Extracted from Annual Report 2007

Excelpoint's business units registered a healthy growth for FY2007. We generated $1.2 million in net profit after tax with revenue of $486.8 million.

Importantly, the Group's Design-in business brought in an operating profit of $3.3 million, a slight increase from $3.0 million in FY2006, while Distribution activities record a similar growth at $2.1 million as compared to FY2006.

BE CUSTOMER FOCUSED

In FY2007, the Group encountered a number of challenges, namely rising operating expenses in rentals, materials and talent, weakening of the US dollar which we use for transactions, as well as consolidations in the electronics industry. We saw mergers and acquisitions at both the principal and customer levels.

In order to stay the course in such challenging environments and as a part of our transformational journey, we took a number of steps in FY2007:-

• We became customer-focused, not product-focused. We wanted to be a total solutions provider to our customers – from component levels to high value-added services that will drive greater efficiencies and savings for our customers. With that in mind, Excelpoint restructured our business units across all markets.

For our OEM and CM customers, for instance, we collaborated with them to create technical modules that will complement their own electronic products to a range of supply chain management services. The solution modules which we had created for our customers made their way into a wider applications – from medical equipment devices to the highly popular VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) devices, power protection and metering devices used in the industrial sector to video surveillance devices for homes, commercial buildings and national homeland security projects.
• We ventured into new markets. We identified Asian markets like Bangladesh and Korea, which we believed to have the potential for growth, and sent our sales teams in.
• We signed up new partners. Among the partners we signed in FY2007 were Xilinx, the world's market leader in programmable logic devices; Legend Silicon, co-developer of China's Digital Television Terrestrial Broadcasting System Standard and provider of the Standard compliant demodulator products needed to create applications for digital television; and with Leadis for semiconductors integral to mobile media players and associated accessories. This new set of partners will enable us to offer a wider range of solutions to our customers and to grow our customers at all levels.
• We groomed our top talents. Talented professionals whom we believe to have the potential to serve as next-generation leaders were identified. We groomed these talented team members to ensure that they understand our business and our transformation journey clearly. Their on-ground experience had also in turn deepened our understanding of our customers' needs, wants and challenges.

Going forward, we will be able to drive greater synergies across the functional units and markets, deliver a wider range of solutions to our customers, respond faster to market changes and needs, and more importantly, set the foundation for a growing customer base. Essentially, we will be able to operate efficiently while maintaining customer loyalty.