Pivoting from a managed-services to a professional-services model during the early stages of the pandemic has paid off for Actual Experience, the world-leading Bath advanced analytics firm.
It said the switch, which coincided with many businesses adapting new ways, including remote and home working, reduced its cost base as well as improving operational efficiencies and reducing customer conversion times.
The firm, which is on a mission to make the digital world work properly for everyone, everywhere, this week reported a cut in its annual losses to £4.68m in the period to September 30 from £5.91m in the previous 12 months.
Revenue increased marginally to £1.96m from £1.93m while its gross profit increased 29% to just over £1m.
Actual Experience’s business analytics empowers leaders to make the right decisions about their digital strategy and improve what is important – employee wellbeing, business efficiency and brand perception.
Its pioneering products can bring about a step change in efficiency for businesses and an end to glitches that dog digital platforms such as buffering and poor internet connections.
The firm was founded 11 years ago following a decade of cutting-edge research at Queen Mary University of London and later relocated to Bath. Last month it raised £10m from shareholders to capitalise on new market opportunities created, in part, by the pandemic.
CEO Dave Page said, despite a challenging year, the firm had worked exceptionally hard to launch its Human Experience Management (HXM) Business Impact Assessment (BIA) and Continuous Improvement (CI) offerings for business leaders, enabling them to improve their digital business, look after employees and improve operational efficiency.
“We believe that Actual Experience has the ability to become a significant global player in the market for Human Experience Management,” he said.
“We have a growing number of new business opportunities in the pipeline and, in addition our existing channel partners are expected to start delivering our BIA and CI offerings to their customers, and our recent successful fundraise in January 2021 will allow us to capitalise on the current market opportunity.
"Whilst we will continue to monitor the wider market environment in regard to Covid-19, we are confident in delivering against our strategic objectives, and look forward to reporting on further progress with both new and existing Partners in due course."
The firm’s first BIA project was with international legal firm Osborne Clarke, which has a major office in Bristol. It reported that the analysis was extremely useful in helping it understand employees’ work practices and parts of the business that required support to improve their digital experience.
Chairman Stephen Davidson added: “The market opportunity for Actual Experience is significant, and the board believes that the group is well positioned for considerable revenue growth, supported by an excellent, expanding portfolio of channel partners and customers.
“The initial success of our recently launched Human Experience Management offering has demonstrated the need for businesses to analyse operational efficiencies and employee wellbeing. We expect further market engagement over the course of the current financial year as our partners and their customers continue to adapt to the permanent change in work practices and realise the benefits of our technology service.”
Having floated on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in 2014, it is now the market leader in its sector with offices in London, New York and Seattle as well as Bath.
