Wireless Matrix Corporation WSMXF

WRX CC

[99921]

Just listened to the conf. call present by Rich Carlson, Al Milligan (VP Bus. Opns.) and Maria Izurieta (CFO). No great surprises - a strong emphasis on selling efforts being made through the new organization. The new executive team is fully in place. They are hiring 10 new sales people - 6 geographic, 2 “verticals” which I understood were rail and public safety, and 2 technical support people. They won’t sacrifice quality of hires to get people fast. The sales cycle is one to two years. Getting an order requires writing an application, buying laptops, creating “middle wear’ and then network connectivity. Carlson said they find they are now dealing more often with senior management in customer companies rather than tech specialists so they are increasingly being seen as a potential bottom line benefit to the customer. They are being asked more often for information and proposals - the new sales people are generating leads, particularly the rail specialist. It will be Q4 of this fiscal year before any concrete results are seen and nothing dramatic will happen until the first two quarters of next fiscal year. Their target is to add 10,000 units per year. At present their top five customers represent 80% of their revenues and Sears is their largest customer. The public safety vertical is not developing as fast as they had hoped but they are getting more RFP’s through the new sales team. There are more pilot projects under way than ever before and those in the rail and “Private Fleets” could mean an added 6,700 units in late ‘05. In general, Carlson said he was very happy with the performance of the new sales team but some have just recently joined the company. They have 115 employees and about 20 of those are outside the mobile business unit. The telemetry and telecom units are for sale and it sounds like they have some interested buyers but no imminent sale potential. Carlson said that “no one can match” the ability of WRX to provide dramatic productivity improvements to customers who have fleets and remote service workers. Sending and receiving data in real time is the key. A new web site is in the works.