More profits would be nice

A person’s attitude to personal data and the way it is used by corporations may well be largely a generational thing.

Coming in at the more advanced end of the age spectrum, the primary question is: “What is data?” Then you have a cohort raised on George

Orwell, who are innately suspicious of Big Brother and any possibility of a faceless corporation harvesting information for nefarious purposes. Finally there are the digital natives who have never known a world pre-google, and who react to invasions of their personal privacy with a “Whatevs, Grandpa.”

The good news for companies operating in the broad field of data analysis is that there is still a whole world of possibility opening up, with ever more sophisticated tools and applications to deliver a business edge in ways that continue to develop at speed.

PBT Group has about 25 years of experience in assisting companies to transform their data into business intelligence solutions. But while it’s in a tasty niche, it has proven to be less than reliable in churning out profits.

In its latest results the company stumbled to a total loss after tax from continuing operations of R139.4m, with a particularly poor performance from its Middle East and Africa segment, where it lost R46.4m and beat a hasty retreat from the region.

Performance in SA was more promising, with sustained demand for its services in data and application development, despite the constraints of a worldwide shortage of skills. PBT is looking to expand into the UK and Europe, but it needs to get the basics right if it is to continue growing.