Open Insight #1
Welcome to the first edition of Open Insight, a new communication for investors and other external stakeholders. I will be providing regular updates on our business, how customers use our solutions and the new initiatives that are delivering on our growth strategy.
Focused future
Our future journey is built on three main phases: making sure we have the right internal foundation, growing in our core markets and expanding into other, adjacent markets. Since I joined in April, we have focused on the first two phases – setting the internal foundation and identifying growth opportunities in our core business.
We have developed an exciting new long-term strategy that identifies our target growth areas along with clear plans to capitalize on each opportunity. I am not satisfied with our growth in recent years. This strategy will focus our efforts and foster a growth culture – both of which are essential to deliver higher growth rates going forward. The strategy includes continued efforts to grow in areas like cloud-based solutions, remote production and expansion in our existing market and customer segments through improved commercial execution and portfolio competitiveness. As part of this journey, our business mix will over time transition towards increasing software, recurring revenue and solution sales. To enhance our ability to deliver on this long-term strategy, I have appointed a new executive team that includes Mårten Blixt in the newly established role of Chief Commercial Officer, Joakim Schedvins taking over this month as CFO and a new Head of Product Management being recruited.
Today, Nimbra is trusted by broadcasters, service providers and enterprises in over 70 countries to produce, manage and deliver live sport, news and online video. We are in a unique position to grow because we continue to enhance the proven Nimbra solutions that represent the majority of our revenues today, while also empowering our customers to benefit from new cloud and IP technologies. Crucially, we enable our customers to transform their media businesses toward new distributed cloud and IP workflows (both in production and for distribution) without needing to discard their existing hardware investments. The Nimbra ecosystem is second to none for its combination of solutions and the large installed base. It’s built on our own proven transport technologies, supports IP, and offers the industry’s most open cloud software solution. It enables customers to upgrade, and continue to optimize, their existing Nimbra investments as they evolve their media transport requirements.
The market situation, with ongoing technology shifts and uncertainty posed by the ongoing pandemic, is driving significant change for our customers. This presents challenges as well as great opportunities for us. The pandemic has put pressure on the whole live ecosystem – as well as events being postponed, there have been no in-person audiences and reduced ability for production teams to travel. This has accelerated trends such as the move to cloud and remote production. As we help our customers navigate these challenges, it will open up market opportunities and have a positive impact on long-term growth potential. The market situation will of course also imply natural challenges to execute and deliver on growth initiatives but we are well positioned in the market and will do it.
We continue to add features and functionality to our Nimbra solutions and will soon launch a next generation of our cloud solution – made possible by our earlier decisions to increase our investments in R&D. Our accelerated product development, even during the pandemic, is backed by increased focus on solutions-based selling, new company messaging and investment in digital marketing. The latter includes the launch of a new virtual Digital Event Platform that provides a wealth of information and makes it easy for customers to connect directly with our solutions experts.
Together, these initiatives position us strongly with our existing core customers and opens up opportunities to further expand into markets segments like production companies and broadcasters.
Delivering transformational media experiences
Our team is constantly delivering important projects with our customers and partners. One recent example is our work with The Switch to deliver a next-generation IP delivery solution for the NESN (New England Sports Network). This will carry feeds of iconic sports teams including the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins, as well as hundreds of other live sports events, to over six million viewers in the US.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to providing more updates as we continue to execute on our growth plans in the coming months.