Imaginatik (IMTK.L, Mkt Cap £6.3m)

We had our first meeting with Imaginatik (IMTK.L Mkt Cap £5.9m) earlier this week. Our general impression is that forthcoming results are in line with expectations. The company describes itself as a market leader in the provision of Innovation and Collaborative Problem Solving software and processes. The ongoing client base includes Nokia, Chevron, Pfizer (impressed enough to take a stake in the business), Kraft, Cargill, GE Aviation and Lexmark. In truth, Imaginatik is a useful play on IBM websphere and Lotus groupware technology. The ‘smarts’ should be the back end process. We like the practical use of industry standard tools and solving a business need and the tactic of working with HR departments on general Human Capital Management (HCM) approach. While this is an interesting niche we highlight that groupware tools are more pervasive, as indeed are collaboration and project management tools including ‘out of the box’ from Microsoft. In addition companies are increasingly using social networks in an enterprise setting – BT and also Cisco. There is still the innovation groups creating a web presence – for example Pure Insight and indeed companies like STRATEGYN who in the UK boast of completing nearly 40 projects for Microsoft. Going forward with social networks about to build open APIs it will be easier for third party application vendors to port to these sites (this will be a help and hinderance for Imaginatik). For the short term in our view Imaginatik should consider strengthening its presentation layer and given the opportunity ‘going for broke’ and re-doubling sales and marketing efforts in order to carve out a niche. This seems to be one to watch.

George O’Connor
Software & IT Services analyst
Panmure Gordon & Co
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AIM-quoted technology group Imaginatik, the developer of innovation and problem-solving software, was flagged up as a speculative buy, on the news that pharmaceuticals giant and client Pfizer is investing up to £500,000 in the business, as well as buying 10,000 new software licences. The company’s software is now used by more than 50 blue-chip clients in Europe and North America and, with a strengthened balance sheet (and even after the dilutive effect of the shares issued to Pfizer), the broker, WH Ireland, considers the 6.12p shares ’still continue to trade on prospective price-to-earnings multiples that are undemanding for a software company with such excellent growth prospects’.

Collaborative Innovation management software leader, Imaginatik, has been selected as a 2008 FiReStarter company by the Strategic News Service, host of the influential Future in Review (FiRe) technology conference. The FiReStarter selection marks the third major accolade by an influential global confab this year. The World Economic Forum named Imaginatik a “Technology Pioneer 2008,” the only innovation management firm among the recipients. Also this year, Imaginatik’s Idea Central innovation management software was a finalist in the Best Industry Solution category at the 13th annual IBM Lotus Awards. Boston, MA and Winchester, UK (PRWEB) February 28, 2008 — Imaginatik, plc Imaginatik (AIM:IMTK) today announced that it has been named a 2008 FiReStarter company by the Strategic News Service, host of the influential Future in Review (FiRe) technology conference Future in Review.

“Imaginatik is honored to be selected as a FiReStarter company,” said Mark Turrell, CEO and cofounder of the leading collaborative innovation software and idea management firm. “We are looking forward to playing an active role in this year’s Future in Review conference,” Turrell said. The Economist has called Future in Review “The best technology conference in the world.”

We are proud to have Imaginatik as one of our FiReStarter companies

Hosted by Mark Anderson, founder and publisher of the Strategic News Service, the FiRe Conference exposes world experts and participants to new ideas in a manner that produces an accurate portrait of the future in technology, including nanotechnology, space travel, biology and medical diagnostics, policy, and other fields that contribute to technology outcomes. “We are proud to have Imaginatik as one of our FiReStarter companies,” said Mark Anderson. “FiReStarter companies are selected because of the difference they will make in the next five years in terms of global commerce and technology,” Anderson said.

The FiReStarter selection marks the third major accolade by an influential global confab this year. The World Economic Forum named Imaginatik a “Technology Pioneer 2008,” the only innovation management firm among the recipients. Also this year, Imaginatik’s Idea Central innovation management software was a finalist in the Best Industry Solution category at the 13th annual IBM Lotus Awards. This year’s Future in Review conference will take place May 20 - 23 at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego California.

Imaginatik’s Idea Central software enables organizations to tap into the “collective genius” of their employees within and across divisions in order to drive innovation and collaborate on product development, problem solving and process improvement. Imaginatik’s clients and partners include Cargill, Chevron, Hewlett Packard, IBM and Pfizer.

About Imaginatik

Imaginatik is the leading provider of Innovation and Collaborative Problem-Solving software and processes to the world’s top companies. More than 100 clients rely on Imaginatik’s software, consulting and research to enable their best-of-breed innovation activities. Imaginatik is a World Economic Forum named Imaginatik a Technology Pioneer 2008; the only innovation management provider selected for this prestigious award.

Imaginatik’s software and consulting services have helped clients discover significant sources of additional revenue, as well as tangible cost savings, process improvements and increased product pipeline. Imaginatik is also committed to developing strategic solutions in the field of innovation, working with academic institutions such as the London Business School and the Cass School of Business, London, as well as leading practitioners of corporate innovation.

For further information please visit Imaginatik.

About Future in Review
Please visit Future in Review

About the Strategic News Service
Please visit Strategic News Service

Media Contact:
US: Adam Dubitsky, 202-652-2250
UK and Investor Relations: Tom Moriarty or Caroline Evans Jones, ICIS, 44-020-7651-8688

Software minnow IMAGINATIK rose 1.125 to 5.5 as US drugs giant PFIZER took a stake.

Software firm Imaginatik jumped 1.13p to 5½p. Customer Pfizer, the giant drugs company, whose research and development division has been using Imaginatik’s software since 2005, has agreed to invest £500,000 in the company.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/tips-and-tactics/article.html?in_article_id=430833&in_page_id=23

LONDON (Sharecast) Software firm Imaginatik said pharmaceutical firm Pfizer has agreed tosubscribe up to 500,000 for new shares in the company. The group said the funding will be used to expand its enterprise social networking and collaboration technology. Pfizer, which has been using Imaginatik’s softwaresince 2005 in its R & D unit, is also purchasing 10,000 new licences of Imaginatik’s Idea Central software.

http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=1933790

Pfizer R&D - Case Study - Presented at Front End Innovation Vienna, Jan 2008Dr Rob Spencer presented Pfizer’s use of Idea Central in the R&D group. Their ‘Idea Farm’, as our application is known internally, has been used over 140 times in the last two years. Dr Spencer described 16 case studies, highlighting the tremendous benefits our software has brought to Pfizer.

RNS Number:8890N Imaginatik PLC 13 February 2008

13 February 2008
                                  Imaginatik plc
                      (”Imaginatik” or the ”Company”)
                                 Trading Update
Imaginatik plc (AIM: IMTK), a leading provider of collaborative innovation and problem-solving software and processes announces today that an improved trading performance in the second half of the year should result in a profit for this period. This outcome is expected to strengthen the balance sheet and provide a positive operating cash flow for the second half year. The Company’s recurring revenue base continues to build well and will help underpin our operations into the next financial year.

In view of the weak trading experienced in the first half of the financial year and not withstanding the much improved performance in the second half year, the Company is unlikely to reach the market forecast of £4.4m of revenue for the year to 31 March 2008. Overheads continue to be tightly contained. As a result the level of business required to reach break-even for the full year has been significantly reduced.

Imaginatik also announces today that it is in final negotiations with a major customer which may or may not lead to it becoming a strategic investor in the Company. The Board will provide additional information to the market as soon as the agreement is concluded.

Mark Turrell, CEO of Imaginatik plc, commented, “I am pleased to see the Company’s performance improving after a difficult first nine months as a public company. We now have a great deal of momentum within the business, our pipeline is strong and our recent presence at the World Economic Forum in Davos will help accelerate the current level of activity. We believe having a significant strategic investor on board would be extremely positive for Imaginatik and its shareholders and we will provide further information in due course.”

For further information please contact:
Imaginatik plc                                Tel: +44 (0)20 7917 2975
Mark Turrell, CEO / Shawn Taylor, CFO
WH Ireland                                    Tel: +44 (0)121 265 6330
Tim Cofman/Katy Birkin

Investor relations and UK media
ICIS                                          Tel: +44 (0)20 7651 8688
Tom Moriarty / Caroline Evans Jones

About Imaginatik

Imaginatik is the leading provider of Collaborative Innovation and Problem Solving software and process to the world’s leading companies. More than 100 clients, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Pfizer, rely on Imaginatik’s software, consulting and research to enable their best-of-breed innovation activities.

Imaginatik’s software and consulting services have helped clients discover significant sources of additional revenue, as well as tangible cost savings, process improvements and increased product pipeline. Imaginatik is also committed to developing strategic solutions in the field of innovation, working with academic institutions such as the London Business School and the Cass School of Business, London, as well as leading practitioners of corporate innovation.

For further information please visit www.imaginatik.com.
                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END

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Market profile: Mark Turrell, chief executive, Imaginatik

By Ben Bland

Mark Turrell is one of those entrepreneurs who is so enthusiastic that it makes it difficult to work out whether he’s a forward-thinking innovator or a delusional dreamer. He is the 37-year-old founder of Imaginatik, a software company that was named by the World Economic Forum as one of 39 global technology pioneers in 2008.

Imaginatik provides businesses and other organisations with software that effectively acts as a sophisticated suggestion box for employees, customers and suppliers to put forward and debate new ideas online.

Over recent years, Imaginatik has worked with the likes of US drugs giant Pfizer and Coca-Cola’s Beijing office to enable them to get more out of their staff.

But Mr Turrell admits that it’s not always easy convincing employees to go out on a limb and tell their bosses what they really think.

“It’s difficult to get people to share ideas if they’ve just been told they’re a muppet by their boss,” he says.

“We were the first people to take collaborative tools into business and we spent the past 10 years focusing on how to get people using them in practice. Now, we’ve cracked many of the cultural adoption problems.”

Mr Turrell is very obviously a follower of the “two heads are better than one” school. In fact, he believes the dramatic growth of social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace means that, within a decade, society will become much more collaborative and Adam Smith’s famous division of labour will be significantly eroded.

“There is a societal shift at the moment,” he says. “Within 10 years it’ll be normal to have as many as three or four jobs each.”

He is referring to the so-called “slash/slash economy” where a whole generation of kids supposedly use online social networks to make money by creating their own music, art and fashion.

“We’re entering a world where there’s very little control and our company is at the heart of it,” he says. “We can’t control how our customers use our tool.”

If his rhetoric is at times dizzying, his drive is definitely not in question - as recognised by Pfizer, which nominated Imaginatik for the Davos gong.

Speaking from the lofty Alpine slopes, he sounds like a man genuinely excited by the opportunities at hand.

“Most of the sessions here do have a sense that the world is changing and every single person you talk to is a mover or a shaker,” he says.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008