CALGARY -

Calling fiscal 2010 a “year of change” in the auto market compared to the “year of contraction” in 2009, the president and chief executive officer of Calgary-based Quorum Information Technologies pointed to a number of strides the company made in its recently completed fiscal year.

CEO Maury Marks stressed that Quorum would continue to expand beyond its core General Motors customers, but that it would maintain its relationships with GM franchises as a “key focus.”

The company posted net income of $95,083 in 2010, compared to $236,045 million the previous year.

The decline was attributable to non-cash future income tax expense coming in a $259,000 during 2010. This compared to a recovery of $143,000 in the prior year.

Quorum’s revenue jumped 6 percent to $7.7 million, thanks to net new-customer installations jumping from seven to 33 and a 4-percent hike in recurring support, which came in at $6.08 million.

Among the “significant achievements” touted by president and CEO Maury Marks were the following:

—Customer care: “Our semi-annual GM IDMS customer satisfaction survey results showed that two-thirds of our dealer principals would definitely recommend us and the remaining one-third would likely recommend us,” Marks pointed out.

—Product: “We completed two new releases during the year with the highlight being version 4.7.1, that was general released in the U.S. late in 2010 and in Canada early in 2011,” he noted. “The V4.7.1 release contains the largest number of key enhancements in a single release in the company’s history.”

—Implementations. “It was an amazing achievement to scale our implementations up from seven installs in 2009 to 33 in 2010,” Marks pointed out. “Great people and a continual drive to improve our process facilitated this achievement. To deliver more consistent, reliable implementations for new customers, we introduced a Quorum and dealer scorecard to ensure all key implementation deliverables are accomplished.”

Support Services: “Our support desk improved their responsiveness yet again,” he noted.

In fact, Quorum closed almost three-fourths of its support calls within 30 minutes, a year-over-year gain of 5 percentage points. Moreover, the company closes 87 percent within a 24-hour window, compared to 85 percent the prior year, according to officials.

Marks went on to laud the company’s “We’ve got you covered” strategy for its solution offering, DMS Assurance package and employees.

Furthermore, Marks highlighted some financial progress.

During the fourth quarter, “Quorum posted our sixth consecutive cash flow positive quarter. During the year, we paid off and retired our convertible debenture, four months before its original maturity date. On Dec. 15, 2010, the company also entered into a demand operating line of $525,000 with HSBC Bank," Marks said.

Looking forward, he noted: “With a stronger balance sheet, an incredible product, excellent implementations and support services, exceptional staff and customers and six consecutive quarters of cash flow positive operations, the company is well positioned to take advantage of the challenging automotive market. For our dealership customers, ‘We’ve got you covered.’”

Dealership Rooftops

Marks also talked about where where the company is headed with regards to dealership rooftops, particularly with GM.

“If 2009 was a year of contraction, 2010 was a year of change in the automotive industry. In 2009 a new, leaner GM organization emerged from bankruptcy protection,” he noted.

“As part of the process it was announced that 42 percent  of GM’s franchised dealerships in both Canada and the U.S. would not have their GM franchises renewed,” Marks continued.

Before GM’s bankruptcy, the automaker comprised more than 90 percent of the Quorum’s dealership rooftops, which numbered 220 at the time. By the time 2010 ended, GM accounted for 75 percent of Quorum rooftops, which numbered 240.

Marks explained: “The impact to Quorum’s customers through the last half of 2009 and 2010 was as follows: Although 42 percent of GM dealerships across North America lost their franchise in the process, only 24 percent of Quorum’s customers were affected.

“Of the 24 percent affected, 28 customers changed their business model to another form of dealership still requiring Quorum’s DMS, and 26 closed their businesses,” he continued.

“To support the 28 customers that changed their business model, Quorum enhanced our product to support other makes and we now have GM, Isuzu, Chrysler, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Subaru, Saab, Suzuki, NAPA and Bumper-to-Bumper franchised dealership customers,” Marks added.

He went on to note that: “GM’s bankruptcy accelerated Quorum’s movement to an "all makes" strategy. Longer term, our "all makes" strategy will continue to diversify our customer base; however, GM franchises will remain a key focus for the organization.”