Outsourcery wins a £1.1m project present. Well, it is nearly Christmas

A FTSE100 company has handed ailing cloudy biz Outsourcery an early Crimbo gift by signing a three-year contract worth an estimated £1.1m to rip out its ageing telephony system in favour of "voice services".

It's been one hell of a year for the Manchester-based software-as-a-service and online infrastructure seller, co-founded by Dragon’s Den relative newbie Piers Linney, but for all the wrong reasons.

Forecast sales didn’t materialise, with losses running higher than revenues, and Linney and his partner were forced to work for free as costs were cut and more shares placed to head off liquidity concerns.

All this bad news meant the share price took a beating on AIM, and until a few weeks ago was hovering around the eight pence mark, way down on the 112 pence when it floated last year.

So, it's hardly surprising Outsourcery execs want to shout about the contract win, which helped lift the stock to 29 pence today.

The deal, won by a "key" channel partner, involves the rollout of Microsoft Lync instant messaging and presence. It will ramp to £30,900 a month over the three years.

This is the third FTSE100 business to use Outsoucery services, but the company refused to names any names, or discuss margins. However, the firm said its Pan Government Accreditation (formerly IL3) was a vital factor is winning the latest project.

Broker Investec estimates Outsourcery will hit revenues of £8.5m for 2014 and report an operating loss of £5.2m. It predicts the business will turn over £22.6m by 2016, and make an operating profit of £4.4m. ®