fortunes. Not so long ago the vendor had been on the brink of financial disaster but it has managed to pull itself around, even getting relisted on Nasdaq's SmallCap market at the end of April -a feat accomplished by very few in recent times.
The company's transformation is still not complete and there is plenty of scope for improvement, but the fundamentals now seem a lot stronger at the company, and this was evident in the company's latest financial figures for the first quarter of the year. Revenue was up 205% from US$196,000 in the first quarter of 2002 to US$597,000 in the first quarter of 2003, while net losses attributable to shareholders also fell from US$6.4 million to US$2.0 million in the first quarter (although the net loss before preferred stock dividends actually deepened from US$1.7 million to US$2.0 million).
Notably, the company almost trebled its spend on sales and marketing from US$359,000 in the first quarter of 2002 to just over US$1.0 million in the same period of 2003. Meanwhile, the company's cash position also significantly improved, rising from US$7.5 million to US$14 million in 2003. This was aided by the company's ability to raise US$9.7 million through warrant exercises.
According to president and CEO of Saflink, Glenn Argenbright, the company made progress with several large government opportunities, such as the Department of Defense's Common Access Card (CAC) programme and the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA's) Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) initiative.
Also on the contract side of its business, the company recently announced a significant contract in the healthcare sector, with one of the largest healthcare providers in New Jersey (over 8,500 employees) selecting its SAFaccess biometric security solution for the first phase of a programme designed to secure access to patient data and the system's computer network. The project is to begin with an immediate production pilot at the organization's administrative centre, with expansion to one of the company's many healthcare facilities expected within a few months. Full deployment is targeted to reach all employees.
This sort of contract success is no doubt thanks to the supplier's drive to expand its sales channels and take on new sales staff. Most recently, the company made a distribution deal with Alternative Technology, a value-added distributor, while it also added six members to its direct sales team.