SMS creates employee stockpile

SMS Management's year has seen a rush to hire personnel, a change to a new practice management model and the push to integrate two new purchases, according to the company's annual results to 30 June, published today.

The company has posted a 7 per cent increase in full-year net profit, reaching $29.8 million for the year to 30 June, up from $27.9 million in the prior year. Revenue was up 23.6 per cent at $306.1 million.

Seeing that the current technology skills shortage that many companies have complained of could cause problems, the company decided to take what it called "decisive action" to retain staff and hire workers. It introduced a staff referral scheme, an alumni referral program and a 457 program to net senior professionals from the UK and Ireland, as well as deploying social media and online initiatives. The company also said that it intended to boost its workers overseas.

The hiring has brought SMS Management and Technology's staff numbers to over 1700, a rise of 22 per cent. However, the new staff caused "utilisation drag" as they settled into handling the company's clients, according to SMS, which affected the company's earnings.

Not being able to access client sites during the Queensland floods had also seen a negative impact, according to the company, as did delayed sales by the company's new acquisition, Renewtech, which contributed a loss to the group's result. SMS Management and Technology said that it was confident that the business would make its way into the green next year. SMS Management and Technology also acquired Microgenx this year. These businesses only contributed $10.3 million to the company's revenue.

Another factor that affected the company's results was the implementation of a new practice structure, which had lead to increased operating costs due to travel for specialists.

However, the company considered the change a success.

"Our top-line growth vindicates the investment in our national practice structure, which has enabled us to broaden our service offering to clients," chief executive Tom Stianos said in a statement.

SMS called out the financial services, resources and infrastructure, as well as utilities and transport industries, as those that were showing demand. The telecommunications and fast-moving consumer goods industries weren't seen as promising.

The company saw customer-facing transformation (with customer relationship management systems, as well as internet-based and mobile applications) as being a growth area, as was the cloud and business analytics.

Stianos said that he was confident of further growth in the 2012 financial year.

"During the year, we signed contracts worth $351 million, further adding to our pipeline of work," he said.

"Together with our expansion into Asia, we have established the foundation for continued growth."

AAP contributed to this article.