Dear Fellow Shareholders,
In 2014, our team accomplished a number of milestone operational achievements across the business:
Unifying our Product Offering
Having completed the integration of the Nokia Networks BSS acquisition, we turned to optimizing our software offering. In the second quarter of 2014, we announced the availability of Redknee Unified 10, the latest version of our business critical platform that is a highly configurable, real-time end-to-end converged charging, billing, policy management and customer care solution.
Aligning our Cost Structure
In the fourth quarter, we commenced a comprehensive review of our cost structure with the intention of strategically reducing our reliance on external contractors, concentrating staff into existing office locations and consolidating specific activities to lower cost centres.
Expanding into New Market Verticals
With our announcement of the availability of Redknee Unified 10 came our first offering to markets outside of telecom via the Connected Suite. This is a significant milestone as it demonstrates the capability and strength of our software offering to support new market strategies. Subsequent to our fiscal year end, we announced our first commercial order utilizing the Redknee Connected Suite.
Over the course of 2014, we saw our revenues grow substantially to $257.7 million, up 81% over 2013 and reflecting full four quarters of our unified company. More importantly, on an annual basis our gross margin was 51%, which resulted in an adjusted EBITDA of $13.8 million or 5% of revenue per annum. Our focus has remained on revenue quality to drive sustainable profitability, and we are making progress in continuing to drive toward a software product model while minimizing low or negative margin items from our top line. Our order backlog sits at a healthy $169.2 million, which gives us a strong revenue visibility. Recurring revenue for the full year was $120.7 million. Our cash balance at year-end was a solid $109.5 million.
Throughout the year, we have remained focused on our long-term growth strategy:
1. On our product offering front:
We are investing and building our product platform; as of the most recent quarter, Redknee had over 156 patents granted and more than 48 patents-pending. In total, our solution is in place with over 200 customers, in 90 countries, supporting more than 2.4 billion subscribers globally.
In addition to the first Connected Suite customer contract I noted earlier, we are in discussion with additional strategic opportunities and expect to announce further medium to long-term commercial contracts in this area, providing increased leverage for Redknee's R&D investments.
2. On expanding our market share and leadership
Our team is passionate about our 'customer for life' approach that we have taken with each of our clients. This approach to servicing their needs is largely responsible for why we have retained all of our clients this year and continued to build upon these relationships by offering tailored solutions to grow their business, while also growing ours.
In September of this past year, Ovum's 'OSS/BSS Market Overview and Vendor Landscape' report ranked Redknee as the top BSS vendor for the number of contracts awarded by quarter from 3Q13 to 2Q14. Redknee has grown substantially faster, and taken market share away from our competitors - largely because of our advanced software product platform, superior service and expertise. Over the course of fiscal 2014, we have grown our software licenses by approximately 230% year-over-year, in service of our objectives to drive a software business model.
3. On our sustainable recurring revenues
Our recurring revenues are primarily comprised of support revenue and SaaS licenses that together in fiscal 2014 comprised $120.7 million or 47% of revenues. While we have seen an expected decline in support revenue this year relating specifically to customers that had decided to move off of the platform prior to Redknee's acquisition of the Nokia Networks BSS asset, we see an opportunity to continue to improve the support margins of the contract we have inherited from the acquisition, while providing more opportunities for SaaS or term licenses. We will continue to focus on sustainably growing our recurring revenues, while progressively scaling our EBITDA margin substantially higher than where they are today.
In summary, our orders have grown significantly over the past 12 months, and we are seeing improvement in margins and cash, as we continue to execute on our three step plan. We will work tirelessly to ensure the quality of the fundamentals of our business remain intact. We are building strong, quality revenue streams, improving gross margin and EBITDA margins, while improving our cash flow.
I invite you to attend our Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which will be held on March 11, 2015 at The TMX Broadcast Centre, The Exchange Tower, 130 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario commencing at 10:00am EST.
On behalf of our Board and the entire management team, I would like to thank our employees, partners, customers, investors and shareholders, along with the financial community, for their support in 2014. We look forward to sharing another exciting year ahead.
Yours Sincerely,
Lucas Skoczkowski
Chief Executive Officer
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