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Our Shareholders: |
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1999 was
an extraordinary year
for Natural MicroSystems. We strategically repositioned our
company, solidly established top line growth and achieved
a financial turnaround. Today, as the New Network emerges
— driven by the convergence of voice and data infrastructures
and the promise of rich communication
and information services and applications — Natural MicroSystems
is strategically and technologically positioned to fulfill
the enabling technology needs of these new, high-growth markets.
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The
NMS management team at work
TOP PHOTO
(L-R):
Bob Hult,
Dianne Callan, Allen Carney
SECOND
PHOTO (L-R):
Joel
Hughes, George Kontopidis
THIRD
PHOTO (L-R):
Jamie
Toale, Bob Schechter
BOTTOM
PHOTO (L-R):
Dorothy
Terrell, Brough Turner.
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In addition
to important strategic milestones, we achieved major progress in
our operations. We successfully completed a difficult financial
turnaround, beating every goal we set for ourselves in 1999. We
established a record of solid quarterly growth throughout the year,
positioning ourselves for explosive revenue growth ahead. We held
our expenses in check, improved inventory turns, and achieved “best
in class” accounts receivable performance. This bodes well for much
improved financials, top to bottom, as we go forward.
During 1999,
we completed a worldwide and dramatic refocusing of our go-to-market
strategy. By directing ourselves to a well defined set of market-leading
customers and high-growth markets, we have sharply focused our marketing
and selling efforts, identified and won new business opportunities,
and are on track to support our target customers much more effectively.
The partnership we created with our US channel partner, Channel
Access, is already resulting in improved performance with our indirect
customers, and we are close to implementing similar relationships
in other parts of the world. In
rough numbers, this means our direct sales and our marketing resources
are now focused on 100 target accounts, while our channel partners
support us in serving the needs of 900 important, but smaller, accounts.
In a technology-driven
marketplace where new product development is crucial, we had a great
product development year, extending our technology leadership on
several fronts. Some of the important deliveries included:
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An on-time
beta release of a next-generation platform, the Convergence
Generation™(CG) 6000, targeted specifically
at new network opportunities. Products are currently in field
trials with key customers and scheduled for general availability
in the second quarter. |
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New versions
of our SS7 product family, increasing price performance and
adding CompactPCI® and redundancy
support for the Intelligent Network capabilities required by
network-based solutions. |
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Important
upgrades to our communications software environment, Natural
Access™,
including new packaging, client-server capabilities, SNMP
and OAM support for remote management and administration,
a GUI configurator and DSP-based conferencing.
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The release
of Fusion™ 3.0, furthering our leadership in the important
Voice over IP (VoIP) area. |
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Fully featured
NaturalFax™ updates, which dramatically extend our price
performance lead. |
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The introduction
of the CX 2000 product family, expanding our capabilities in
call center and open PBX markets. |
Our product
offerings were complemented and enhanced
by our services. Launched in 1998, the NaturalEdge™
Support and Engineering Consulting Services businesses
have given us a new way to deliver value to our customers by providing
customized support and design, development, deployment, and network
interoperability expertise. Our ability to provide this level of
service and support has reduced time to market and accelerated deployment
of some of the most innovative and important offerings in the communications
marketplace today. Among these are:
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