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Shareholder Review
    Contents
    Introduction
    About Salmat
    Chairmans Message
    Joint Managing Directors Report
    Review of Operations
    BusinessForce
    SalesForce
    MediaForce
    Corporate Responsibility Report
    Board of Directors
    Corporate Directory
Full Financial Report
    Financial Contents
    Corporate Governance
    Directors Report
    Auditors Independence Declaration
    Income Statements
    Balance Sheets
    Statements of Recognised Income and Expense
    Cash Flow Statements
    Notes to the Financial Statements
    Directors Declaration
    Independent Auditors Report
    Independent Auditors Report
    Shareholder Information

BusinessForce

Following the merger of Salmat’s BPO division with
HPA in November 2007, BusinessForce is now the largest
division of the Salmat group and the largest supplier of
specialist business process outsourcing services in the
Asia Pacific region.

The year in review
The HPA acquisition made this a landmark year for BusinessForce. While one-off costs have impacted this year’s results, the underlying performance was solid.
BusinessForce integration
The smooth amalgamation of the two businesses has naturally been a primary focus in the latter half of the year and remains a priority moving forward.
The integration is progressing well on all counts. In many respects, it’s been ‘business as usual’ for BusinessForce clients and the majority of staff, and we’ve been pleased to retain all of our key relationships within both groups. We are on target to complete the integration program by the end of 2009.
In terms of synergy benefits, we originally estimated that the annual cost base of the combined business could be reduced by around $10–15 million. We are confident that synergy savings will be at the upper end of this estimate and will be fully realised during the 2010 financial year as initial integration costs reduce.
In 2008, we achieved savings of approximately $4 million, offset by the same amount in one-off costs. Next year, we expect integration savings to deliver a net EBITA improvement of $5 million compared with 2008. The remainder of the integration savings should impact EBITA in 2010.
Product and services suite
A key advantage of the recent integration was the opportunity to enhance the BusinessForce suite of services with the complementary strengths and capabilities of both organisations.
The combined sales team has worked closely together to harmonise the BusinessForce solution offering for key industries, including some new markets not traditionally served. Capabilities including direct marketing, high-speed colour printing, scanning and electronic communication as well as overall capacity have
been enhanced by the merger. We’ve also revitalised our research and development team. As consumer service expectations continue to grow, BusinessForce is increasingly offering our clients more innovative IT-based solutions focused on data, as well as providing ‘end to end’ solutions rather than isolated elements.
During the past year, we’ve invested in upgrading our own systems and resources, in order to remain at the industry forefront and deliver our services as efficiently and seamlessly as possible. New technology supporting workflow and production integrity was installed and equipment including scanning machinery was refreshed.
Additionally, Salmat’s specialist digital Print on Demand group was integrated into the BusinessForce division, upgraded to a fully integrated national digital print platform and rebranded as PrintZoo during the year.
Looking forward
The local market remains competitive, with merger and acquisition activity persisting throughout the wider industry.
BusinessForce will continue to seek process improvement and further productivity gains in areas including laser mail and back-end office systems, in addition to the economies of scale resulting from the merger. We will continue to reap the benefits of the further synergy opportunities yet to be realised over the coming year.
As the fundamental stages of the integration program are completed, the focus for BusinessForce is shifting more intently towards growth. We will continue to develop our integrated solution offering, drawing on our unique capabilities in data, Business Colour, electronic delivery and inbound communication processing to offer end to end solutions. We have a solid pipeline of opportunities for the year ahead, with several key areas of particular interest.
BusinessForce in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines currently operates on a much smaller scale than in Australia and has considerable potential for expansion. As well as increasing the scale of operations, there is a significant opportunity to introduce a far wider range of products and services than is currently offered through these branches. We will be working to capitalise on this potential in the coming year.
We will also be driving improvement in the PrintZoo business over the next twelve months, with a focus on higher revenue, greater efficiency and profitability.