John Sicard bursts past a rock ‘n’ roll band onto a stage at a Miami resort, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt bearing a slogan that reads, “Tame complexity. Master uncertainty.”annual conference, and the chief executive officer of the Ottawa-based company is in evangelist mode for his keynote. It’s not easy to make supply chain software, which Kinaxis sells, seem exciting. Mr. Sicard takes a different tack, describing it as essential for human existence.
Top-line growth has been a concern. First-quarter revenue of US$119.4-million increased by a relatively soft 18 per cent year-over-year, while annualized recurring revenue expanded by 15 per cent, to US$327-million, down from 18 per cent in December and 24 per cent at the end of 2022. In May, Kinaxis announced its first staff reduction since going public in 2014, cutting 6 per cent.
Kinaxis says its slower growth is owing to new customers – its client count doubled in the past three years to more than 300 – ramping up spending on its software more slowly over several years, reflecting the cautious environment. But once they sign, clients rarely switch out. Kinaxis was founded in 1984 by three ex-Mitel engineers to help companies make timely business decisions. Its technology originally cut the time for clients to run what-if simulations to 14 minutes from 36 hours on giant computers. That later dropped to seconds as its software allowed customers to play with hypothetical situations such as estimating how long it would take to deliver an unexpected order without altering their systems of record.