Earnings Labs

Asure Software, Inc. (ASUR)

Q3 2009 Earnings Call· Thu, Jun 18, 2009

$9.20

-0.11%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the third quarter 2009 Asure Software earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today’s call, Ms. Lisa [Splen]. Please proceed, Madam.

Lisa Splen

Operator

Thank you, Francine. Welcome, everyone, to Asure Software’s conference call. Before we start, I would like to mention that some of the statements made by management during this call might include projections, estimates, and other forward-looking information. This will include any discussion of the company’s business outlook. These particular forward-looking statements and all of the statements that may be made on this call that are not historical are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could affect their outcomes. You are urged to consider the risk factors relating to the company’s business contained in our latest periodic report on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risk factors are important and they could cause actual results to differ materially. This call is also being recorded on behalf of Asure Software and is copyrighted material. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without the company’s express permission and your participation implies consent to the call’s recording. After we have completed our review of the quarter, we’ll open up the call for questions. I would now like to turn the call over to Richard Snyder, Executive Chairman of Asure Software. Dick.

Richard N. Snyder

Analyst

Thank you, Lisa and good morning, everyone and welcome to our third quarter fiscal ’09 conference call. Well, despite the harsh macroeconomic environment, I am pleased to report a solid Q3 financial and operational results, including continued progress toward our goal of being a leading provider of on-demand workforce management software. We will give you some details on that in a minute. First, I would like to address some important changes to our management and board structure. Your board of directors has had a CEO succession plan in place for some time, which included the intent to separate the Chairman and CEO position. I am very pleased to announce that Nancy Harris, who has been Chief Operating Officer for the past 18 months, has been appointed to be President and Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. Nancy is well-qualified with 23 years of experience in software development and marketing. She has been with Asure for eight years in marketing and sales and more recently as senior vice president of operations and then as Chief Operating Officer. During that time, the company has grown software revenues from less than $1 million to over $11 million, with more than 3,000 customers. We believe the timing is right to make this transition. The company, in a strategic evolution as an early stage software enterprise and with the end of our fiscal year and our 2009 annual meeting approaching. Nancy has also been elected to Asure's Board of Directors to fill the seat vacated by Kathleen Cote on June 1, 2009, and will be named on the company’s slate of election at the annual meeting. Nancy will bring her strong operational knowledge to the board that already has a very deep public company and tech industry background. In addition, there is a broad set of…

Nancy L. Harris

Analyst

Thank you, Dick. First let me say I am very excited and frankly humbled by the opportunity to serve as President and CEO of Asure Software. I am extremely passionate about this business and its exceptional people, and absolutely believe that we have the right strategy and plans to create sustained, profitable growth and value creation for our shareholders over the long-term. Dick, I truly appreciate the faith that you and the board have shown in me and I look forward to working with you to ensure a smooth and effective transition as we move the company forward. Now, turning to fiscal Q3, let me start with highlights of the iEmployee business before turning to the highlights for Net Simplicity. Within iEmployee, we are pleased with the steady progress we are making to retool this business and believe the performance in Q3 is clear evidence that our strategy is working. For example, our emphasis on stabilizing customer retention while generating new customer demand took a significant step forward during the past quarter. In Q3, new customer bookings for iEmployee increased 59% over the prior quarter. In addition, bookings from one of our larger distribution partners exceeded the prior three quarters combined. And speaking of channel partners, our efforts to expand and build a strong, productive indirect channel for the iEmployee business is paying off. We signed three new payroll partners in Q3 and two payroll partners in Q3, all of whom chose iEmployee time and attendance as their time and attendance solution of choice for their payroll customers. We continue to see significant upside for iEmployee, which we opportunistically acquired at an attractive price in fiscal ’07 as a turnaround opportunity. Let me add a little color about this business and why we remain so excited about the growth potential…

Jay C. Peterson

Analyst

Thank you, Nancy. This morning, I will comment on some of the financial highlights for this last fiscal quarter and then I will discuss some high level guidance for the near future, and then we will turn the call back over to questions from the investment community. First off, I would like to point out that sequentially, our software and services revenue was essentially flat with this past quarter at $2.4 million. It’s interesting to note that recurring revenues -- that is, revenue under a maintenance contract or a SAS contract -- remain flat with historical levels of 73% of total revenues. Our deferred revenue -- that is, revenue that goes on the balance sheet and is amortized in future periods, decreased slightly this past quarter due to the sale of our VAM product line in February of this year. Overall, our gross margins decreased slightly to 79% this past quarter versus 81% in the prior quarter and this decline was due to software testing costs that were expensed in the quarter for our MRM release that begins shipping in July. We saw a sequential decrease in our operating expenses of approximately 11% in the quarter and this is our second consecutive quarterly decline with additional expense reductions planned for both Q4 and Q1. These expense reductions hit virtually every category of spending, including a company-wide 10% salary reduction. On a pro forma basis, had it not been for a required reserve of approximately $200,000 relating to a receivable due from our landlord, our expenses would have actually declined by 16% versus the prior quarter. Our EBITDA loss in Q3 decreased 9% to approximately $1.1 million, and this was our second consecutive reduction in our EBITDA loss. Excluding privatization costs, legal costs relating to our trial with our former IP…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And we have no questions at this time.

Jay C. Peterson

Analyst

Thank you for your participation in today’s call. We look forward to working with you. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Good day.