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TWST: Could we begin with an overview of Focus Solutions(London: FSG.L), bringing us up-to-date with where the company is today?

Mr. Streets: Focus is a PLC. It’s floated on the LSE, specifically the AIM market. The current market cap is about GBP13 million sterling -- floated the company at round about GBP45 million on the 16th March 2000. The company really specializes in sales automation solutions for the life and pensions industry. The current status is that we have launched a complete end-to-end straight through processing solutions called MCA (Multi Channel Advice) all built using goal: technology our XML toolkit . We can run that across multiple channels of distribution for these large global insurance companies. We also, at the end of April of this year, acquired our partner in the US, which was MPO, now called Focus Solutions Inc, based in Philadelphia. There are five people in that company, but they are a mirror image of the UK business and that they are experts in their field of the North American life and pensions market and have had a successful track record of selling into that market over thirty years. So they are well proven individuals. They had their own business and sold that for cash, working for the acquirer for a period of time. They then set up their own company again and are now acquired by Focus. So that is a background to the company and an update on where we are today following flotation. The revenue at the end of last financial year, March 31, was GBP5.1 million and that was 123% growth on 2001.

TWST: Let’s stay with the technology for a moment. Can you elaborate on the underlying goal:technology, the features, benefits and the products that you bring to market?

Mr. Streets: We set out with goal:technology to build a toolkit for the business community where it wouldn’t require any application programming. Fundamentally, it’s built on and generates XML, which means that, from an e-commerce point of view, whether it’s online or offline it is a lot easier to integrate and provide straight through processing of e-commerce transactions, specifically in the life and pensions market. We really call that 21st century software, i.e., it’s built to change, because the only constant about the market we sell into is change, whether that be new products, newer technologies, legislation, and so on; we can only guarantee one constant and that’s change. Our experience is that the 20th century solutions built with traditional application programming methods using Java or Visual Basic or COBOL or whatever, is very difficult to change and isn’t built to change in that environment. This toolkit enables us to easily change an application and brand it. By branding, I mean we can run it online in one environment, offline in another environment using the same rules, using the same technology without having to change any of the application programming, but it can look different. We usually call that branding, but effectively it’s the way the software is used and it can make it very seamless with its existing environment. One of the key things about goal:technology is that because of what it generates, i.e. XML, it can run on any platform. By that I don’t just mean hardware or operating systems, I also mean system software. So it makes it very easy for us to work with people like BEA’s WebLogic, IBM’s WebSphere, Microsoft’s BizTalk, etc., where we can integrate with that system software. So that’s the platform independence aspect. So what it gives now to the customer is really the ability to provide application solutions that deliver straight through processing, taking out huge costs. Our experience tells is it’s ten-to-one more productive than traditional programming methods so it gets things done quicker, gets things out to market faster and cheaper. In our marketplace in the UK at the moment there is certainly no shortage of opportunity. We are experiencing lots of opportunities because we are able to demonstrate a very quick return on investment, certainly in less than 180 days from implementation.