more than five countries.
The Management Board views the gaining of these projects as confirmation of the company's plans for the current year; it is therefore adhering to its forecast, as published in the announcement made on the 1st quarter, without making any changes.
- Turnover increases by 24.2 percent after nine months, according to provisional figures
- EBITDA reaches EUR 6.73 million
The EBITDA rose greatly to EUR 6.73 million, following a figure of EUR 4.04 million in the previous year. The EBIT reached a figure of EUR 4.11 million (first 9M of 2016: EUR 1.04 million).
Based on these results and the sales opportunities in the first nine months of the year, the Management Board continues to assume that the company will be able to significantly increase its turnover in comparison with the previous year, as expected; and it is maintaining its forecast for the year 2017 and the medium-term without making any changes or amendments.
The full nine months report is expected to be published on November 27.
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Growth in turnover of 23,5 percent to EUR 77.33 million (provisional figures)
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EBITDA grew many times over to EUR 7.80 million, EBIT reached EUR 3.94 million
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Revenue from cloud solutions developing positively
A significant increase in turnover in all the business units (licenses, services and maintenance) formed the basis for growth during the financial year. Together with SAP it was possible to attract eight new customers in Europe, the USA and Central America to the new OmniPOS solution during the 2016 financial year. The development of this cloud solution, which was officially presented at the beginning of 2016, has therefore proceeded in an extremely positive manner. The first project in Ireland and Great Britain, for example, has already been completely rolled out and three other projects with installations in the USA and Switzerland have now entered productive service for the first time. Regardless of these phenomena, other customers of SAP have opted for the Central Pricing Engine developed by GK (which is also a cloud solution). One major driving force for the improvement in profits has not only been license revenues, but also the significant improvement in revenues in the field of the company’s service business. The measures adopted at the end of 2015 have already had a strong impact.
Based on the provisional results for 2016, a well-filled sales pipeline and the competitiveness of the new OmniPOS solution, which has already been proven, the Management Board is confident that the company will be able to reach the goals set in the medium-term forecast for the period until 2018 and is standing by this without making any changes.
The full financial statement for GK Software will probably be published on 27 April 2017.
GK Software today announced it is the recipient of the SAP® Hybris® 2017 Global ISV Partner of the Year Award. Awards were presented by SAP Hybris to the top-performing partners in 2016 that have made outstanding contributions to driving customers’ digital transformation. Recipients of this year’s awards have been – in partnership with SAP Hybris – helping organizations adopt innovation easily to attract, retain and grow a profitable customer base.
Michael Scheibner, Executive Vice President Strategic Operations, GK Software states that, “GK Software solutions, integrated with the SAP Hybris Commerce solution, enable retailers to reach out to customers on all available sales channels. The award recognized GK Software for delivering the power of omni-commerce to brick-and-mortar retailers increasing customer engagement and empowering associates in a digital retail world.”
Selected from SAP Hybris’ broad partner ecosystem, nominations for the SAP Hybris Partner of the Year Awards were based on internal SAP data. A steering committee composed of regional and global SAP Hybris representatives determined winning partners in each category according to a number of criteria including joint sales achievement, customer case studies and consultant certifications. Awards were presented in a variety of categories, including overall partner performance by geography, innovation, service delivery and newcomer.
“We are recognizing GK as the recipient of the SAP® Hybris 2017 Global ISV Partner of the Year Award,” said Patrick Finn, Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances, SAP Hybris. “Together Hybris and GK Software deliver the best in class suite for a seamless, consistent customer experience across all devices and channels. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our partners to grow their opportunities with SAP and to jointly deliver value for our customers.”
GK Software has a longstanding partnership with SAP dating to 2001, continuing when SAP Hybris became an SAP company. The companies share a common omni-channel roadmap and a close technical and sales partnership.
GK Software received its award during the SAP Hybris LIVE: Digital Summit conference, an annual gathering bringing together thousands of professionals from across the globe who are involved in the customer journey, ranging from marketers and developers to senior executives. The one-day event contains both digital and physical elements with streamed and recorded sessions from three locations: Singapore, Munich and New York. The event focuses on the overarching theme of “Go Beyond Disruption.”
The major focus of this year's showcase by GK Software is the thoroughly redeveloped OmniPOS solution, which was officially launched last year. It has been particularly designed for use in a truly wide variety of omni-channel scenarios. OmniPOS combines the tried and tested features of the market-leading GK store solutions with the latest architecture and technology. All the relevant business processes in OmniPOS are made available as services, and they become accessible for each sales channel. This offers retailers a completely new level of quality for introducing genuine unified commerce concepts. For example, the world's only store software, which is capable of operating on SAP HANA, features topics like cloud computing, clustering, or multi-client capability just as much as seamless integration in the world's leading backend and e-commerce facilities provided by SAP. The solution is part of the world's only end-to-end, complete package for unified commerce within the network of SAP solutions for the retail sector. OmniPOS is also sold by SAP using the "SAP Omnichannel Point-of-Sale by GK" brand. Fifteen customers have already selected to introduce their omni-channel strategies.
Central price calculations for each channel
One important element in all-round omni-channel concepts involves standard pricing and the consistent use of as many promotions and loyalty activities as the retailer needs. Using the Central Pricing Engine, GK offers the leading solution, which is designed to simultaneously handle a very large number of price calculations via several channels in real-time. The Central Pricing Engine handles any possible combination of promotions and can also map the most complex rules on a wide variety of devices in real-time. The solution is also part of the SAP solution portfolio.
Apps first - an innovative concept for rapid 'time-to-store'
OmniPOS is a standard solution, which is designed to be able to respond to the relevant needs of retailers in a wide variety of sectors very quickly. In addition to classic facilities like parameterisation or programming, the solution offers a special concept for reducing the time-to-store through 'app enablement' developed by GK - i.e. the time that is required until the rollout of new processes in stores. OmniPOS fully relies on HTML5 (SAP Fiori) to manage the interfaces. New functions in the form of apps can be integrated without any changes to the product core and with a manageable efforts needed for programming. These apps also support the sales personnel - e.g. with additional information, advisory tools or sales recommendations. Solutions provided through apps for ticketing (sale of event tickets), instore messaging and cashier training will be on display at the EuroShop trade show for the very first time. Because of the many advantages of this concept, the principle of 'apps first' will be used for the ongoing development of OmniPOS, although each function will first be checked to see whether it can be designed as an app and could therefore be immediately available on each device without the need for any further development work.
Support at the shelf - additional information through augmented reality
Products are also the focal point of shoppers' interest. However, the opportunities are restricted for offering more extensive information or additional purchase incentives directly at the shelf. Using an augmented reality solution, GK will show for the first time how classic shelf information can be enhanced for customers and sales personnel by using smartphones and tablets. The product is automatically recognized and all the available information and ordering opportunities are immediately displayed to consumers. The sales personnel also receive information that is relevant to the items - e.g. their availability. By using augmented reality in stores, GK is closing another gap between the in-store business and the internet. This enables retailers to offer the same comfort enjoyed by customers at web shops in stores.
Faster shopping - full control over shopping with GK Self-Scanning
Self-scanning is one of the fashionable trends. Many large retailers have already been focusing on this subject for some time in order to offer their customers better service and more options when shopping. GK will present a self-scanning solution at the EuroShop trade show, which is part of the GK Mobile Customer Experience Platform (MCE) and is seamlessly integrated in OmniPOS. Both, dedicated retailer devices and customer smartphones, can be used to register items and pay for them. The self-scanning solution can handle the complete range of mobile customer services like infotainment, couponing, or mobile payments in conjunction with the Mobile Customer Experience Platform.
Order online, pick up in the store - efficient omni-channel processes with GK Pick & Pack
Another module for end-to-end omni-channel processes is the GK Pick & Pack solution. This enables the store personnel to pick the goods ordered online in good time and hand them over to customers in the store or in the pick-up area. All the picking orders are clearly labeled and are available on each mobile and stationary device, as Pick & Pack is also made available by app enablement. Pick & Pack is seamlessly linked to the merchandise management and till systems and no outside solution is required for this service feature, which is becoming increasingly important.
'Simply Retail' is simply one step ahead
GK's entire development and research work is known as 'Simply Retail'. Our philosophy is to scale down the complexity of processes and make them as simple as possible for the IT managers, the sales personnel and customers. We aim to reduce the number of solutions in use, prevent any disruption and reduce the possibilities for errors. GK Software offers a complete portfolio, which embraces all the store processes at the POS, on shelves and in the warehouse, all mobile processes on customer smartphones, integration with merchandise management, e-commerce and CRM systems and complete services for retail companies. GK has been successfully working with partners like SAP, SAP hybris and valuephone for many years.
The Supervisory Board of GK Software AG today approved the planned transaction subject to the successful conclusion of the due diligence. A further prerequisite for the completion of the transaction is the approval of the annual shareholders' meeting of prudsys AG. The Management Board of prudsys AG has recommended the shareholders to accept the offer of GK Software. The Management Board of GK Software AG estimates that the acquisition of the majority stake will cost up to 5 million euros.
GK Software AG
Waldstraße 7
08261 Schöneck
Germany
WKN 757142
ISIN DE0007571424
Listed: Frankfurt (Prime Standard)
(End of the obligatory announcement)
About prudsys GmbH
Founded in 1998 as a spin-off of the Technical University of Chemnitz, the company is a leader in the field of artificial intelligence applications in online commerce. More than 200 online shops rely on the company's artificial intelligence solution for real-time intelligence-based data analysis. prudsys' customers include Babywalz, bonprix, Conrad, Coop, Douglas, Klingel, Otto, Obi, SportScheck, Thalia and Würth. GK Software expects the acquisition to strengthen its own portfolio by integrating prudsys know-how in the areas of artificial intelligence, cloud technologies and data mining.
The shareholders of GK Software AG will automatically become the shareholders of GK Software SE as a result of the conversion process. There are no adjustments to shareholders’ rights and no other repercussions are expected for the customers and employees at GK Software AG as a result of the change of legal form. The company is not planning any modification to the current two-tier board structure consisting of a Management Board and a Supervisory Board either. Schöneck will continue to be the company‘s headquarters and administrative centre.
The change of legal form requires the approval of the shareholders. The company is aiming to obtain this at the 2017 annual shareholders’ meeting, which, according to current planning, will take place on 22 June 2017.
In May 2017, the shareholders of GK Software AG will receive extensive information on the agenda item regarding the planned change of legal form together with their invitation to the annual shareholders’ meeting. At the same time, the necessary steps will be introduced in order to guarantee the legally prescribed employee participation as part of the transformation process.
GK Software AG
Waldstraße 7
08261 Schöneck
Germany
WKN 757142
ISIN DE0007571424
Listed: Frankfurt (Prime Standard)
(End of the obligatory announcement)
