• Finnish BSS company is small but thriving
• Sales, profits and share price are all heading in the right direction
• Customer base is growing and R&D focus is on next-gen capabilities

When Finnish BSS (business support systems) specialist Tecnotree emerged from the telecom software wilderness in 2019 and started to thrive, its prospects looked good. But when the Covid-19 pandemic turned the world upside-down and halted a lot of investment plans, questions arose as to whether small vendors would survive the upheaval.

So it’s to the credit of the Tecnotree team, led by CEO Padma Ravichander (pictured above), who spoke with TelecomTV in July last year, that it not only avoided the pandemic fallout but thrived.

In 2020 the company grew its revenues by 12% year-on-year to €52.8 million, grew its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) by 30% to €18.6 million and grew its net profit for the year by 76% to €13.6 million, allowing it to grow its earnings per share from 3 cents to 5 cents.

Not surprisingly, the company’s share price has been rising. It started 2020 (pre-pandemic) at just €0.17 but finished the year at €0.70. 

It has tailed off a bit in the first few months of 2021, currently trading at €0.62, but that’s still a vast improvement and gives the company a market value of about €170 million. 

Being a software company has helped in the past year. “Despite the pandemic and lockdown, Tecnotree pushed all boundaries and completed all its software deliveries remotely as per the schedule,” noted Ravichander in an earnings release statement. 

That agility, and the development of its product portfolio (billing, subscriber/partner management, charging and more) helped the company to land new deals and customers last year, including pan-African giant MTN and Claro, part of the América Móvil Group. 

Now the company, which has to invest in product development to stave off bigger rivals such as Amdocs and Netcracker, is focused on adding AI/machine learning capabilities to its products, enabling 5G monetization and automation, and building a new partnership ecosystem. 

An example of its ongoing efforts is an “intelligent wallet” for digital service providers called Spark that connects subscribers, business and partners in a single platform. 

For more background on Tecnotree, and to find out how it clawed its way back to profitability from near bankruptcy, see this TelecomTV article.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV