the annual report 2015

ANNUAL
REPORT
AXIELL GROUP
2015
Axiell is a global company at the intersection between IT and the culture
sector. We ensure that the past and the present merge with the future.
BUSINESS IDEA
Axiell is the most innovative and reliable partner for libraries, archives, museums,
BUSINESS AREAS
Public
Libraries
ARCHIVES
LIBRARies &
MUSEUMs
Enabling libraries to provide the services their citizens want and guiding our
customers through their
digital transformation. The
ultimate goal is to promote reading, learning,
creativity, and democracy in their communities.
Preserving, managing,
and sharing cultural heritage in our society. Over
3,000 archives, libraries
and museums, all over
the world, many of them
world renowned institutions, have chosen to
manage their collections
with our software.
Education
Media
Cloud-based solutions
and educational platforms for teachers and
students to search, share,
collect, and publish the
school´s digital resources.
Market leader and hub for
ebooks and audiobooks
in Scandinavia. Providing
an automated solution for
publishers, retailers, and
libraries to make it easy for
them to manage digital
media.
and government agencies worldwide. We support them in their mission to serve
and build the human knowledge collaborative and secure society.
Axiell achieves this by offering services and solutions that are easy to use,
efficient, and make a difference in our customers´ processes and provision to
ensure user satisfaction.
We measure our success in customer satisfaction and long-term relationships.
2
3
Some
offer
storage.
We bring
cultural
heritage
to life.
The National Library
of Denmark,
Copenhagen
To read is to travel. We want everyone to see the whole world.
4
BFI, London
5
Strategic direction to the future
of the knowledge society
The word “global” now takes on
a deeper meaning. Keeping the
momentum going in more than 40
countries in four parts of the world
sets new standards for collaboration, speed, and interaction. We
are growing, both through acquisitions and new customers. Our focus is on the effort to successfully
incorporate new colleagues into
the Axiell Group culture. Rapid
cross-training will equip them to
“I am proud to say that we
live up to our motto: “One
company, one team, one
good feeling”
leverage existing skills and solutions
and sell them across geographies
and markets in various stages of
maturity. Never before have our
internal and external communication been more important: the
right information at the right time is
critical. We are able to coordinate
and manage this complex environment thanks to our incredible
people. I am proud to say that we
live up to our motto: “One company, one team, one good feeling.”
6
My main conclusion for 2015 is that
it was the year when the structure
of our business areas began to
deliver in terms of smooth worldwide collaboration and good financial performance. A complex
matrix has been transformed into
an effective organization geared
towards continued innovation, efficient delivery to our customers, and
sustained margins that equip us to
continue investing for the future.
Being the leading collections
management software vendor to
archives, libraries, and museums
globally does not automatically
lead to growth and profitability.
We value the trust of each of our
customers tremendously. One
way we try to show that is by ensuring that our global expertise
and resources benefit all customers. After all, technology is global,
but business is local.
The Public Library business
area is a large part of our business
and as competition grows fiercer,
maintaining our high market share
is no easy task. I am pleased to
say that we manage it well by
demonstrating that Axiell delivers
much more than IT skills. Experi-
and the ability to help our clients
with their digital transformation.
That insight spurs us on.
Digitalization is an important
word to our customers across all
business areas - Public Library, Archives, Libraries & Museums, Education, and Media. Rapid access
to a rich mine of valuable information is essential. Needs span from
research museums that quickly
ence, educational theory, digital
knowledge, and dynamic action
are essential when helping libraries evolve as society evolves. We
have the leading-edge expertise
“We have the leading-edge
expertise and the ability
to help our clients with their
digital transformation”
need to share objects and metadata in their gigantic collections
to teachers who need to find digital learning materials and readers
looking for ebooks. During 2015,
we launched cloud solutions for
digital learning in our Education
business area. The acquisition of
Elib (now renamed Axiell Media) is
another investment that is deepening digital knowledge within
Axiell, in line with our focus on
continued development of digital-first solutions.
Close interaction with our customers and their reality is more
critical than ever to our success.
Change is constant in the digital
world. We must stay in tune with
and, wherever possible, continue
to define the markets globally.
3
And we must do this while maintaining what has been a key success factor for Axiell over the years
- understanding the needs and
conditions of the individual customer.
Readiness to implement new
applications varies widely, between the US and countries in Europe, for example. And therein
lies our strength, in the ability to
understand different playing fields
and deliver the best solution based
on the circumstances that apply.
We can now integrate and crosspollinate the four different areas
we work in, which gives us further
expertise and breadth. The people
of Axiell can serve our customers,
virtually 24/7, worldwide.
In our industry, there has historically
been some friction between culture and business, which has perhaps made our communications
more modest than necessary. But
we develop and deliver to our customers are the cornerstones of a
greater cause – building a democratic knowledge society.
We are steadily holding our
strategic direction and in 2015 we
increased sales by 26 percent, with
maintained margins. This accomplishment is mainly due to our extraordinary staff and management
team and their elegant interaction,
despite geographical distances
and time differences.
We will be expanding our customer base and looking for new
and exciting acquisitions in 2016.
Leveraging the knowledge, functions, and experience of all Axiell
business areas enables us to continuously enhance our value to
our customers. We measure our
success in customer satisfaction
and long-term relationships and
I am confident that 2016 will be
another year when we are able to
be proud of our achievements.
“We will be expanding our
customer base and
looking for new and exciting
acquisitions in 2016”
we are good at what we do. And
we are professional team players
in internationally major industries
(museums, for example are bigger
than all sports combined in terms
of audience). That is something
we can be proud of. The solutions
Yours truly,
Joel Sommerfeldt
President and CEO Axiell Group
7
The Cinémathèque
québécoise in Montréal
selected Adlib as its collections management
software
The Public Libraries business
in Norway continued to
develop very favorably in
library logistics.
Gathered 150 museum
experts at the Penn
Museum in Philadelphia.
The 9th annual North
American User Conference focused on digitization and engagement
strategies.
Acquired the majority of Elib
AB, the hub of the Swedish
digital book market. New
services were launched and
Axiell strengthened its
position in the Nordic ebook
market.
Global expansion
continued for ALM with
greater involvement
in Abu Dhabi, USA,
Canada, Denmark,
and France. The business took its second
round of orders in Asia
and achieved organic
growth of 16% during
the year.
Entered the Asian
market. The Macao
Museum bought Adlib,
part of Axiell’s suite
of collection management solutions.
AXIELL IN THE WORLD 2015
Launched Spark, a flexible
cloud solution, in the UK. Spark
enables library team members to easily access the Axiell
Library Management System
from any desktop, tablet or
smartphone.
New ILS agreement with
the Stockholm City Library,
the largest public library in
Sweden.
Launched the new cloud
service WeLib, designed
to enhanced pupils’
reading skills and help
educators connect literature to the curriculum.
The University of Melbourne
selected Axiell as its partner in
a groundbreaking initiative for
collection-based research and
learning.
Continued to successfully
serve Danish public libraries.
OUR CUSTOMERS
Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Denmark, Canada, China, Czech Republic,
Egypt, Eritrea, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Macau, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria,
Norway, Panama, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Samoa, Singapore, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland,
Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States.
OUR OFFICES
Sweden: Lund (head office), Gothenburg, Stockholm, Umeå. Australia: Melbourne, Sydney.
Denmark: Aalborg, Copenhagen. Canada: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver.
Finland: Jyväskylä, Vantaa. Germany: Potsdam. Netherlands: Maarssen. New Zealand: Wellington.
Qatar: Doha. United Kingdom: Nottingham, Manchester. United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi.
United States: Chicago.
8
9
10
AXIELL IN NUMBERS
3+1
600
Operating
income (SEK M)
690,000,000
500
3000
911
405
350
340
300
2012
2013
2014
400
290
More
than 290
employees
2014
485.9
391.2
14.9
2.3
Share of profit from associated companies
2.7
2.1
Other operating income
8.6
9.8
512.1
405.4
-152,3
-104.0
-87.6
-72.2
-218.9
-177.6
-29.0
-26.2
-0.1
-0.6
-487.9
-380.6
OPERATING PROFIT
24.2
24.8
Financial items
-0.7
1.0
PROFIT AFTER FINANCIAL ITEMS
23.4
25.8
Tax expense for the year
-6.5
-6.9
PROFIT FOR THE YEAR
17,0
18.9
2015
Over 1000 Public Libraries
Key figures
2015
Own work capitalized
326
3000
3000 school
libraries
and special
libraries
Operating income
Net sales
400
3000
museum
and
archives
More than 400
customers
have bought
Axiell Arena
512
450
objects in our museum clients collections
1000
World´s third largest
company in the library IT business and global number one
in ALM business
Income Statement (SEK M)
550
Operating expenses
2015
2014
2013
2012
Profit margin
11%
13%
13%
13%
Cost of goods sold
Return on assets
10%
10%
8%
11%
Other external costs
Return on equity
26%
23%
18%
22%
Liquid ratio
85%
102%
112%
112%
Equity ratio
35%
41%
43%
50%
Staff costs
Depreciation and amortization
Other operating expenses
Sales (SEK M)
Profit (EBITDA SEK M)
70
14% Rest of the world
60
50
40
29% Europe
The leading
European privately
owned vendor
for public libraries
57%
Scandinavia
51
42
53
41
30
20
10
0
2012
12
2013
2014
2015
13
Balance sheet - Assets (SEK M)
Balance sheet - Equity and Liabilities (SEK M)
2015
2014
Own work capitalized
18.1
2.4
Software
18.1
27.1
Goodwill
80.2
72.4
4.7
5.2
Improvements to leased property
2.7
0.1
Equipment
9.0
12.5
Investment in associated companies
6.2
7.3
Tax asset
2.8
2.6
Other long-term receivables
0.5
1.2
142.3
130.7
Non-current assets
Intangible assets
Other intangible assets
Tangible assets
2015
2014
2,2
2,2
89,7
107,2
5,8
-
97,6
109,4
2.5
5.3
15,5
19.9
Liabilities to credit institutions
10,7
9.8
Credit facility
13,2
-
Accounts payable - trade
19,3
14.3
7,8
8.8
Equity
Share capital
Retained profits
Non-controlling interest
EQUITY
Provisions
Other provisions
Financial assets
NON-CURRENT ASSETS
Current assets
Inventories
Finished products and goods for sale
0.3
0.3
98.6
86.8
6.4
13.3
Prepaid expenses and accrued income
36.1
20.1
Cash and bank balance
11.0
46.8
CURRENT ASSETS
152.3
167.4
ASSETS
294.6
298.1
Other receivables
14
Liabilities to credit institutions
Current liabilities
Liabilities to associated companies
Other liabilities
Current receivables
Accounts receivable - trade
Non-current liabilities
Accrued expenses and deferred income
EQUITY AND LIABILITIES
23,1
35.0
104,8
95.6
178.9
163.6
294.6
298.1
15
MANAGEMENT
Joel Sommerfeldt
President and CEO
Bert Degenhart Drenth
CTO
Annika Jägenstedt
CFO
Magdalena Schultze
CHRO
Maria Wasing
CMO
Joel Sommerfeldt
Mats Hentzel
Kim Alltorp Wennerholm
Jerk Sintorn
THE BOARD
Eva Elmstedt
Mats Hentzel - Chairman
Eva Elmstedt
Gösta Johannesson
Jerk Sintorn
Joel Sommerfeldt
Kim Alltorp Wennerholm
Gösta Johannesson
16
17
One team,
one company,
one good feeling
Axiell Group AB, Box 24014, 224 21 Lund, + 46 46 - 270 04 00, www.axiell.com