LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS
Volatility has become a way of life. While the economy shows signs of
recovery, the operational costs and geopolitical risks have been
rising. In due course, the classic economic cycles will be shorter and
more segmented. Long-term growth will be interrupted by short-term
volatility.
While the developed world is dealing with fiscal constraints and
sluggish, growth the developing markets are growing rapidly. In this
environment, we committed to a sizeable investment plan in technology,
brand creation and marketing. In 2011, we focused on the fundamentals
of cost control, launch of new products, cash optimisation and return
on capital. These measures have resulted in excellent organic profit
growth and a healthier balance sheet.
Over the past year, we have had wide ranging developments with regard
to products, partnerships, subsidiaries, new customers and milestones,
all of which we would like to share with you.
Our revenues grossed Rs. 8879 million in FY 2011, an increase of 37%
over Rs. 6500 million for fiscal 2010. Our net earnings grossed Rs.
2737 million in FY 2011, an increase of 22% over Rs. 2237 million for
fiscal 2010.
Our business model allows us to invest in growth and generate free cash
flow, keeping the company safe through volatile times. We have been a
dividend paying company since 2004 and are committed to a dividend
yield that is attractive as compared to our peers.
The promising growth in our revenues and earnings is likely to continue
in fiscal 2012. As we remain committed to a more focused Geodesic, we
look for significant growth in earnings over the next few years.
Given the speed of technological change and its effects on competition,
we are focused on two things - Agility and Innovation. We have been at
the forefront to quickly adapt or even anticipate lead change while we
have been developing deep differentiating capabilities that allow us to
create products or new versions of products and services. These
features, products and services truly separate our business from the
competition and enable the company to endure despite strategic mistakes
or other unforeseen changes in competition and markets.
Communication, Collaboration and Content continue to be at the heart of
Geodesic. Millions of people communicate while they discover and
consume content using several of our products on their cell phones,
tablets and desktops. Communication, discovery and consumption of
content is extremely critical to people and that is why we work really
hard to provide the best in class solutions across several mobile
platforms including Android, Symbian, iOS, Blackberry, Web OS, Windows
Phone, etc., and desktops including Windows and MacOS.
We use our robust Communication, Collaboration, CRM and Content
Management platforms to address both the enterprise and retail
segments. However, features are modifie d to suit individual segment
needs.
Our Enterprise products have primarily been designed with tracking,
auditing and security as key features and work across both the desktop
and mobile platforms. They include:
Continuum - A powerful Internet based Unified Communication,
Collaboration and Contact Management System that helps enterprises to
strongly manage their business continuity process and enhance their
productivity while reducing communication costs and sales cycles.
Spyder - A Customer Alignment and Relationship Management solution that
provides the enterprise with a three dimensional customer / prospect
view and ensures their products and services align with the growing
needs of their prospects and customers.
.fn -A financial suite of products that provides seamless
and analytical interfaces between financial service providers and their
ever-demanding customer base. Our powerful analytics framework allows
financial services companies to create and provide bespoke offerings
that are both, value-rich and competitive.
We reach out to our customers through a direct sales team in
conjunction with value added resellers and system integrators. We enjoy
an enviable customer base that includes major Financial Institutions,
Banks, Public Sector Undertakings, Multinational Corporations, Broking
Houses, Mutual Funds and Insurance Providers.
Our retail products are largely on the mobile platform that is perhaps
the first screen to millions of people worldwide. We classify our retail
product offering in two categories – Communication and Content
Management & Delivery.
COMMUNICATION PRODUCTS
Mundu Instant Messenger (Mundu IM) – A messenger that unifes different
messaging services (AIM, Facebook, Gtalk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN and Yahoo)
in an easy-to-use single interface on almost all mobile platforms.
Mundu SMS – A global service that allows mobile users to send text
messages using the Internet on their mobile phones, to connect with
their contacts at a fraction of the cost incurred by mobile users on
their GSM / CDMA networks. Mundu SMS retains the regular SMS usability
and user perception.
Spokn – A worldwide telecom service that enables people to make phone
calls or send short Voice Messages (VMS) easily and cost-effectively
using their computers, internet-enabled smart phones or even regular
phones.
Spokn subscribers can make calls around the world at extremely low
rates and can call other Spokn subscribers across the globe for free.
Subscribers can also subscribe to a phone number in the US, UK, Canada
and more countries and be a local call away for callers from that
country.
CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND DELIVERY PRODUCTS
Mundu Radio - An internet radio solution that offers high quality
digital audio on mobile handsets and desktops. The solution allows
mobile and desktop users to choose music genres of their choice from
thousands of genre-based internet radio stations.
Mundu TV - A Live-Internet TV service that offers its subscribers the
opportunity to view 20 Live television channels and archived content
using wireless and broadband internet on mobile phones and desktops. We
are in the process of constantly adding international and relevant
content to ensure users around the world have access to their favourite
genre on the move and across the globe.
We reach out to end customers directly through various application
stores, Geodesic websites, Handset Manufacturers and Telcos.
We are in a unique position and our products, at this time reach out to
consumers in more than 100 countries across several Handset
Manufacturers and Telcos.
We''ve made significant progress in improving our mobile products
distribution to provide universal accessibility as part of our retail
business segment. We have forged relationships with some of the most
prominent telecom carriers and equipment manufacturers in the world
besides prominent application stores and product aggregation sites.
Mundu products have been pre-bundled with several equipment
manufacturers and telecom carriers besides partnering with prominent
application stores and product aggregation websites to distribute our
products to the worldwide audience. Vodafone, Nokia, Bharti Airtel,
Qualcomm, America Movil, Claro, OpenPeak and Micromax are some of our
partners, and we look forward to growing these relationships in the
coming years.
We design and build our products / solutions to help our customers
around the world to reduce their communication costs and sales cycles,
and improve efficiency to grow their businesses. Our revenue is
generated from a combination of license fees, subscriptions, usage fees
and service revenues.
In the past year, we have enhanced our platform support, expanded our
reach across several geographies, leveraging continued infrastructure
improvements to our communication, collaboration and content system.
The improved infrastructure will help us to leverage our content and
communication platform to cater to a wide range of market segments.
We have successfully launched financial products and solutions (.fn) for
the ever growing and technology dependent financial services segment. We
leveraged our existing content & collaboration platform and mobile
solutions to ensure we stay ahead of the technology curve. Our products
and solutions have found their way into the top online websites of
India including www.moneycontrol.com, www.smartinvestor.in,
www.hdfcsecurities.com, www.edelweiss.in, www.sharekhan.com etc.,
besides large banks, media houses and investment / broking houses. We
expect the .fn business to generate substantial revenues globally as we
go into a new fiscal.
In the past two years, we have expanded our Electronic Computing
devices business to include variants of GeoAmida. These variants are
being used across several E-governance and Financial applications
including Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Public
Distribution Systems, Law Enforcement, Financial Inclusion, UID and
Point of Sales terminals across Indian states and other developing
nations. GeoAmida, as a last mile connectivity and data processing
solution, has been included as part of E-governance and Financial
solutions by several companies including TCS, HCL, Bartronics and
Glodyne, besides several Banks and State Governments. GeoAmida
currently reaches out to over 8% of India''s rural population.
We are pleased to inform you that Geodesic has been empanelled as a
Tier 1 software solution provider by Unique ID Authority of India.
We introduced ENLYTE (Education ''N'' Learning You Take Everywhere) as a
product concept last year. And we are elated to share with you that the
product concept has moved into the beta stage of the launch. ENLYTE has
evolved in many ways as part of the feedback we received from users
across a cross section of the target audience including Students,
Universities, Publishers etc. We now have the optimum ENLYTE form
factor besides the feature set, and we are confident that ENLYTE with
create a new segment in the space of Education. We expect to launch the
newly designed ENLYTE during the course of fiscal 2012.
In our bid to exploit the GeoAmida platform, we formed Geodesic
Gridpoint Pvt. Ltd. – a subsidiary to design and build products /
solutions around the Energy and Power sectors in conjunction with
industry experts. Our unique Automated Cluster Meter Reading (ACMR)
around open protocols and mesh networks has found resonance with
leading State and Private Power Corporations. ACMR pilot projects are
in advanced stages of implementation and we are confident of our
solution gaining ground and adding considerable value during the next
two fiscal years.
Our Content Management platform powers Republique Media – a company
engaged in providing Online Anti- Piracy solutions to the media and
entertainment industry. Our technology has been used in more than 30
films during the last fiscal and has managed to reduce online piracy to
the extent of 95% resulting in more footfalls at the theaters and
extended sale of their DVDs / VCDs.
While our Content Management platform powers anti- piracy solutions, we
also power Filmorbit (www.filmorbit. com), a broad based portal for the
Indian Entertainment industry. The website streams more than 2000
movies for free, offers content discovery in more ways than one,
content consumption and commerce. Social media connections are
integrated as part of this website. www. filmorbit.com is live in its
beta stage and is expected to have a full launch during the third
quarter of fiscal 2012.
We have worked to expand our offerings that enable users to manage
their information – to create content, collaborate on it as a group,
and then share it with the world. We are confident of effectively
utilizing our flexible Content, Communication, Collaboration and CRM
platforms to explore possibilities of addressing more market segments
in the coming fiscal years to broad base our revenue streams. Our
technical expertise, people, and a compelling work environment have
massive advantages in globalization. We treat ''growth'' as a process by
focusing on agility, innovation, customer needs, services and
best-practice integration. Nearly 80% of our revenues are from exports.
We have always believed in partnerships to expand our business and this
principle has helped us in expanding our operations in the lucrative
South American, Middle East and African markets. During the fiscal year
we signed:
- A Memorandum of Understanding with HRH Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud to establish a Joint Venture (JV) to pursue
E-governance and Energy solution opportunities in Saudi Arabia and
other Gulf countries.
- A partnership agreement with AudioBras, Portal Radios and RadiosBR.
This partnership will enable us to bring Portuguese and Brazilian
content, including music, news and sports, to all Mundu Radio users.
- An agreement with International Business Promoters LLC, Muscat, to
diversify its financial products and GeoAmida in the Sultanate of Oman.
Under our expansion plan, our strategic alliance with Zee Entertainment
Enterprises Limited – ZEEL was done to incorporate ITM Digital Private
Limited. This company was to address the hugely growing market for
multimedia content convergence across Internet, Television and Mobile
phones. The ZEEL-Geodesic agreement was mutually terminated owing to
change of views and long term impact.
CULTURE AND TEAM
We''re building a culture rooted in transparency innovation and scale,
because we aspire to innovate as much on the people side as we do on
the product side. We have improved our benefits programs and launched a
range of development programs that help our people grow into better
leaders. We work hard to infuse a great and transparent culture into
every office around the world, empowering our employees to make
contributions that help drive Geodesic''s overall success.
These initiatives help us scale by attracting amazingly talented
people, and then nurturing them as we preserve what''s special about our
culture. Our commitment to our employees is matched by a broader sense
of responsibility to our customers and user communities worldwide.
Specifically, we recognize that Content, Communication and Collaboration
are powerful tools to help identify and solve problems. We are
committed to harnessing our resources to help address pressing global
needs.
During the fiscal year 2011, we have added more than 70 people on board
and strengthened our senior management, product management, marketing,
support, and the software engineering teams to ensure we create a
global brand out of India.
During the year, we have won several awards for our products including
the NASSCOM Social Honors award for GeoAmida. Mundu TV scaled up charts
on several app stores and was rated the #1 Entertainment App on the
Apple App Store and the Nokia Ovi Store.
This is the sixth consecutive year of being included in the Deloitte
Fast 50 in India and Fast 500 in Asia.
This is the beginning of a new decade. As we go forward, we are
optimistic we will make significant progress in tackling global
challenges.
THANK YOU
We had a remarkable 2011. None of our achievements would have been
possible without our passionate users, strong partnerships and talented
employees. Lastly the trust you have placed in us is something we value
greatly and we look forward to your continued trust, support and
guidance.
Pankaj Kumar Kiran Kulkarni Prashant Mulekar
Chairman Managing Director Executive Director
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