A reimagination

As I reflect on the last few weeks, the return to a new normal, and the recent progress here at Aptitude Software, I keep coming back to the word ‘reimagine,’ defined as ‘to imagine again or anew, to form a new conception of.’ Certainly, a constant in business, especially these days. 

I am a firm believer that big events like the pandemic give people and businesses the opportunity to reimagine what they want for their future self and the future of their organisation. With that in mind, last week we met with our Investor community to update them on our interim results for the first time since the start of the pandemic - of course all over video conferencing. 

Despite the pandemic, we generated an 11% increase in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) growth, maintained a strong cash position, and had several new business wins and contract extensions to report. The company has responded with determination and grit to the challenges posed by COVID-19 and we move into the second half of the year with a resilient position to maximise opportunities.  

In a day of meetings with Investors last week, I spoke about using the data and experiences of the last six months to reimagine certain aspects of our business. This included quickly adjusting to remote work with no disruption to our clients and reacting to the IFRS 17 delay by doubling down on our Revenue Management and Digital Finance solutions. We talked a lot about the value of partnerships and their ability to help us meet Client demand in existing and new regions - like the partnership we announced in Japan with FIERTE Corporation last month.  It has also meant capturing opportunities presented by an unexpected upturn in lease accounting activity as companies look to automate what many initially tried to do with spreadsheets for the compliance deadline over a year ago which now has become unmanageable.

My team is working hard to not only continue to drive business as usual but to reimagine and invest in the new areas of opportunity we are seeing – to ensure we fall into the category of a great company improved by crises.

Reimagining an option for safe, in-person collaboration 

Yesterday was a big day. Thanks to incredibly hard work by our HR and facilities teams, we reopened our four major offices in Boston, London, Poland, and Singapore. This was not a decision taken lightly and all employees will be free to choose to continue to work remotely or visit their local office. But as a management team, and with feedback from across the organization, we decided to undertake the effort and associated cost of retrofitting and equipping our offices to open with required precautions in place.  

We recognize the value in (safely) gathering in person to re-establish that human connection, exchange ideas, and feed off one another’s energy. I call it “edge,” and it’s something that drives the best businesses all over the world. This is certainly not possible for all companies and locations and we recognize that and are grateful that we were able to reimagine our offices safely and successfully.  

As I reimagine what our longer-term office needs will be in our various locations, I really want to use the learnings from this COVID experience to truly make our offices 'digital hybrid’ locations. Places where we can collaborate with others at home or anywhere else in the world. This fills me with excitement, so I am looking forward to having a hand in designing the future for our workforce. 

Reimagining AptConnect 2020 

The final item we have been reimagining over the last few weeks is our community event, AptConnect 2020. As some of you will remember, we held our first company-led event last fall. It was exceptional and a great chance to bring together over 100 clients, prospects, and partners to showcase the solutions we believe in. I was delighted to see that a prospect who joined us last year has just signed a 5-year contract with us for our RevStream product. 

We were very much looking forward to an in-person AptConnect 2020 but have decided to shift the event to a virtual conference that will be taking place on October 15th. The benefit of reimagining AptConnect 2020 means we can host a truly global audience with a carefully choreographed agenda which would have been more difficult pre-COVID.  

While I will certainly miss the face to face connection, reimagining it as a virtual conference allows us to rethink the approach, presented material, and technology used to deliver a value-packed, interactive day for participants. It also gives us a chance to reach and draw from an even more global audience and get creative with a mix of live broadcasts, virtual client panels, and an interactive expo hall that showcases our partners. I hope you’ll join us! 

What are you reimagining these days? I’d love to hear in the comments below.