Investment in human capital products has helped technology specialist COA Solutions defy the recession and post improved financial results.

Reporting revenues increasing by 7.4% to £59.8m for year ending 31 March, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £12.8m, a shade up on March 2008 (£12.4m), the provider cited investment in human capital reporting products and new contract wins.

The reporting period included the acquisition of specialist human capital reporting company ASR Computers.

‘COA Solutions has increased investment in its core finance and human capital management products, as well as new solutions such as managed services and business intelligence technologies,’ the company announced. ‘This is in addition to launching a research initiative to evaluate the transition of key products into cloud platforms and software as a service (SaaS) environments.’

There were two acquisitions in the last fiscal year; e-procurement specialist Belmin in addition to ASR Computers, in the fiscal year ending March 2009. Headcount finished 20% up at 558.

In an interview with the Human Capital Forum, Mark Lane, director product strategy at COA Solutions, said the market for human capital analytics had developed rapidly in the last few years. 'In terms of our business last year, human capital management represents about 20% of our revenues, up from zero four years ago,' he said. Some of that growth has been by acquisition, but demand for human capital analytics has held up well.

COA Solutions reported a 6% growth in its customer base, gaining 227 new accounts. 'Probably 50% of those customers had human capital management in their contracts,' Mr Lane added. Analytics is increasingly bundled in with such deals, he said.

Some demand is recession-led, he said, with NHS trusts and some employers in the transport sector looking to understanding workforce trends in order to reduce employee absence. 'The recession is accelerating what was happening anyway,' he said.

The return on investment from human capital analysis is its strongest card, he added: 'No one is buying software without a strong business case.'

COA Solutions announced plans for further acquisitions, following measures to integrate recently acquired companies.