1、Annual Report2015Summary of Consolidated Results31.12.201531.12.201431.12.2013Change(2015/2014)Sales(EUR K)62,60244,63442,45840.3%Operating performance(EUR K)63,12745,14642,83339.8%Total operating revenues(EUR K)64,85347,33345,28537.0%EBIT(EUR K)(1,276)(3,015)1,045(57.7)%EBIT margin(on sales)(2.0)%(
2、6.8)%2.5%-EBIT margin(on total operating revenue)(2.0)%(6.4)%2.3%-EBITDA(EUR K)2,177373,3405,864.3%EBT(EUR K)(1,383)(2,987)932(53.7)%Annual net income(EUR K)(1,500)(1,870)601(19.8)%Earnings per share(weighted)(EUR)(0.79)(1.65)0.34-Earnings per share(diluted)(EUR)(0.79)(1.64)0.33-Equity ratio42.7%68.
3、1%68.4%-Net debt(EUR K)7,346(11,974)(9,041)(181.2)%Development by quarter(EUR K)Sales,EBIT,profit3M 2015H1 20159M 2015Total 2015 12,984 (878)(1,272)26,856 (2,275)(2,909)41,975 (3,361)(4,347)62,602 (1,276)(1,500)3A To the Shareholders7 Letter from the Management Board11 Letter from the Supervisory Bo
4、ard15 Corporate Governance Report 15 Cooperation between the Management Board and the Supervisory Board15 Transparency15 Risk management15 Declaration of Compliance18 GKSoftware AG shares 18 Basic data18 Summary/share performance18 Shareholder structure19 Directors dealings in 201519 Investor relati
5、onsB Consolidated Annual Report23 Economic Report23BusinessandgeneralconditionsatGKSoftware36 Explanation of the business results and an analysis oftheassets,financialandearningssituation43 Report on key events 44 Report on the Risks,Prospects and Outlook for the GKSoftware Group44 Risks49 Opportuni
6、ties 51 Outlook53 Other information 53PrinciplesofGKSoftwareAGsremunerationsystemC Consolidated Financial Report59 Consolidated Balance Sheet 60 Consolidated profit and loss statement and other results 61 Group statement of changes in equity 62 Consolidated cash flow statement 64 Notes on the Consol
7、idated Accounts 64 Principles of reporting70 Balance sheet and assessment principles85 Notes on the Consolidated Balance Sheet96NotesontheConsolidatedProfitandLossStatement100Notesonthecashflowstatement100 Corporate mergers102 Segment reporting104 Other information116 Assurance by the legal represen
8、tatives 117 Auditors certificate120 Financial Calendar121 Imprint/NotesContentsA To the Shareholders7 Letter from the Management Board11 Letter from the Supervisory Board15 Corporate Governance Report 15 Cooperation between the Management Board and the Supervisory Board15 Transparency15 Risk managem
9、ent15 Declaration of Compliance18GKSoftwareAGshares18 Basic data18 Summary/share performance18 Shareholder structure19 Directors dealings in 201519 Investor relationsLetterfromtheManagementBoard 7LetterfromtheManagementBoardDear shareholders,Wearedelightedtobeabletopresentyouwithourfinancialreportfo
10、rtheyear2015.We achieved outstanding sales results during the year,pressed ahead with ourprocessofinternationalisationandsignificantlyreversedtheprevioustrend.We were able to increase our turnover by 40 percent compared to the previous year and achieve revenues of EUR 62.62.Organic growth accounted
11、for about two thirdsofthisfigureandonethirdcamefromouracquisitionintheUSA.Ourmeas-uresdesignedtoimproveinternalproceduresontheprofitssideprovidedclearresults,whichwerereflectedinasignificantlyimprovedEBITDA,whichreachedEUR2.18million,followingafigureofEUR0.04millioninthepreviousyear.Amortisationon a
12、ccount of the acquisition of the retail division of DBS Data Business Service Inc.weighed on the EBIT,however,which was still within the bounds of our expectations atEUR(1.28)million-thefigureinthepreviousyearwasstillEUR(3.02million)-butin our view,it still does not match the possibilities within th
13、e Group.This led to con-solidated annual results of EUR(1.50)million,which still exceeded that of the previ-Rainer GlChiefExecutiveOfficerA|To the Shareholders8ous year at EUR(1.87 million),but naturally does not match the possibilities within the Group.This result corresponds to earnings per share
14、of EUR(0.79).Our growth during the year was based on all kinds of services,although the increase in licence revenues was particularly striking,rising by 139 percent to EUR 10.50 mil-lion.This was primarily based on 15 new GK/Retail projects,which were all gained outside our German-speaking home mark
15、et and conjunction with SAP.This enabled us to demonstrate our competitiveness in all the important international markets once again.A clear sign that the readiness on the part of retailers to make decisions is on the rise again in the D-A-CH region too was the statement published by Aldi Nord in Ja
16、nuary 2016 that the leading international discounter had opted for SAP and 1.As a result of current distortions at some of our competitors,we believe that we have further growth opportunities in our home market too,as many retailers are looking for modern solutions in conjunction with omni-channel r
17、etailing.After we wereabletowinfiveinternationalprojectswithSAPinthepreviousyear,thesignifi-cance of our partnership with SAP was even more striking along the pathway of inter-nationalising our customer base.It was possible to sign contracts with these 14 new customers,which include some very well-k
18、nown international retailers.Alongside this,we continued to press ahead with the reciprocal permeation of our ranges of solutions-primarily in the light of omni-channel capabilities.We were able to achieve an extremely important acquisition for our strategy of inter-nationalisation right at the begi
19、nning of the reporting period.By acquiring the highly profitableretaildivisionoftheUScompanyDBSInc.,whichtookplaceinMarch2015,we took an important step towards further tapping into the market in North America,the largest retail market in the world.The part of the company acquired is firstlygearedtow
20、ardsprojectdevelopmentandconsultancywork,butsecondlytodrawingupsolutionsthatcomplementthoseofferedbyGKSoftware.Thenewunithas already focussed on implementing store projects for many years and has suc-cessfully handled many introductions of the previous SAP till solution POS(Triversity)during the las
21、t few years.As a result,we were able to migrate some of the relevant customers to range of solutions sold by SAP and underlay this with further expertise in conjunction with SAP.Part of the acquisition involved purchasing a market-leading software solution,which is geared to linking a wide variety o
22、f hardware and software in order to handle electronic payments in North America.The relatively rapid inte-grationinGKSoftwaresrangeofsolutionsbringswithitconsiderablesimplificationand acceleration in handling projects in this market too.As planned,all the impor-tant employees in the acquired company
23、 are still working for us and we are actively expanding GK Software USA Inc.in order to meet the demands of enhanced sales work and the project business in North America.We also set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in South Africa at the start of the business year.This is focusing on the issues of sales
24、 and project handling in southern Africa with a small team of employees.As part of our activities,we were able to hand over reference installations for productive operations in four countries in the region dur-ing 2015 and others will follow during 2016.In the light of the potential in this mar-ket,
25、we expect this branch to grow moderately too.Another wholly owned subsidiary oftheGroupwassetupinLvovinUkraineintheshapeofEurosoftware-UALLCdur-1ThenameGKSoftwarealwaysreferstotheGrouphereinafter.“TheCompany”isalsousedasasyno-nym.If“GKSoftwareAG”isused,thisonlyreferstotheindividualcompany.Letterfrom
26、theManagementBoard 9ing February of this year.This is being used as a near-shore development site and personnel are currently being taken on.In order to take even greater account of the market demands in conjunction with the issue of omni-channel retailing,we successfully presented our new OmniPOS s
27、olu-tiontothefirstinterestedpartiesatspecialisttradefairsintheUSAandDsseldorfandreceivedexcellentfeedback;thiswasofficiallylaunchedforallcustomersatthebeginning of 2016.During the course of the reporting period,we actively started to introducethefirstcustomerprojectswiththenewOmniPOSsolutionaspartof
28、aramp-upphase.WeareconvincedthatthissignificantfurtherdevelopmentofourGK/Retailrangeofsolutionshassignificantlyimprovedouropportunitiesinalltenderprocedures.It has already become clear that our omni-channel range is competitive for customers and interested parties and we therefore assume that our sa
29、les oppor-tunitieswillsignificantlyimproveonceagain.Weareconvincedthatmodularcon-cepts will replace monolithic solutions in future.Important processes will be made available as services for stores,webshops and mobile devices as part of this.To achieve this,we have to make available all the data that
30、 is available on the customer,theitem,availability,unfinishedshoppingbasketsfromothersaleschannelsorcur-rent social media trends in real time.The work in our research and development department was therefore dominated by very close coordination with SAP during the whole of the 2015 business year,so
31、that we integrated new and ongoing develop-mentsmadebyourstrategicpartner,e.g.inthefieldofHybrise-commerce,HANA,CAR or Fiori,in our project development work.In line with this,our solutions once againsuccessfullyunderwentpremiumqualificationbySAPinMarch2016;thisguar-antees that the latest versions of
32、 our solutions are approved for sale by SAP.We were also able to expand our installed base by approx.14,000 installations so that we now have in operation 213,026 productive systems(tills,mobile devices,servers)in41differentcountries.Wewerethereforeabletocontinuetoexpandourmarket leadership position
33、 in Germany and the international arena.The position of GK Software is also evident in that we now have business relationships with 20 per-cent of the TOP 50 of the largest retailers in the world.As in previous years,we gen-erated further turnover from almost all our existing projects on a continual
34、 basis.This occurs with great regularity,as our customers have to permanently adapt their solutions to the new demands of their business by expanding into new countries,developing new sales concepts or introducing omni-channel requirements.As far as our partner business is concerned,the GK Academy w
35、as able to fully play theroleconceivedforitforthefirsttimeduringthe2015businessyear.Employeesfrom 14 implementation partners received training,for example,and some of them already bear full or partial responsibility in projects.Some of our customers also booked places on our product training courses
36、 in order to reinforce their in-house expertise.TheAcademyalsointroducedacertificationprogrammeforhardwarepartners and several providers have already made use of this.We believe that the GK Academy programme will enable us to intensively prepare our well-positioned inter-national partner network to
37、handle projects with our solutions around the globe with high quality levels.Weareveryconfidentthatwewillbeabletocontinueourgrowthpathwayin2016and beyond.Our new solutions have triggered great interest in the market place and oursalespipelineisverywellfilled.OurpartnershipwithSAPcontinuestobearfruit
38、and we are involved in detailed discussions with potential customers from Germany A|To the Shareholders10and abroad.We believe that we are in an excellent position in several ongoing tender procedures and we are also expecting further growth from our business with existing customers.Basedonthefigure
39、sfor2014,weestimatethatwecoulddoubleourturnoverwithinthree years.We wish to continue the trend set in 2015 during the 2016 business year and achieve a positive margin(EBIT related to turnover).Our medium-term tar-get margin for the overall business encompassing all the business units is about 15 per
40、cent.This forecast is naturally subject to the proviso that no extraordinary events occur,which could lead to negative interference with the overall economy or the retail sector.We are delighted that you are supporting GK Software AG and its pathway of growth and we would like to thank you for your
41、ongoing trust in the Company.The Management BoardRainer GlssCEOAndr HergertCFOLetterfromtheSupervisoryBoard 11LetterfromtheSupervisoryBoardDear shareholders,The report by the Supervisory Board for the 2015 business year at GK Software AG,which I am pre-sentinghere,relatesonceagaintoadifficultyear,al
42、though we had actually assumed in the previous year that more favourable conditions would gradu-ally set in.Following the highly successful years after the IPO with consistently good results,the year 2012 clearly demonstrated that success is no foregone conclusion.We returned to our pathway of succe
43、ss once again in the 2013 business year by adopting suitable measures.Everything looked as if this would continue in the same vein even at the annual shareholders meeting in 2014,but this unfortunately did not turn out to be true for 2014 or for 2015 either.Composition of the Supervisory BoardIn acc
44、ordance with the articles of association,the Supervisory Board consists of three members.In 2015,they were:UweLudwig(Chairman)Thomas Bleier(Deputy Chairman)and Herbert Zinn.MrLudwigandMrZinnhavebeenappointeduntiltheendoftheannualsharehold-ers meeting in 2016,while Mr Thomas Bleiers appointment will
45、terminate with the conclusion of the 2019 annual shareholders meeting.MeetingsThe Supervisory Board held its ordinary meetings on 22 February,28 April,26 June,31 August and 30 November 2015.Two telephone conferences were held on 23 January and 13 May,when major decisions were about to be taken.All m
46、embers of the Board were present at all the ordinary meetings and conferences.It is custom-ary practice at GK Software AG that the representatives of the Management Board are always involved in the meetings.Outside of the meetings,the members of the Supervisory Board were also regularly in contact w
47、ith each other as well as with the Management Board and the members of the Group Management Board,particularly A|To the Shareholders12through the Chairman of the Supervisory Board.Decisions were made during meet-ings or by a circulation procedure.During its meetings,the Supervisory Board was briefed
48、indetailabouttheeconomicandfinancialsituationoftheCompanyandthefundamental corporate policy by means of verbal and written reports from the Man-agement Board.In addition to this,the Management Board reported on the course of business by providing interim reports at regular intervals and promptly for
49、warded the minutes of the board meetings.Functions of the Supervisory BoardInthe2015financialyear,theSupervisoryBoardforGKSoftwareAGfulfilledthetasks incumbent upon it according to law,the articles of association,the recommen-dations of the government commissions“German Corporate Government Code”and
50、 the Supervisory Boards revised rules of internal procedure and continually moni-tored the Companys managers.In the interests of streamlining the managerial structure in 2013,the restructuring of the Management Board in terms of personnel was an urgent issue following the changes to the structure an
51、d procedural organisation of the Company.The restruc-turing of the Management Board from four to just two members with a Group Man-agementBoardbeneathitprovedbeneficial.However,thisdidnotapplytothemakeup in terms of personnel.Following the orientation period that is normal in thesekindsofsituations,
52、theenvisagedefficientwaysofworkingdidnot,however,materialisedespitehavingflexiblemanagementconditions,sochangesinpersonneland changes in responsibilities were necessary.This was completed during the second half of 2015 in line with the experience and knowledge gained in the general restructuring in
53、2013 and in close cooperation with the Supervisory Board.Following the recent orientation period,it is already clear that this has led to much closer cooperation on the new management committee and thistypifiestheexpectationsforthenextfewyears.Whatisessentialfortheongo-ing development of the Company
54、 is particularly that Mr Jaszczyk can press ahead with the development of the North American business within the Group as its Chief ExecutiveOfficer,supportedbythetakeoverofpartoftheDBScompanyfromMarch2015 onwards.The development of the US subsidiary also experienced the neces-sarysupport,whichwillh
55、aveapositiveeffectonthecontinuingpenetrationoftheAmericanmarket.ItisalsoextremelybeneficialthathecanalsofulfilhisroleasCTOfor the Company and was able to achieve major ongoing developments in our prod-ucts with his team in 2015.In addition to the considerable support during this orientation process
56、after the personnel restructuring work,which occurred without any problems,the continued development and adaptation of the risk management systems has been an impor-tant issue for years.As a result,the Supervisory Board called for reports on the pro-gress of the implementation of the security concep
57、t,which has now been extended once again,and on the further establishment of formalised administrative processes,revised procedures in the controlling department and the work of the data protec-tionofficer,whowasappointedinthepreviousyear.TheSupervisoryBoardwel-comed the progress achieved and the fu
58、ndamental revision of the planning pro-cesses,whichwastackledandusedforthefirsttimeasanewframeworkfortheannualplanningworkin2015.Itwasalsopossibletocontinuerefiningtheprocesses.LetterfromtheSupervisoryBoard 13The Supervisory Board also fully focused on the appropriateness of the remunera-tion for me
59、mbers of the Management Board,particularly in the light of the restruc-turing process.As in previous years,our attention was focused on the relationship between remuneration and the Companys economic situation and on the conditions prevalent at other companies,the comparison with the overall structu
60、re of remuner-ationwithinGKSoftwareAGandthecompositionoffixedandvariablesalarycom-ponents.After it had been established that,as in the previous year,there had been significantdeviationsfromtheeconomictargetssetforthe2015businessyear,theSupervisoryBoardsignificantlyreducedthevariablesalarycomponentsf
61、oralltheManagement Board and Board members and did not approve the amount originally agreed.In order to monitor the management team,the Supervisory Board was guided by the annual budget passed for 2015 and called for reports from the Management Board particularlyregardingtheongoingbusinesspolicyandc
62、orporateplanning,profitabil-ity,the course of business and important individual measures adopted by the Com-pany.The Supervisory Board also received a number of additional reports on the development of business throughout the business year and even more so after the annual shareholders meeting,after
63、 there had been a failure to achieve the antici-pated positive development in business and the targets set for the business year.The takeover of AWEK initially provided the expected reinforcement and the desired effectsfortheongoingdevelopmentofGKSoftwareAG,butwasthenonlyabletofulfilsomeoftheexpecta
64、tionsplacedonitin2015.Incontrasttothis,thepartialtakeover of DBS in North America seems to have proven to be completely success-ful with regard to the strategic and economic goals.The Management Board supplied the Supervisory Board with information throughout the year both during and outside meeting
65、s and the Supervisory Board discussed these reports and checked them with a critical eye,although,unfortunately,they did not contain the anticipated positive reports of success.Corporate GovernanceThe Supervisory Board and Management Board act in the full knowledge that good corporate governance for
66、ms an important basis for the Companys success and is therefore in the best interests of shareholders and equity markets.The Management Board and Supervisory Board issued their annual declaration of compliance accord-ing to Section 161 of the German Companies Act in April 2016.The wording of this is
67、 printed in this business report as part of the Corporate Governance report.The Man-agement Board and the Supervisory Board have pledged to follow the recommenda-tions of the German Corporate Governance Code as far as possible.A decision con-cerning GK was made on the legal stipulation to have equal
68、 representation of women andmeninmanagementpositionson31August2015.Noconflictsarosein2015asregardsconflictsofinterestinthemembersoftheSupervisoryBoard.2015 annual auditTheGKSoftwareAGannualaccountscompiledbytheManagementBoardinlinewith the guidelines set by the German Commercial Code and the IFRS Co
69、nsolidated Accounts and the respective management report have been audited by the auditing company,Deloitte&ToucheGmbH,andweregivenanunqualifiedauditcertificate.A|To the Shareholders14Taking into account these audit reports,the Supervisory Board examined the annual accounts compiled by the Managemen
70、t Board,the consolidated accounts,the dependencyreport,themanagementreportforGKSoftwareAGandfortheGroupand the loss recorded by the Management Board for 2015.During its meeting on 25 April 2016,the Supervisory Board asked the Management Board to explain the 2015 annualandconsolidatedaccountswiththei
71、rminusfiguresandreportontheprofita-bility,the Companys equity,the interim course of business and the Companys ongo-ing situation.All the Supervisory Board members received the necessary documents prior to this meeting.During the meeting,the auditors commented on the Management Boards presenta-tion,e
72、xplainedtheauditfindingsusingtheauditreportsandansweredalltheques-tions on these reports.The auditors were able to satisfactorily answer all the issues that were mentioned during the meeting.There are no doubts about the auditors independence.The Supervisory Board therefore approved the annual accou
73、nts for GK Software AG in its meeting on 25 April 2016 and approved the consolidated accounts for GK Software.The annual accounts have therefore been approved.The Supervisory Board agreed with the Management Boards recommendation to record theloss,particularlyinviewofthefactthatsignificantadjustment
74、sinvaluefromtheprevious year could then be undertaken too.The Management Board also prepared a report on relations with associated compa-nies in line with Section 312 of the German Companies Act.The auditors checked this and provided a verbal report on the results of the audit during the meeting on
75、25 April 2016.The review by the Supervisory Board did not give rise to any reasons for objectionstoberaised.Accordingly,itdidnothaveanyobjectionstothefinaldecla-ration by the Management Board in its report according to Section 312 of the Ger-man Companies Act either.The Supervisory Board would like
76、to thank the Management Board,the Group Man-agement Board,the complete management team and all the employees for the work that they performed in 2015.It wishes them all a rapid and sustained return to suc-cessinresults,whichwillalsoprovideconfirmationoftheireffortsandtheirsuccess-ful work in the lon
77、g term.Schneck,28 April 2016UweLudwigChairman of the Supervisory BoardCorporate Governance Report 15Corporate Governance Report According to Section 289a of the German Commercial CodeGKSoftwareviewsresponsibleandtransparentperformance as absolutely essential for its long-term economic value creation
78、.Both the Manage-ment and Supervisory Boards have therefore issued the statutory statement of compliance according to Section 161 of the German Compa-nies Act.Monitoring compliance with the state-ment is therefore viewed as an important task for the Management Board and the Supervisory Board.The sta
79、tement is submitted every year and is available to the public on the internet at http:/investor.gk- in the“Corporate Governance”section.Cooperation between the Management Board and the Supervisory BoardThe Management Board and the Supervisory Board have been working together based on a relationship
80、of trust for many years.The Manage-ment Board provides regular reports to the Super-visoryBoardaboutprofitabilityandGroupstrat-egies and their implementation,but also about existing or possible risks.This is done during the scheduled Supervisory Board meetings,three of whichwereheldduringthepastfina
81、ncialyear,and also directly through regular monthly meet-ings with the Chairman of the Supervisory Board.Further information on this can be found in the Report by the Supervisory Board.Because it has just three members,the Supervisory Board did not form any committees.All the issues are discussed an
82、d decided upon by the full body.The Chairman of the Supervisory Board is solely authorised to conduct negotiations for human resources deci-sions related to the Management Board,but these negotiations must be approved by the whole body.Therewerenoconflictsofinterestamongstmem-bers of the Management
83、and Supervisory Boards.TransparencyInthesummerof2008GKSoftwarechosetohaveits IPO listed on the most stringently controlled segment of the German Stock Exchange,the Prime Standard section.The highest possible degree of transparency towards its investors and all the other participants in the capital m
84、arkets has been one of the most important Company principles from the outset.The company will also appoint a voting proxy at the 2015 annual shareholders meeting,who will allow shareholders to exercise their voting rights even if they cannot attend the annual sharehold-ers meeting.All public informa
85、tion such as ad hoc announcementsandpressreleases,thefinancialstatements or the reports on the annual share-holders meeting will be made available on the Companys website.Risk managementThe risk management system established by the Group is geared towards the needs of the Com-pany.It is designed to
86、help identify risks at an early stage and appropriately prevent or restrict any risks that occur.Please refer to the Group man-agement report for further details.Declaration of ComplianceSection 161 of the German Companies Act obliges the Management Board and the Supervisory Board atGKSoftwareAGtoma
87、keanannualdeclarationthat compliance has been or is being achieved with regard to the recommendations of the“Gov-ernment Commission on German Corporate Gov-ernance Code”published by the German Minister ofJusticeintheofficialsectionoftheelectronicGerman Federal Gazette,or to state which recom-mendati
88、ons have not been or are not being used.A|To the Shareholders16This declaration must be made available to share-holders at all times.The last annual declaration was submitted in April 2015 and related to the version of the Code dated 24 June 2014.The future corporate governance practicesatGKSoftware
89、AGinthefollowingdecla-ration relate to the recommendations in the Code in its current version dated 5 May 2015.On 27 April 2016,the Management and Supervi-soryBoardsatGKSoftwareAGdeclaredthatsincethe release of the last annual declaration of com-pliance in April 2015 the recommendations of the“Gover
90、nment Commission on German Corporate Governance Code”had been met,apart from the exceptions noted in the declaration published in April 2015,and continue to be met with the follow-ing exceptions.Code number 2.3.3 The Company will not provide any Internet webcast of the annual shareholders meeting,as
91、 the Management Board and Super-visory Board believe that this would not create a higher participation level at the annual sharehold-ers meeting.Code number 4.1.5 The candidates for manage-ment functions will mainly be selected by the Man-agement Board on the basis of their personal skills and abili
92、ties in the interests of the Company.Only after this will other objective background issues in the candidates like their age,place of origin or gen-der be taken into account in order to not gener-ally restrict the interests of the Company.In setting the target rate for the share of women on the top
93、management level below the Management Board,the Management Board will take into account the fact that this only involves four persons.Code number 4.2.4 The Company does not reveal the earnings of the members of the Management Board in the annual accounts by name.The total earnings of the members of
94、the Management Board are disclosed.This departure from normal practicewasadoptedonaccountofthequalifiedmajority of three quarters of the equity capital rep-resented at the annual shareholders meeting at the annual shareholders meeting on 29 June 2015 in line with Section 286 Paragraph 5 of the Ger-m
95、an Commercial Code and Section 314 Paragraph 2 Sentence 2 of the German Commercial Code not to reveal the individual salaries in the annual and consolidated accounts for 20152019.Code number 4.2.5 Please refer to Code Number 4.2.4 regarding Code number 4.2.5.Code number 5.1.2 The Supervisory Board w
96、ill mainly take into account the personal suitability,which results from the individual skills and special-istexpertiseinthecandidates,whenfillingvacantpositions on the Management Board so as to not generally restrict the interests of the Company.Other criteria will only be taken into consideration
97、after this.There is no age limit for members of the ManagementBoard;GKSoftwareAGfeelsthattheprofessionalqualificationsofthemembersoftheManagement Board play a more important role.The Supervisory Board will particularly take into account the fact that the Management Board only consists of two members
98、 when setting the target size for the share of women on the Management Board.Code number 5.3 In a departure from number 5.3oftheCode,theSupervisoryBoardatGKSoft-ware AG does not form any committees due to the size of the board(the Supervisory Board consists of only three members),as the provision of
99、 con-sistent and extensive information for all members of the Supervisory Board can be guaranteed most efficientlyinmeetingswhereallthemembersofthe Supervisory Board are present.Any issues can be handled and answered appropriately by the whole body.An auditing committee(number 5.3.2)has therefore no
100、t been set up either.The same applies to the nomination committee(number 5.3.3)and the other specialist committees(num-ber 5.3.4).The issues normally incumbent on the specially appointed committees are handled by the complete board,as the board members have thenecessaryqualificationsforthis.Code num
101、ber 5.4.1 The composition of the SupervisoryBoardatGKSoftwareAGisnotdecided by the Supervisory Board,but by the Com-panys annual shareholders meeting.The Supervi-sory Board seeks to engage in successful coopera-tion between its members and constructive coop-eration with the Management Board.The nomi
102、na-tions for candidates submitted by the Supervisory Board to the annual shareholders meeting will take into account the geographical distribution Corporate Governance Report 17and the degree of complexity of the business at GKSoftware.Criteriasuchastheage,backgroundor gender of the candidates will
103、not be taken into consideration.There is no provision for an obliga-tory age limit for the members of the Supervisory Board,as the older members of the Supervisory Board particularly enrich the board as a result of theirwideexperienceandtheirspecialistqualifica-tions are of great importance.For the
104、same rea-son,there is no set limit for membership of the Supervisory Board either.The Supervisory Board will particularly take into account the fact that the Management Board only consists of two mem-bers when setting the target size for the share of women on the Management Board.Code number 5.4.6 T
105、he remuneration for the members of the Supervisory Board exclusively takesplacewithfixedelements.Noremunera-tion,which depends on the Companys success,is granted to the members of the Supervisory Board,as the members of the Supervisory Board must be able to pursue their tasks as a supervisory body f
106、ortheCompanywithoutanypossibleconflictofinterests.Code number 7.1.2 The consolidated accounts are not published within 90 days after the end of thefinancialyear,butafterfourmonthsinlinewith the current guidelines published by Deutsche Brse AG.The interim reports are not made avail-able after 45 days
107、,but after two months according to the current guidelines published by Deutsche BrseAG.GKSoftwareAGbelievesthattheperi-odsoftimesetbyDeutscheBrseAGaresuffi-cient to provide shareholders with detailed infor-mation.A|To the Shareholders18GKSoftwareAGsharesBasic dataT.01 Basic DataSecuritiesIdentificat
108、ionNumber(WKN)757142ISINDE0007571424Trading symbolGKSGKSoftwareAGIPO19 June 2008Type of sharesOrdinary stock in the name of the holder without any nominal value(individualsharecertificates)Trading marketsFrankfurt and XETRAMarket segmentRegulated Market(Prime Standard)Designated sponsorICF Kursmakle
109、r AGNumber of shares1,890,000Share capitalEUR 1,890,000Freefloat44.79%Highest price in 2015EUR 39.90(2 April 2015)Lowestpricein2015EUR 28.94(12 October 2015)Summary/share performanceThe GK Software AG shares listed on the Prime Standard section of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange registered a sideways t
110、rend moving upward slightly during the last business year,having started the year at EUR 33.50.The shares were worth EUR 36.90 at the end of the reporting period.This cor-responded to market capitalisation of EUR 69.7 million at the end of 2015.Shareholder structureGKSoftwareAGhasanextremelystablesh
111、are-holder base,which is enabling the Company to achieve long-term and sustained development.The shareholder structure was as follows on the reporting date of 31 December 2015:Rainer Glss,the founder and CEO,directly holds 3.32 percent oftheshares.StephanKronmller,alsoaCom-pany founder and the forme
112、r Head of Technology and Development,directly holds 2.33 percent of shares.49.56 percent of the shares are owned by GKSoftwareHoldingGmbH,whichhasbeenindi-rectly and equally apportioned to the Company partnersRainerGlssandStephanKronmller.Thiscreatedafreefloatof44.79percenton31December 2015.The Comp
113、any was informed about the following holdingsinGKSoftwareAG,whichexceededthe3percent threshold:GKSoftwareHoldingGmbH 49.56%Freefloat 44.79%StephanKronmller 2.33%RainerGl 3.32%1.89 miosharesF.01 Share price development(indexed)in%300 250 200 150 100 502008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015GK Softwar
114、e AG TecDAXF.02 Shareholder structure on 31 December 2015GKSoftwareAGshares 19T.02 Amounts overstepping the threshold valueValid onShareholderShare in%16.8.2011Andreas Bremke GmbH,Arnsberg3.9917.3.2016 1Scherzer&Co.AG,Cologne6.3619.6.2013Deutsche Balaton Aktiengesellschaft,Heidelberg3.1827.12.2013SA
115、P AG,Walldorf5.291 Initialnotificationof5.23percenton6March2012.Infor-mation on the current portfolio by the shareholder on 17 March2016.Directors dealings in 2015Therewerenoneduringthe2015financialyear.Investor relationsForitsIPOduringthesummerof2008,GKSoft-ware chose to have its shares listed on t
116、he most strictly regulated sector of the Deutsche Brse,the Prime Standard.The highest possible degree of transparency towards its investors and all the other participants in the capital markets has been one of the most important company principles from the outset.Andr Hergert,the CFO,is responsible
117、for investor relations,which has been assigned its own depart-ment.This guarantees that any enquiries from investors and potential investors are answered immediately.GKSoftwareAGalsoattachesgreatimportancetoprovidinganongoingflowofinformationforthe future.Among other things,this involves the complet
118、ion of quarterly reports and extensive half-yearly and annual reports in German and English,afinancecalendar,obligatoryannounce-ments,which have to be published immediately,and corporate news.The accounting system has been adapted to the international IFRS accounting standards and also meets investo
119、rs requirements for information.As in previous years,GK Software will also hold an analysts conference during the Frankfurt Equity Capital Forum in 2016.Investor and press roadshows also take place at regular intervals so that the Company remains in perma-nent contact with the capital markets.The Ma
120、nagement Board also prepared a report on relations with associated companies in line with Section 312 of the German Companies Act.The auditor checked this and verbally communicated the results of his audit to the meeting on 28 April 2016.The review by the Supervisory Board did not give rise to any r
121、easons for objections to be raised.It did not raise any objections to the Management BoardsfinaldeclarationinitsreportinlinewithSection 312 of the German Companies Act.The Supervisory Board wishes to thanks the Man-agementBoardandallstaffmembersfortheircommitment and the work they have performed and
122、 also wishes them all continued success.20B Consolidated Annual Report23 Economic Report23 Business and general conditions at GKSoftware36 Explanation of the business results and an analysis of the assets,financial and earnings situation43 Report on key events 44ReportontheRisks,ProspectsandOutlookf
123、ortheGKSoftwareGroup44 Risks49 Opportunities 51 Outlook53Otherinformation53 Principles of GKSoftware AGs remuneration systemEconomic Report 23Andr HergertChiefFinancialOfficerEconomic ReportBusiness and general conditions at GKSoftwareCorporate structure and holdings Twelve business sites in Germany
124、,the Czech Republic,Switzerland,Russia,South Africa,the USA and Ukraine.Both company founders are actively involved in the CompanyGK Software is one of the worlds leading com-panies for retail software in terms of technology andspeciallyfocusesonsolutionsforfirmswithlargenumbersoflocalstores.GKSoftw
125、areAGand its predecessor company,G&K Datasysteme GmbH,whichRainerGlssandStephanKronml-lerfoundedin1990andwhichbecameGKSoft-ware AG in 2001,have now been active in the mar-ket place for the past 25 years.The Companys IPO took place in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2008
126、.The Companys headquarters has been located in Schneck/Vogtl.since it was founded.The busi-ness site in Schneck is not only responsible for administration,but also product development,project management and providing“third-level support”.Schneck is also home to 1.Waldstrae GmbH,which was set up in p
127、reparation for the launch of new business activities and is also a sub-AWEK GmbHAWEK Microdata GmbHA Member of the GK Software GroupEUROSOFTWAREs.r.o.StoreweaverGmbHGKSoftwareAfricaPTYLtdGKSoftwareUSAInc.OOOGKSoftwareRUS100%100%100%100%100%100%100%100%B|Consolidated Annual Report24sidiary that is wh
128、olly owned by GK Software AG.GK Software has a branch at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin,which is primarily responsible for market-ing,sales and partner activities and is home to the user help desk.The Groups second largest business site has been situated in Plzen in the Czech Republic since 2002.Softw
129、are production and research&development are the main activities pursued by the wholly-owned subsidiary,Eurosoftware s.r.o.Major work on programming and further technological devel-opmentsforthesolutionsprovidedbyGKSoft-ware take place at the Plzen site.An additional branch,located in Cologne,focuses
130、 on software development.GK Software has a wholly-owned subsidiary,Store-Weaver GmbH,in Switzerland and it has its head-quartersinDbendorf.StoreWeaverGmbHhasaGerman branch in St.Ingbert in the federal state of Saarland.The teams in St.Ingbert are respon-sible for the ongoing conceptual development o
131、f the StoreWeaver EE product group(Enterprise Edi-tion)and handling the relevant customer projects and they also look after the customers of the SQRS product group(Solquest Retail Solutions).The Group acquired two more business sites when it took over AWEK GmbH on 10 December 2012.The administration
132、,hotline,dispatching,quality assurance,repairs and stores are located in Bars-bttelnearHamburg,whilethesoftwaredevelop-ment department is based in Bielefeld.The service organization at AWEK also consists of mobile tech-nicianswhoarespreadacrossthedifferentpartsof Germany.GK Software has its own sale
133、s and project han-dling organisation in Russia in the shape of OOO GK Software RUS.GK Software USA Inc.was founded in the USA in December 2013 so that we can support the expected expansion of our North American business locally with a local organisa-tion of our own.The CEO of the North American comp
134、any is Michael Jaszczyk,a former member of the Management Board,who continues to work for the Company as its CTO.The retail segment of DBS Inc.which was taken over in March 2015,isbeingintegratedintoGKSoftwareUSA,Inc.Awholly-owned subsidiary trading under the name ofGKSoftwareAfrica(Pty)Ltdwasalsose
135、tupinSouth Africa at the beginning of 2015 to deal with business in this region.The partnership with SAP was once again extremelyimportantforGKSoftwareAGsbusi-F.03 Group structure of GK Software on 31 December 2015Economically inactive legal unitsEconomic Report 25ness during the reporting period,ju
136、st as it has been in previous years.SAP is by far the most important partner for GK Software in terms of business operations.Sales situations and projects,for example,are processed together in numerous countries.At present,SAP operates as a reselling partnerforGKSoftwareonfourcontinents.TheSAP POS b
137、y GK software developed by the Com-panyistheofficialmigrationpathforexistingcus-tomers for the discontinued SAP(SAP POS)solu-tion.SAP acquired a 5.29 percent share in GK Soft-ware AG at the end of 2013 and has a pre-emptive right to the founders shares.The Management Board of GK Software AG con-sist
138、s of Company founder Rainer Glss(CEO,Man-agement,Marketing&Sales)and Andr Hergert(Finances and Personnel).The Management Board is supported by a Group Management Board,which consisted of the following members dur-ingthefinancialyear:StephanKronmller,AchimSieren(until September 2015),Michael Jaszczyk
139、(CTO),Harald Kehl(until September 2015)and Ste-fan Krueger(Senior Vice President,Sales).Harald Gbel joined the group as Senior Vice President,Customer Solutions&Services,in September 2015.The three-man Supervisory Board at GK Software AGisledbytheChairmanUweLudwig.Hehasbeen a member of the Superviso
140、ry Board since 2001.Thomas Bleier was elected to the Super-visory Board in 2003,then was last re-elected toserveafurtherfiveyearsatthe2014annualshareholders meeting.Herbert Zinn was elected to the Supervisory Board at the annual sharehold-ers meeting in 2011.The management of the Group is largely de
141、ter-mined by two key management factors-turno-ver and earnings-although,for the latter,earn-ings before interest and taxes(EBIT)and earnings before interest,tax,depreciation and amortisa-tion(EBITDA)are mainly used and the relationship between these earning factors and turnover and operating perform
142、ance.Operating performance isdefinedasthesumofturnoverrevenues,thechangeinstocksofunfinishedservicesorthosenotpaidforandunfinishedandfinishedgoodsand capitalised expenditure to prepare in-house developments.These management factors are complemented-they enable a deeper economic assessment of the ind
143、ividual segments and the customer orders(projects)that have been han-dled.The major factor here is the personnel ratio(quotient of personnel expenditure attributed to an object under consideration and turnover rev-enues)and variants of this factor.This is accompanied by a key performance indica-tor
144、system directed at the earning capacity,which concerns the Groups funding.The issue here is the ability of the Group to be able to service its financialobligationsatanytime,bothinthelongand short term.The key performance indicators used here concern the equity ratio,the capitali-sationratioindiffere
145、ntvariantsasameasureofmatching the maturities of assets and the capi-tal used to fund them.Another important aspect concerns the Groups ability to be able to use any investment opportunities,which arise,at very short notice.A key performance indicator here is the excess in cash and cash equivalents
146、over inter-est-bearingliabilities.Therearedifferentvariantsof this key performance indicator too,depending on the goal of the observation.Thissystem,whichisgearedtowardsfinancialkey performance indicators,is complemented by thosegearedtowardsnon-financialindicators.Themain focus of attention here is
147、 on factors like cus-tomer satisfaction and the number of customer contacts.They are not observed in a formal man-ner,but they are recorded and analysed as part of regular reporting to the responsible members of the Group Management Board and the Manage-ment Board.B|Consolidated Annual Report26Perso
148、nnel Growth in personnel continues Significant growth,through the US acquisi-tion tooA total of 739 people were employed by the Group on the reporting date of 31 December 2015(excluding members of the Management Board and trainees).As a result,there were 121 more employees than on the previous years
149、 reporting date(618).With236staffmembers(previousyear:193),alarge proportion of the Groups employees are employed at the Schneck business site.The Ber-lin branch now has 43 employees working in the sales&marketing,project and partner manage-ment,developmentandfirst-levelsupport(hotline)departments(p
150、revious year:31).The number of employees increased to 174(pre-vious year:158)at the Czech subsidiary EURO-SOFTWARE s.r.o.in Plzen.There were 109 employees at AWEK in Hamburg(previous year:107)at the end of the year.They included a large number of mobile service techni-cians who are deployed at vario
151、us sites through-out Germany.16 employees in all were employed at AWEKs second business site in Bielefeld at the end of 2015(previous year:16);they mainly work on software development.Overall,AWEK has 125 employees(previous year:123).109 people were working at the St.Ingbert busi-ness site at the en
152、d of the year(previous year:92).FourpeoplewereworkinginDbendorf(Switzer-land)at this time(previous year:4 too).12 employ-ees were working at the Cologne branch at the end of the year,compared to 11 employees in the previous year.Zurich/St.Ingbert 109|92Pilsen 174|158USA/Canada 28|4Berlin 43|31Schnec
153、k 236|193Cologne 12|11Bielefeld 16|16Hamburg 109|107F.04 Distribution of employees at group business locations(from 4 employees)on 31 December 20152015 2014SouthAfrica 6|Economic Report 2728 people were working for the Group in the USA and Canada at the end of the year as a result of the takeover of
154、 the retail segment of DBS Data BusinessSystemsInc.(previousyear:4).Thisfig-ure included taking over 21 employees,including 5 freelance workers,from DBS Data Business Sys-tems Inc.GKSoftwareAfrica(Pty)Ltd,whichwasfoundedat the start of 2015,had six employees at the end of the year.Two people were em
155、ployed at OOO GK Software RUS,as in the previous year.The Management Board expects the growth in employee numbers to continue at a moderate pace in future and the Company will primarily con-tinuetolookforhighlyqualifiedemployees.Huge investments have been made in training and developing employees fo
156、r years in order to be able to provide a foundation for and boost sales growth atGKSoftwareAGfromahumanresourcespointof view too.Three trainees are also currently employedatGKSoftwareAGThe GKSoftware solution portfolio GKSoftware Simply Retail Extensive portfolio of omni-channel solutionsGK Software
157、 is convinced that only innovative,mar-ket-driven retail companies with optimised logis-tics in the omni-channel world,which is already a powerful driving force,will be able to survive.Retail companies will therefore increasingly become technology-oriented companies,which have to be capable of mappi
158、ng all their consumers needs on a modern technological platform.It will be neces-sary at the same time for them to recognise that they will not handle the increase in complexity with solutions that are running in parallel along-side each other.The main task therefore involves reducing the complexity
159、 through a suitable plat-form solution again and creating solutions,which remain operable and manageable for the users despite growing demands,particularly from con-sumers.The Companys current slogan“Simply Retail”takes this into account.In line with this this aspiration,GK Software is fol-lowingthe
160、ideaofcreatingaunifiedandend-to-end technological platform,which pursues the goal of enabling a consistent and personalised consumer experience through all the so-called customer touch points.It must be possible on this standard platform to create special expansion opportunities for each of the Comp
161、anys custom-ers at the same time in order to map individual excellence and the creativity of each retail com-pany.Forthelatterformsthebasisforthespecificcompetitivebenefitsanduniquecharacteristicsofthe retailers,which ensure that they are perceived as a separate brand within the large number of prov
162、iders in the retail sector.TheCompanyhasmadesignificantinvestmentsduring the last few years in order to implement thisfundamentalvisionofthefutureinspecificsoftware.Thishasmeantthatsignificantpartsof the range of solutions have been extensively revised in order to safeguard the future viability of G
163、K/Retail for years to come and not persevere with the status quo.The results of this fundamen-tal management decision cannot be seen that clearlyatfirstglance,aswasthecase,forexample,with the move from DOS to Java.However,if we B|Consolidated Annual Report28viewtheeffectsresultingfromthis,theexpendi
164、-ture associated with it and the dimension of this change in general terms,the step taken in terms of software development is at least just as great as the former.The new solution platform known as GK/Retail OmniPOS(POS=Point of Sale)was initially brought on to the market at selected customers in a
165、ramp-up phase,starting in 2015.This solution platform is far more than the preceding solution,GK/Retail POS(version 12),which is in use at most customers.The fundamental architecture idea of OmniPOS is being able to use nearly all the func-tions in a modular and dispersed manner and with and without
166、 user interfaces.Each function must be usable as a central service,but also as a local instance and be secure beyond the network boundaries.At the same time,the central services must be able to handle the simultaneous opera-tion of very many customers at the data centre or in a(private)cloud.This is
167、 the only way to make it possible to guarantee operations at thousands of checkouts,calculate prices at a web shop or safe-guard communications with a large number of cus-tomer devices at the same time.ThedifferentGKSoftwareproductscontinuetobebroughttogetherintheirspecificformsforthemarket within t
168、he GK/Retail Business Suite.All the solutions are fully based on the same GK/Retail infrastructure and on Java and open standards.That means that they consistently do not depend on any particular hardware or operating systems.GK/RetailOmniPOSwasofficiallylaunchedatthebeginningof2016.GKSoftwareiscont
169、inuingtomarket version 12 of the GK/Retail Business Suite in special customer situations.The GK/Retail Busi-nessSuiteconsistsoffivecoresolutionsinorderto group the other processor-oriented additional solutions.GK/Retail Store Device Control GK/Retail Store Device Control provides the end-to-end link
170、 within the complete store peripheral equipment,for instance,tills,scales or reverse vending machines.The software ensures the automatic distribution of data to all the systems in a store with a direct link to the leading SAP system.This guarantees that any changes to master data(e.g.prices)are avai
171、lable on the correct system within the store at the right time.At the same time,the soft-ware ensures that the central systems are sup-plied with what is known as transaction data(e.g.sales data).The link for the various sub-systems in a store is provided through stand-ardised peripheral heads,on to
172、 which solutions fromdifferentmanufacturerscanbedocked.The Enterprise Storemanager guarantees the central management of the overall systems landscape.The Enterprise Cockpit handles the monitoring work across the systems.This solu-tion component is sold by SAP using the name“SAP Store Device Control
173、by GK”.GK/Retail Mobile Merchandise Management Processes GK/Retail Mobile Merchandise Management Processes cover the stores merchandise man-agement processes,which are directly made availableonthefloororinthewarehouseona wide variety of mobile terminals.The pro-cesses,whichoperateonlineandoffline,re
174、lyon a central management system like SAP as the standard feature,but can also interact with other merchandise management systems,if necessary.They allow the stores to be linked end-to-end with enterprise headquarters in almost real time and manage all the necessary business processes like deliverie
175、s,merchan-dise planning,inventories or automatic label printing.This solution component is sold by SAPusingthename“SAPOfflineMobileStoreby GK”.GK/Retail OmniPOS and POSThedevelopmentandsalesactivitiesinthefieldofPOS solutions have primarily focused on GK/Retail OmniPOS since 2015.The GK/Retail POS s
176、olution(version 12)will continue to be made available in special sales situations and will be further devel-oped for existing customers.GK/Retail OmniPOS is based on a new archi-tectural paradigm,which enables the Company to address all the components as a service and distribute them transparently w
177、ithin the net-work in line with the customers IT landscape.As a result,a wide variety of forms of the solu-tion ranging from thin to thick and even smart clients are possible.Basic services like the price calculation logics can be deployed both locally Economic Report 29on the stationary till,centra
178、lly on the server or separately and be generally used for all the channels.The design of the front ends on the basisofHTML5enablesrapidadaptationtoany kind of device.SAP sells the software under the name“SAP OmniChannel POS by GK”.GK/Retail POS is the market-leading solution for operating checkout s
179、ystems.The applica-tion guarantees safe handling for all business processes at checkouts(POS)and makes avail-ableextensivebackofficefunctionsformoneymatters,store administration or reporting.Other checkout forms are available for both POS variants and they rely on the same GK/Retail infra-structure
180、and can be seamlessly inserted in the store landscapes.GK/Retail Mobile POS is an innovative soft-ware solution for checkout use on devices using the iOS operating system(iPhones,iPods,iPads).The company software manages all the processes available on stationary checkouts and is already being used p
181、roductively by one important customer.Mobile POS is available in specificindividualvariationsforiPods/iPhonesand iPads.GK/Retail Self Checkout is an enhancement of our POS software and was newly developed in 2012.It is fully based on our standard soft-ware and enables consumers to complete all the c
182、heckout processes themselves.Together with the associated iOS app,consumer advis-ers can immediately respond to demands dur-ingthecheckoutprocess,e.g.ageidentificationwhen purchasing alcoholic drinks,and they can offerconsumershelpandsupportquickly,ifrequired.GK/Retail Label and Poster Printing GK/R
183、etail Label and Poster Printing is a com-plete solution relying on the GK/Retail infra-structure for label and poster printing and managing electronic shelf media.It ensures that the central standard process for mark-ing prices and addressing customers directly canbeusedinanefficientmannerforin-stor
184、emarketing.If changes are made to data in the merchandise management system or print-ing tasks are triggered manually,the solution ensures that all the necessary processes in the store are automatically handled.GK/Retail Open Scale GK/Retail Open Scale is the scale solution within the GK/Retail Busi
185、ness Suite.It is based on the same technical concepts as the other software solutions and is a self-contained appli-cation for all kinds of open PC scales.It enables the retail sector to use end-to-end IT structures and be free to select scales from any hardware supplier.Thissoftwarehasbeencertified
186、foruse by the PTB(Physikalisch-Technische Bun-desanstaltGermanysnationalmetrologyinsti-tute).Other solutions in the GK/Retail Business Suite GK/Retail Enterprise Storemanager is the market-leading software solution providing administration and technical monitoring facili-ties for major store network
187、s,including those operatingacrossdifferentcountries.Thesoft-ware allows corporations to manage and moni-tor thousands of stores in many countries and is an important unique selling feature for the GK/Retail Business Suite.GK/Retail Enterprise Cockpit provides man-agers with a very fast summary of te
188、chnical and specialist key performance indicators.This means that technical breakdowns in stores are recognised immediately and resolved as quickly as possible.This solution provides com-pany-wide transparency with regard to the sta-tus of systems in stores.GK/Retail Sales Cockpit provides web-based
189、 business management information related to the current days business.This means that managers constantly have a comprehensive overview of the course of business in real time.GK/Retail Enterprise Promotions Manage-ment is a complete solution for arranging,carrying out and managing corporate-wide pro
190、motionsandspecialoffers.Itcanbeused,among other things,to manage discounts granted on customer card systems or the acceptance of many kinds of coupons at check-outs.B|Consolidated Annual Report30 GK/Retail Stored Value Server guarantees secure,company-wide administration services for all gift cards
191、that have been issued.It pro-vides a central database for supplying all the gift card information within the whole company and also handles all the processes related to electronic gift cards.GK/Retail Digital Content Management is the central software solution for distributing multimedia content to
192、various output devices within the whole company.This means that photos,slide shows or videos can be distrib-uted to the relevant systems within the com-pany.The system also allows pure text mes-sages to be sent(e.g.for electronic shelf labels).GK/Retail TransAction+is a market-leading solution for h
193、andling payments in the USA.It manages to integrate a variety of point of sale systems and a large range of payment authori-sation providers.It meets high data protec-tion standards and supports credit and debit cardsandgiftvouchers,“electronicbenefits”and cheque authorisation and accounting for mor
194、e than 40 payment providers in the USA.The software controls payment devices close to customersatthehighestlevelandiscertifiedfor the latest EMV transactions(chip and PIN).The SQRS software packageWhen acquiring the assets of the former company known as Solquest GmbH,its range of solutions known as
195、Solquest Retail Solutions(SQRS)was also taken over and it is in use at eight customers with approx.4,670 installations.The particular high-per-formance features of the software lie in the areas of SAP integration and mobile solutions.The SQRS solutions were no longer sold after the takeover of Solqu
196、est in order to keep the Groups portfolio of products slim.However,minor adjustments are still being made as part of existing customer rela-tions and they are handled by the StoreWeaver GmbH department.Alongside this,a medium-term migration path has been developed in order to provide a long-term per
197、spective for the customers of the former Solquest GmbH company.Ongoing product developmentThe main focus of investments throughout 2015 was the new solution known as GK/Retail Omni-POS.In addition,most of the other GK/Retail solu-tions underwent further development to enable them to work with the ne
198、w solution.An SAP ver-sion of the new solution was handed over for pre-miumqualificationandthenapprovedforsalebySAP as SAP Omnichannel POS by GK.The premium qualificationprocesswassuccessfullycompletedby SAP in March 2016.New products and func-tions were tested by SAP as part of this kind of product
199、 testing and in each case the current ver-sion was released for sale.AWEK develops and sells software for medium-sizedcompanies,whichcomplementstheGKSoft-ware range,and this is primarily aimed at the medium-sized retail sector.It provides support for an earlier version of this software used by sever
200、al customers in German-speaking countries.ServicesInadditiontoitsproducts,GKSoftwareAGalsoprovides comprehensive services.The most impor-tant component in this context involves customis-ing and adapting developments during the initial projects and subsequently introducing change requests,which are a
201、 permanent feature of most projects.This includes,forexample,adapting soft-ware that is already in productive use to broader customer requirements,such as integrating new bonus systems in the checkout environment.Clas-sic issues like consulting,project management or training courses come under the h
202、eading of ser-vices too.Maintenance and servicesThe Group has been able to supplement its port-folio with high-value services by acquiring AWEK.Forthefirsttime,itispossibletoofferfullservicesto the retail trade in addition to software main-tenance,which is subject to charges.This means thatGKSoftwar
203、ecannowprovidemaintenancefor third-party software and hardware made by a wide variety of manufacturers.About 40 mobile service technicians are available for this work and they can reach any store in Germany within set times.In addition to providing classic services,they can handle other options like
204、 rollout services or staging(the initial installation of systems).Work is taking place to continue expanding the Companys portfolio of services.In addition,as part of the classic software main-tenance services,the Group can eliminate errors Economic Report 31and faults for all software solutions tha
205、t are in use at a customers business.Partner trainingThe GK Partner Academy became fully operational duringthe2014financialyearinordertoprovidequalificationsforimplementingpartners.Inorderto achieve the status of Advanced Partner within the partner programme,an appropriate number of the partners emp
206、loyees need to have completed the set training programmes and courses,which are subject to charges.The Group continued to workveryhardin2015tofulfiltheconditionstotrain implementation partners,which can then handle the introduction of GK/Retail themselves.14 partners were trained during the course o
207、f the year and some of them are now actively involved in implementation projects.During the past year,several hardware partners also paid to have their equipmentcertifiedbytheGKAcademy.Research and development Research and development as a strategic fac-tor in the face of competitors Constant expans
208、ion of investments in R&D safeguard the Companys role as a leading innovator Using new technologies as part of the part-nership relationship with SAPThe ongoing development of existing products and the development of new software solutions have been the major focus at GK Software dur-ingthepastfewfi
209、nancialyearsandtheywillcon-tinue to be strategic competitive factors in future too.Thisisalsoreflectedinthecontinuinggrowthin the number of employees in this department.The lions share of the research and development department is based at the subsidiary Eurosoft-ware s.r.o.in Plzen.14 software deve
210、lopers are currently exclusively working on the latest trends in the software market in order to develop new,ground-breaking products from these.This work is being complemented by the GK Futurelab,which is also based at Eurosoftware s.r.o.in Plzen,and it pools the skills of employees from the comple
211、te corporate group.This gives these employees the freedom to develop new technologies,trends and processes,test them and try them out so that GK Software retains its innovative capacity.Other impulses for research work come from com-pany managers,sales&marketing,partners and directlyfromGKSoftwaresc
212、ustomers.Overall,GK Software spent EUR 665 K on research&developmentworkduringthe2015financialyear(EUR 610 K during the previous year);this cor-responds to 1.46 percent of turnover.EUR 525 K ofthisfigurewascapitalisedasintangibleassets.Investments in property,plant and equipment were made to the nor
213、mal degree,but simply cover the equipment at employees work stations in these departments.Thefindingsthataregainedflowpermanentlyintothe ongoing development of the products.For example,these results led to the ongoing devel-opmentofsignificantcomponentsinthesoftwareB|Consolidated Annual Report32solu
214、tions and they have already triggered very pos-itive responses in the market place.Customers and projects Gaining new projects in South Africa and North America The expansion of the standard product with new,country-specific variationsGK Softwares customers come from almost all areas of the retail s
215、ector and are distributed around the globe.The market sectors,in which the Company is active,are primarily the food retail sec-tor,drugstores&household goods,fashion&life-style.DIY&furniture markets or technology&cars.The products and services are geared towards companies with a wide variety of size
216、s.GK Soft-ware currently has 118 customers.They include 37 customers,which are attributed to the retail seg-ment of DBS Data Business Inc.,which was taken over in 2015.The Company maintains business relationships with 10 customers,which are among the 50 largest retailers in the world.The Company has
217、 productive installations operating in 41 coun-tries.New customer projects in 2015:The Company gained 14 new projects during the reporting period.In most cases,the customers name is subject to secrecy until the pilot installa-tion or the rollout has taken place.US pharmaceutical retailer(more than 1
218、,000 outlets in Great Britain)US sports items retailer(approx.150 outlets in fivedifferentcountries)A luxury goods retailer(approx.30 outlets in the United Arab Emirates)A micro-retailer(approx.1,000 stores in Bul-garia)A shoe retailer(approx.50 outlets in the USA,further potential worldwide)A fashi
219、on retailer(approx.80 outlets in Mexico)A fashion retailer(approx.50 outlets in Russia)A food retailer(approx.2,300 outlets in Can-ada)A fashion retailer(approx.550 outlets in Poland)A fashion retailer(approx.50 outlets in Great Britain)A toy retailer(approx.80 outlets in Great Brit-ain and Ireland)
220、An animal food retailer(approx.130 outlets in Russia)A food retailer(approx.100 outlets in Russia)A public service company(many business sites around the world)A fashion retailer(approx.450 outlets across Europe)2015 was also dominated by successful pilot schemes and subsequent roll-outs within exis
221、ting projects.We delivered and rolled out more coun-try-specificversionsinseveralongoingprojects.It was possible to put installations into productive useinZambia,NamibiaandBotswanaforthefirsttime,for example.A start was made on handling thefirstprojectswiththenewsolutionaspartof the ramp-up phase fo
222、r GK/Retail OmniPOS in 2015.We have also been able to sign further con-tracts with existing customers and they cover,for example,extensions to licencing agreements or developments to software or other services.One piece of evidence for the vibrant partner-ship with SAP is that 30 joint customer proj
223、ects now exist where GK solutions have been sold by SAP.The strategic relationship between both com-paniesforthestoresectorwasalsoreflectedintheir joint activities at the NRF,the most impor-tant North American trade fair,at the EuroShop,thesignificantEuropeanretailtradefair,andmanyother coordinated
224、activities.Economic Report 33Market and competitive environment The German retail sector once again set new records in 2015-turnover rose to EUR 472.4 billion E-commerce continues to grow-its share is now almost ten percent of the market Investment needs for retail IT remain highBusinessdevelopments
225、atGKSoftwarearedeter-minedbyseveralfactorsandtheireffectsindiffer-ent economic regions.The most important deter-mining factors are the general economic condi-tions,the current situation and the expected busi-ness prospects for the retail sector.WithGKSoftwaresexpansionintomoreandmore business areas,
226、it goes without saying that thenumberoffactorsaffectingitsbusinesshaveincreased,as the situation in some individual mar-ketsmaymoveindifferentdirectionsinspiteofglobal economic trends.This means that there is at least a partial separation in the Companys busi-ness activities from the developments in
227、 its origi-nal core markets in the medium term-principally in Central Europe-without these markets losing theirsignificanceforGKSoftwareintheforesee-able future.The year 2015 illustrated that GK Soft-warecannowveryeasilymoveasideintodifferentgeographical markets if no orders for major pro-jects are
228、placed in its traditional home markets.Alongside the basic economic trends in the mar-kets processed directly or through partners,the general trends in the retail sector are also an enormously important factor for the Companys business.The issue of omni-channel retailing is clearly the number one fa
229、ctor,as it is exerting a hugeinfluenceonretailersstrategicdecisionsinallmarkets.Long-termissueslikedemographicdevelopments,new ways of establishing customer loyalty or internationalisation remain important driving factors and are increasingly linked to the mega-trend of omni-channel retailing.GK Sof
230、tware responded to these major focuses in the retail sec-tor at an early stage and it has paved the way for the future with its new product GK/Retail Omni-POS.Even if growth in 2015 was primarily driven by the licensing business with customers from outside the German-speaking world,the developments
231、in Germany,Austria and Switzerland remain highly significantforthedirectbusinessofGKSoftware,as we believe there will be greater potential in these countries again during the next few years.The German retail sector,Europes largest retail market,had a very successful year again in 2015.Even though re
232、cent years were characterised by continuous growth,revenue actually rose by a fur-ther 2.8 percent in real terms1.This was the big-gest increase in 20 years.Overall,turnover in the retail sector(excluding vehicles,petrol stations,fuels and chemists)amounted to approx.EUR 472 billion in 20152.The inc
233、rease in turnover in the retail sector therefore grew more strongly than gross domestic product(GDP),which was able to grow in real terms by3 1.7 percent.The retail sec-tor therefore contributed 16.2 percent to GDP overall in 2015 and remains a leading sector for the general economy in Germany4.The
234、development in interactive trade,i.e.mainly e-commerce and the mail order business without any services,continued to be dynamic.This busi-ness was able to increase its turnover once again by6.6percenttoafigureofapprox.EUR52.4bil-lion.It therefore accounted for 11.1 percent of the totalretailsectorfi
235、gures.Thisgrowthwasmainlyattributable to the e-commerce sector,which increasedbymorethan7.5percenttoafigureofEUR 46.9 billion.The Company expects this trend to continue in 2016.According to initial estimates,online turnover in the current year is expected to be approx.EUR 54.5 billion5.This trend is
236、 even more marked in other important retail markets like Great Britain(15.2 percent of total turnover)and the USA(12.7 percent of total turnover).How-ever,it is not yet observable to the same degree in all developed retail markets.While the share of the online retail trade amounts to 8 percent of 1
237、http:/www.einzelhandel.de/index.php/pressekonferen-zen/item/download/8903_620ad28e6205e679a0aee745686f6da22 Ibid.,3 https:/www.destatis.de/DE/PresseService/Presse/Presse-mitteilungen/2016/01/PD16_014_811.html4 http:/ https:/www.bevh.org/uploads/media/160216_PM_Studie-nergebnisse_Interaktiver_Handel_
238、2015.pdfB|Consolidated Annual Report34thetotalretailsectorinFrance,thefigureisonly2.5 percent in Italy or 4.8 percent in Canada1.It should be generally assumed,however,that online retail sales will continue to grow in all developed retail markets.One trend should particularly be highlighted:it alrea
239、dy began to make itself felt in 2014 and is highlysignificantforbusinessatGKSoftware.Multi-channel retailers grew disproportionately in 2015 and increased their turnover by 27 percent toafigureofapprox.EUR14billion;whiletheclas-sic purely online markets only grew by four per-centtoafigureofEUR24.9bi
240、llion2.This means that stationary retailers,which can also handle online business,were increasingly in a position to make use of their advantages arising from the combination of stores and web shops3.GK Soft-ware has been preparing its solutions for this development by moving in the direction of omn
241、i-channel retailers for years and therefore believes that it is in an excellent position to meet the rele-vant demands.These unabated developments are triggering huge challenges for the stationary retail sector and the challenges are also being driven by other developments such as mobile couponing.A
242、lmost 53 percent of retailers already make use of thesekindsofspecialoffersorareplanningtodoso.32 percent believe that the prospects for this form of customer loyalty are excellent4.The German Retail Federation(HDE:Handelsver-band Deutschland)is expecting nominal growth of 2.0 percent to EUR 481.8 b
243、illion for the entire retail sector in 2016.However,the experience of the past few years has shown that the forecasts published by the HDE tended to be conservative and were usually exceeded by the actual turno-ver achieved by the retail sector.The German RetailFederationviewsconsumerconfidence,theh
244、igh level of employment,rising incomes,a steady savings rate and a low level of consumer price 1 http:/www.retailmenot.de/studien/e-commerce-stu-die-20152 https:/www.bevh.org/presse/pressemitteilungen/details/datum/2016/februar/artikel/interaktiver-handel-in-deutschland-2015-fast-jeder-achte-euro-wi
245、rd-online-aus-gegeben/3 https:/www.bevh.org/markt-statistik/zahlen-fakten/4 http:/ as the basis for continued,moderate growth.The annual surveys of retailers in terms of their business prospects support the HDE forecast that 2016 will be a positive year overall.The“e-KIX”retailers survey in February
246、 2016 showed that approximately 91 percent of the retailers ques-tioned expected their business to remain constant or improve over the twelve-month period5.Ernst&Young provided an even more positive picture;in itssurvey,almostfiftypercentofretailerssaidthatthey were expecting business to be better i
247、n the firsthalfof2016thaninthesameperiodintheprevious year6.The analyses performed by the marketing research company GfK also support the HDE forecasts with regard to the developments in the retail sector.The consumer climate remains stable and even rose slightly in March 2016.Overall,the GfK is exp
248、ecting an increase in consumer expenditure in Germany of about two percent7.An increase in pri-vate consumption is also expected for the whole of the European Union.8LookingattheGermangovernmentsdigitalagenda,the President of(HDE),Josef Sanktjo-hanser,stated that the“retail sector depends on reliabl
249、e general conditions with a view to the ongoing process of digitisation”and“the need for investments is therefore appropriately high”9.The“Kassensysteme 2016”(Till Systems 2016)publishedbytheEHIRetailInstituteconfirmsthisstatement for the stores sector.The age of the software in use has continued to
250、 rise,according to the study.In line with this,47 percent of those questioned indicated that they wished to intro-duce new equipment by 2018.10 5 e-KIX,HDE-Online-Handels-Konjunktur-IndexFebruary2016,p.5http:/www.ifhkoeln.de/e-kix6 http:/ http:/ http:/ http:/www.einzelhandel.de/index.php/presse/aktu
251、ellemeldungen/item/124495-digitale-agenda-schl%C3%BCsselrolle-f%C3%BCr-den-handel10EHIRetailInstitute,Kassensysteme2016,Fakten,Hinter-grndeundPerspektiven,p.16ffEconomic Report 35The need for investments on the part of the retail trade remains high,as the study published by the EHI Retail Institute
252、entitled“IT Trends in the Retail Sector in 2015”indicated.88 percent of those companies questioned by the EHI at least expected their IT budget to remain constant,if not increase.In addition to this,34 percent felt that cloud services would become increasingly impor-tant in the retail sector and 52
253、percent believed that omni-channel integration was either good or well on track at their own company.These posi-tive market trends are also an important element in the discussions that GK Software is holding with existing customers and potential interested par-ties.The IT departments at retailers ar
254、e also focus-ing on other issues related to technologies and processes,which GK Software is in an ideal posi-tion to cater for with its new GK/Retail OmniPOS solution.Overall,the conditions for the course of business atGKSoftwareduringthecurrentfinancialyearand beyond are very positive.This is all t
255、he more so because,following the project successes in North America and South Africa,the Middle East and Eastern Europe,the Company assumes that it will be able to expand its base of potential custom-ers internationally.The upturn in the economy in many eurozone countries and the improved pros-pects
256、 for retailers in the USA may also open up more opportunities.These trends are subject to the proviso that the global economy is not severely disrupted by politi-cal or economic factors that could have a negative effectontheeconomicsituation.GKSoftwarecontinuestoassumethattheinvest-ments in new syst
257、ems that are required in the short or medium term and the use of new tech-nologyfieldsfortheretailsectorwillcontinuetoprovide sales potential in Germany and the other markets that are being actively processed in future too.The Company also expects the partnership with SAP in particular to lead to su
258、ccesses interna-tionally and reinforce the Companys potential in the long term.GK Software is currently in an excellent position in many ongoing tender procedures in Germany,Austria and Switzerland and abroad and has important advantages over its competitors with its innovative,broad portfolio of pr
259、oducts,the inter-nationality of its solutions and its proven ability to handle projects quickly.B|Consolidated Annual Report36Explanation of the business results and an analysis of the assets,financialandearningssituationTheyear2015wasasuccessfulfinancialyearinthe view of the Management Board at GK
260、Software AG and marked a return to a pathway of growth withhighprofitlevels,asinthepast.Thecorpo-rate group was able to register growth in turnover,which was more like a jump:Turnover revenues rose by more than 40 percent from EUR 44.63 million in the previous year to EUR 62.60 million;earnings befo
261、re interest,taxes,depreciation and amortisation(EBITDA)amounted to EUR 2.18 mil-lionandexceededthefigureforthepreviousyear(EUR 0.04 million)many times over.Despite these huge improvements over previ-ous years,it is necessary to state that a number of parameters have still not reached the level that
262、they enjoyed in the period before 2012.Earnings before interest and taxes(EBIT)at EUR(1.28)mil-lion,forexample,stilldonotreflecttheCompanysopportunities,even if there was a considerable improvement in comparison with the previous yearsfigureofEUR(3.02)million.Theconsolidatedannual results amounted t
263、o EUR(1.50)million,compared to EUR(1.87)million in the previous year.We are urgently working on improving the internal production structures,which led to these figures.T.03 Total output31.12.201531.12.2014 ChangeEUR K in%EUR K in%EUR K in%Turnover62,60296.544,63494.3 17,96840.3Own work capitalised52
264、50.85121.1132.5Operating performance 63,12797.345,14695.4 17,98139.8Other operating revenues1,7262.72,1884.6(462)(21.1)Total output64,853 100.047,333 100.0 17,52037.0Earnings situation Turnover at EUR 62.60 million;operating results at EUR(1.28)millionThe Groups total turnover rose by 40.3 percent f
265、rom EUR 44.63 million to EUR 62.60 million.The Groups core segment,GK/Retail,developed in a particularly gratifying way:Turnover here rose by 56.5 percent from EUR 31.66 million to EUR 49.56 million;the welcome development of our US acquisition made a considerable contribution here.The Retail&Progra
266、mming division of DBS Inc.,which has been part of the consolidated accounts since 18 March 2015 and has been integrated in the GK/Retail business segment,contributed EUR 5.52 million to the increase in turnover in this seg-ment.However,organic growth was very satisfying too;there was an increase her
267、e of more than 38 percenthere,whichexceededexpectationssignifi-cantly.On the other hand,turnover in the IT Services business segment remained almost constant(an increase from EUR 11.92 million to EUR 11.98 mil-lion);and it was the same story at SQRS(Solquest Retail Solutions:turnover during the repo
268、rting year remained the same as in the previous year:EUR 1.06 million).In line with this,the share of total turnover gener-ated by the GK/Retail segment increased to 79.2 percent,while the shares for IT Services and SQRS amounted to 19.1 and 1.7 percent respectively.If we look at the development of
269、turnover accord-ing to types of work,the development of licens-ing revenues for GK/Retail is particularly gratifying:F.05 Quartaly sales development compared to previous years,cumulated amounts in EUR K 12,984 3M 9,332 9,067 26,856 H1 20,213 18,402 41,975 9M 30,562 28,650 62,602 YJ 44,634 42,4582015
270、 2014 2013Economic Report 37Revenues here rose from EUR 4.22 million to EUR 9.79million.Thisdevelopmentreflectsthe13newcustomers that opted for GK/Retail.The develop-ment for the small&medium enterprise solution known as“Eurosuite”was less important in abso-lute terms,but still remarkable:licensing
271、turnover here rose from EUR 0.17 million to EUR 0.70 mil-lion.Revenues generated by maintenance work were just as positive;growth by 21.9 percent from EUR 17.02 million to EUR 20.76 million increased the absolute reliable contribution made by this sector every year even further.Turnover for services
272、,which are the result of intro-ductory and adaptation services in customer pro-jects,rose by approx.32 percent to EUR 29.68 mil-lion.The GK/Retail business segment was the driv-ing force here too with growth in turnover of more than 40 percent.The increase in other turnover revenues was pri-marily d
273、ue to the activities in the Retail&Program-mingdivisionatDBSInc.Italsooffersitscustom-ers the procurement of hardware,so that the turn-over in the GK/Retail segment rose from EUR 0.32 million to EUR 1.22 million.GK Software continued to invest in the further development of its solutions during the 2
274、015 financialyeartoo.Thevisibleexpressionofthiswas the capitalisation of services with a value of EUR 0.52 million(previous year:EUR 0.51 million),particularly for new functions available in the omni-channel sector.Overall,GK Software generated an operating per-formanceamountingtoEUR63.13,followinga
275、fig-ure of EUR 45.15 in the previous year(+39.8 per-cent);other operating revenues during the 2015 financialyearstillreachedafigureofEUR1.73mil-lion,afterthisfigurehadbeenEUR2.19millioninthe previous year.The main reason for this was the decline in revenues from the reversal of pro-visions from EUR
276、0.55 million to EUR 0.08 million.Total operating revenues at EUR 64.85 therefore exceededthepreviousyearsfigureby37.0per-cent.Expenditure on purchased goods and purchased services rose by EUR 3.12 million to EUR 8.27 mil-lion.This increase was almost equally divided among an increase in the use of g
277、oods and exter-nal services.The increase in goods put to use and semi-finishedproductsamountedtoEUR1.23million and led to total expenditure of EUR 4.04 million,while expenditure on external services directly related to projects increased by EUR 1.89 million and amounted to EUR 4.23 million in all.Th
278、eincreaseintheneedforfinishedandsemi-fin-ished products was mainly due to the needs of the IT Services business segment(+EUR 1.38 million)because of some hardware projects being fully handled and the obligations arising from the cus-tomer contracts purchased in conjunction with the US acquisition(+E
279、UR 0.98 million).Several factors playedaroleinthefieldofpurchasedservices.The most important,however,was that GK Soft-ware is continuing to try to make its organisation moreadaptabletofluctuationsindemand.Theincrease was almost entirely due to expenditure on outside service providers in customer pro
280、jects.However,other factors,which were more negligi-ble overall,related to increased travel expenses triggered by global customer support and similar factors due to the geographical expansion of the businessfield.Management had already decided to increase capacity for product development and project
281、 han-dling and completion in anticipation of a continu-ing rise in orders.As a result,the average num-ber of employees over the year rose from 572 to afigureof697.However,thisfigureincludestheincrease caused by the acquisition in the USA,so that GK Software USA employed 28 people at the end of the y
282、ear.The expansion in personnel resulted in an increase in personnel costs from EUR 28.75 million in the previous year to EUR 39.67 million in the reporting year.The increase amounted to EUR 10.92 million or approx.38 per-cent.The personnel ratio was actually 1.0 percent-agepointbelowthepreviousyears
283、figureat63.4percent;however,thisfigurestillhassignificantpotential for improvement in comparison with thefiguresavailablepriorto2012.TheCompanyisworkinghardtoenhancethisfigureinordertoreturntomoreefficientwaysofworking.Man-agement continues to believe that one of its cen-tral tasks is to implement a
284、nd supplement the measures that have been introduced and further improve the qualitative structure of capacities and gear them even more closely to needs.B|Consolidated Annual Report38Other operating expenditure rose by EUR 1.34 milliontoafigureofEUR14.74million.Thecru-cialreasonsforthislayintheone-
285、offincreaseinexpenditure linked to the US acquisition(+EUR 0.34 million)and the general expenditure for this acquisitioninthisfield,whichwasnaturallymiss-inginthepreviousyearsfigure(+EUR0.15million).Inaddition,theongoingintenseeffortstofindnewemployees for GK Software and retain those cur-rently wit
286、h the Group led to an increase in expend-iture of EUR 0.25 million compared to the previ-ous year.The same applied to the travel expenses required,asthefieldofbusinessexpanded;theyincreased by EUR 0.43 million in comparison with the previous year.Overall,this development led to a major increase inth
287、eEBITDAtoEUR2.18million,followingafig-ure of EUR 0.04 million in the previous year.Depreciation and amortisation accounted for EUR 3.45 million during the reporting period,following afigureofEUR3.05millioninthepreviousyear.While there was a need to adjust the value of the goodwill acquired with the
288、purchase of Solquest in 2009 by EUR 0.87 million in the previous year,thisfinancialyearwasdominatedbythescheduledamortisation on the newly acquired assets in the US acquisition.This amounted to EUR 1.22 million.The base line for scheduled depreciation/amortisa-tion therefore remained largely unchang
289、ed when comparing the two years.T.04 Turnover by segmentsFY 2015FY 2014 Change EUR Kin%EUR Kin%EUR Kin%Turnover withGK Retail49,55979.231,66070.917,89956.5SQRS1,0621.71,0532.490.9IT Services11,98119.111,92126.7600.5Total62,602 100.044,634 100.017,96840.3Licences10,49016,74,3919.86,099 138.9GK Retail
290、9,79315,64,2239.55,570 131.9SQRS-IT Services6971.11680.4529 314.9Maintenance20,75533.217,02238.13,73321.9GK Retail12,29019.68,47819.03,81245,0SQRS9741.69342.1404.3IT Services7,49112.07,61017.0-119-1.6Services29,68247.422,50450.47,17831.9GK Retail26,07641.718,59941.77,47740.2SQRS880.11190.3(31)(26.1)
291、IT Services3,5185.63,7868.5(268)(7.1)Other business(1,498)2.46731.5825 122.6GK Retail1,2232.03160.7907 287.0SQRS-IT Services2750.43570.8(82)(23.0)GK Academy1770.3440.1133 302.3GK Retail1770.3440.1133 302.3SQRS-IT Services-Asaresult,GKSoftwareachievedanEBITfigureofEUR(1.28)million,followingafigureofE
292、UR(3.02)million in the previous year-i.e.an improvement of EUR 1.74 million.ThefinancialresultswereonlyjustnegativeatEUR(0.11)million(EUR 0.03 million in the previous year).Interest revenues amounting to EUR 0.22 million(EUR 0.15 million in the previous year)were countered by interest-bearing liabil
293、ities of EUR 0.32 million(EUR 0.13 million in the previous year).The development of costs exceeded the expecta-tionsonaccountofone-offcostsarisingfromtheacquisition of the Retail&Programming division at DBS Inc.,the higher than expected expenditure on tapping into the overseas markets in North Amer-
294、icaandAfricanandtheefficiencyissuesinthepro-duction structure at GK Software,which have not yet been adequately resolved.Economic Report 39T.05 Financial results31.12.201531.12.2014ChangeEUR K in%1 EUR K in%1 EUR K in%EBITDA2,1773.5370.12,1405,783.8EBIT(1,276)(2.0)(3,015)(6.8)1,739(57.7)EBT(1,383)(2
295、.2)(2,987)(6.7)1,604(53.7)Consolidated earnings(1,500)(2.4)(1,870)(4.2)370(19.8)1-on turnoverOverall this led to consolidated net results of EUR(1.50)million,followingafigureofEUR(1.87)mil-lion in the previous year.This amounted to undi-luted and diluted earnings per share of EUR(0.79)in2015.Bothfig
296、uresamountedtoEUR(0.99)pershare in the previous year.Assets situationThe consolidated balance sheet total amounted to EUR 67.76 million on the reporting date and was therefore EUR 23.09 million higher than the figureofEUR44.67milliononthelastreportingdate.The reason for this was the acquisition of t
297、he“Retail&Programming Division of DBS Inc.”as part of an asset deal,which was reported on 19 March 2015.Non-current assets rose by EUR 18.50 million to afigureofEUR34.47millionanddoubledduringthe course of the year.Current assets rose by EUR 7.39milliontoafigureofEUR25.92million,whilecash and cash e
298、quivalents fell by EUR 2.80 million toafigureofEUR7.38million.The equity ratio on 31 December 2015 amounted to 42.7 percent,after it had stood at 68.4 percent on the reporting date in the previous year.Equity capital amounted to EUR 28.97 million(EUR 30.56 million at the end of the previous year).De
299、bts at GK Software rose by EUR 24.67 million to afigureofEUR38.79millionfromEUR14.12mil-lion in the previous year.T.06 Assets situation31.12.201531.12.2014 Change EUR K in%EUR K in%EUR K in%Non-current assets 34,46850.9 15,97235.8 18,496 115.8Current assets without cash and cash equivalents25,91538.
300、2 18,52841.47,38739.9Cash and cash equivalents7,37710.9 10,17322.8(2,796)(27.5)Assets67,760 100.0 44,673 100.0 23,08751.7Equity28,96742.8 30,55568.4(1,588)(5.2)Non-current liabilities15,88223.44,86510.9 11,017 226.4Current liabilities22,91133.89,25220.7 13,659 147.6Liabilities67,760 100.0 44,673 100
301、.0 23,08751.7The causes of the changes are found in the follow-ing business transactions:The major transaction was naturally the acquisition of the Retailing&Programming division of DBS Inc.,which cost USD 20 million in all(i.e.approx.EUR 18.9 million).This acquisition largely led to an accrual in i
302、ntangible assets within the process ofallocatingthepurchaseprice.Theidentifiedassets concern customer relations(an increase in the carrying amounts between the balance sheet reporting dates in 2014 and 2015 of EUR 4.94 mil-lion),the acquired intangible assets(software,an increase of EUR 1.62 million
303、)and the volume of orders(an increase of EUR 0.53 million).However,the largest increase in value was reported under goodwill.The increase in carrying amounts during thecourseofthefinancialyearamountedtoEUR9.84 million.Stocks of services not yet accounted for were also affectedbythisacquisition.Thein
304、creaseininven-tories still amounted to EUR 0.24 million at the end oftheyear.Nootherassetsaffectingthebalancesheet were taken over.Thefundingfortheacquisitionisreflectedinthechangeinnon-currentliabilitieswithbanks.Loansamounting to EUR 13 million in all were taken out to fund the acquisition.EUR 10.
305、76 million of thisfigurehastobeviewedasnon-current.Theremaining amount is due for repayment within one B|Consolidated Annual Report40year and is therefore described as a current liabil-ity.The purchase price also includes a conditional ele-ment,which envisages the disbursement of a fur-ther USD 2.5
306、million(EUR 2.30 million),but only if certain criteria are met.These liabilities increase“Other liabilities”by this amount when the two years are compared.In addition,existing obligations(e.g.on the basis of initial payments etc.)amounting to EUR 1.64 mil-lion were taken over from existing customer
307、con-tracts in the business unit that was acquired.The increase in trade accounts receivable by EUR 3.41 million was mainly due to the month of December 2015,when greater turnover was recorded.The turnover generated here far exceeded that in December 2014.Most of the accounts receivable amounting to
308、EUR 12.6 mil-lion,which were entered,had already been received at the time when this report was written.The comparable increase in accounts receivable from ongoing work(+EUR 3.31 million)was due to some fairly large projects where the structure envisages major milestones,which are fairly far apart i
309、n terms of time.Cash and cash equivalents amounted to EUR 7.38 million and were therefore EUR 2.79 million below thefigureofEUR10.17milliononthereport-ing date in the previous year.We will discuss the development of cash and cash equivalents in con-junctionwiththedescriptionofthefinancialsitu-ation.
310、Based on continued good prospects for business at GK Software,we have capitalised the active deferred taxes from the losses carried forward.The amount entered increased by EUR 0.99 million from EUR 2.53 million to EUR 3.52 million.Thesignificantexpansionofbusinessfindsexpres-sion in current debts.Th
311、e increase in provisions,for example,is primarily due to this.Current provi-sions from the personnel department,for exam-ple,(provisions for bonuses,the employers liability insurance association etc.)were increased by EUR 0.96 million and amounted to EUR 2.62 million.The liabilities from advance pay
312、ments received alsoincreasedmarkedly.Discountingtheeffectsof the US acquisition,this was due to the general expansion in business at GK Software.The increase in other liabilities-if not due to the transaction structure of the US acquisition-was primarily due to the increased value-added tax burden b
313、ecause of the excellent turnover during the months of November and December.Financial situationThecashflowfromoperatingbusinessinthenar-rowersensei.e.withoutanychangetonetcur-rentassetsincreasedfromEUR0.64millionin the previous year to EUR 1.89 million,i.e.by EUR 1.25 million.The main reason for thi
314、s was in thesignificantlyimprovedEBITDAfigure,whichincreased by EUR 2.14 million in comparison with 2014.The changes to net current assets related to the reporting date had a positive impact of EUR 1.11 millionontheoperatingcashflow,incontrasttoafigureEUR(0.26)millionthatweighedonresultsin the previ
315、ous year.The positive impact came fromthesignificantlyhigherfigureforadvancepayments received(+EUR 3.50 million),while the increase in accounts receivable and other assets mayhaveweighedonthecashflowtoagreaterdegree than in the previous year at EUR(6.74)mil-lion,but this was more than compensated fo
316、r by the increase in liabilities and similar debts,which provided relief amounting to EUR 7.65 million.Taking into account the balance of paid and received interest and income taxes paid,the increase in cash and cash equivalents from operat-ing activities amounted to EUR 2.20 million,follow-inganout
317、flowofEUR0.42millionduringtheprevi-ous year.Theoutflowofcashandcashequivalentsfrominvestment activities amounted to EUR 18.58 mil-lion,followingafigureofEUR1.55millionintheprevious year.The reason for this strong increase was naturally the US acquisition.GK Software obtained part of the funds for ha
318、n-dling the acquisition as outside funding from Economic Report 41banks within its funding activities.This was mainly due to taking out loans amounting to EUR 14.11 million.Current account lines amounting to EUR 1.02 million had been taken out by the reporting date.Overall,cash and cash equivalents
319、amount-ing to EUR 12.57 million accrued for the Group through funding activities.In total,stocks of cash and cash equivalents there-foredeclinedbyEUR2.80milliontoafigureofEUR7.38millionduringthefinancialyearandacurrentaccount line of EUR 1.02 million was also used.In the light of the fact that the G
320、roup is managing its capital with the aim of guaranteeing that it will be able to service its loans and debts at all times and provide adequate liquidity to secure invest-ment projects,it therefore places the highest pri-ority on maintaining capital.LiabilitiesamountingtoEUR19.55millionhaveto be ser
321、viced during 2016.EUR 10.91 million are due for repayment in the years 2017-2020,then a figureofEUR12.31million.As regards the existing liabilities,EUR 17.14 mil-lion was interest-free on the reporting date,EUR 1.45 million was subject to a variable interest rate withanaveragefigureof1.56percentanda
322、fur-therEUR13.27millionhadafixedinterestrateofbetween 2.19 and 4.10 percent.We are expecting interest payments of EUR 0.26 million from these existing liabilities and the interest payments will amount to approx.EUR 0.50 million during the fol-lowing years.The currency structure of the liabilities on
323、 the reporting date involves liabilities amounting to EUR 14.25 million in US dollars,EUR 0.48 million in Czech crowns,EUR 0.21 million in Swiss francs and EUR 0.05 million in South African rand.Beyond the balance sheet,there were also obli-gations arising from operating leasing contracts of EUR 1.1
324、2 million in total on the balance sheet reporting date,of which EUR 0.63 million is due for repayment during the course of 2016 and a further EUR 0.49 million is due between 2017 and 2020.The Group is currently working on expanding the outside funding available to it in order to be able to continue
325、using the investment opportunities that arise.The development of the Groups turnover is par-ticularly gratifying and shows that GK Softwares market products and services meet customers needs.However,the earnings situation-even if ithasimprovedsignificantly-hasnotyetmetthetargets set by management.Th
326、e measures intro-duced to improve the production structure may bestartingtotakeeffect,buttheyhavenotyetaffectedthestructureinitsentirety.Agreatdealof work is taking place to change this.The balance sheet structure was largely dominated by the US acquisitionandthereforechangedsignificantly;the key pe
327、rformance indicators on the assets and financialsituationimprovedoverallandprovideevidence of a solid foundation.Financial and non-financial performance indicatorsFinancial performance indicators.It should be notedthatthekeyindicators,onwhichthefinan-cial data is based,are very much connected to eac
328、h other.As a result,the development of these figureslargelydependsonthedevelopmentoftwokey indicators.They are turnover and earnings.In ordertonormalisetaxeffects,GKSoftwareusesearningsbeforeincometaxesandthefinancialresults(EBIT)to determine earnings and the mar-gin on operating performance derived
329、 from this.In this respect,we refer to the forecast report for the developmentofthesekeyfigures.T.07 Financial performance indicators2015 2014 Gross earnings margin on turnover90.4%89.6%Personnel ratio63.4%64.4%EBITDA margin on operating performance3.4%0.1%EBIT margin on operating performance(2.0)%(
330、6.7)%Equity ratio42.7%68.4%Investment ratio I50.9%35.8%Excess in cash and cash equivalents over interest-bearing liabilities(EUR K)(7,346)9,041B|Consolidated Annual Report42We would refer to our comments on the Groups management system with regard to the calculation system for these key performance
331、indicators.The key performance indicators listed above help with analysing developments,which deviate from the plan.For example,the personnel ratio is an importantfigureforanalysingthedevelopmentof the earnings situation.On the other hand,it largely depends on the“Turnover”key perfor-mance indicator
332、 and any deterioration in its value may express both wrongly established production apparatus and the failure to meet the“Turnover”key indicator target.However,this can be directly deduced.In this sense,these key performance indicators are important aids in analysing develop-ments,but do not form an
333、y control parameters per se.If we assume that the forecast for the key perfor-mance indicators will be met,we can expect that the key performance indicators cited here to ana-lysetheearnings,financialandassetssituationwillprovide a positive development and again move towardsthefiguresrecordedin2013.Non-financial performance indicators.Manage-mentlargelyobserveskeyfiguresinsalesactivitieswhenitcome
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