Before attending iTSHOWCASE Live Roadshow May 2007, we caught up with Tony Day from estimating and surveying software developers ConQuest Ltd

Firstly we asked him how demand for his type of products has been in the last year?

"I can only judge that by the level of sales our company has achieved over that period. I am delighted that we have had our best year ever by far. We have taken on board 69 new customers, which is nearly six a month, year on year sales have increased by over half a million pounds, to just over £2.2million, resulting in a pre tax profit of about £1.5 million."

Is such impressive growth down to any particular strategy?

"No, not really, we are fortunate to have a very large customer base and construction being what it is (particularly estimating), word just gets around. The vast majority of our business comes from referrals. We have also been very pleased with the take up of our surveying systems by existing users, that's a big part of our business now."

And what about general marketing?

"We don't do a great deal. really. We advertise hear and there and we attend all of the iTSHOWCASE Live exhibitions - they are a really good scource of quality enquiries. We can track significant six figure sales figures directly back to the shows."

Finally we asked him whether ConQuest had any plans to capitalise on their large user base by diversifying into other product areas?

"Definitely not. We have built our reputation on being specialists in Estimating and Surveying software. I firmly believe that to be the best at something you have to specialise."

Does that mean no new products?

"Again definitely not. We are currently working on an extremely exciting new release. It is specifically designed for windows vista and is being developed as a dot net product. The early previews at our user conferences last October got fantastic responses from our customers. The development is now coming on nicely and I am confident that the final product will confirm and consolidate our market position."