RWS AR 23 Final Single pages - Flipbook - Page 17
PROGRESS IN RELATION TO OUR
MEDIUM-TERM STRATEGY
In 2022 we launched a new Group strategy and plan for
the next phase of the Group’s development. Eighteen
months later our strategy remains robust and valid and
the Group continues to make solid progress.
We continue to be con昀椀dent in the structural drivers of
demand for our products and services and the strength
of the solutions that we provide. This is demonstrated
by the encouraging number of new business wins in
the period across all divisions, high levels of retention
and satisfaction across our existing client base and
the positive outcomes from several tender processes
involving our largest enterprise clients.
Our growth initiatives, including Linguistic Validation
and eLearning, have continued to build well and our data
services proposition, TrainAI, was well received when it
launched in February, with some encouraging client wins
in the early part of the second half. This progress has
helped to mitigate some of the e昀昀ects of a challenging
environment which has resulted in reduced activity in a
number of our end markets.
The actions we took throughout the year to improve
e昀케ciency and maintain pro昀椀tability have helped to
protect margin – particularly the cost actions that
we announced at our interim results. We saw some
progress in pricing (particularly within our Language
and Content Technology division), our transformation
programmes and expanding our portfolio.
In July we completed the acquisition of Propylon
Holdings Limited ("Propylon") a content management
technology business headquartered in Dublin,
Ireland. Propylon's component content management
system is used by governments, standards bodies,
legal publishers and regulated 昀椀rms to address
the complexities involved with drafting, managing,
publishing and updating legal and legislative content.
Shortly after the end of FY23 we announced the
acquisition of ST Communications, a long-term
language partner of RWS, which has given us a presence
in Africa and access to signi昀椀cant expertise in more than
40 African languages. Integration of both businesses
has started well and is proceeding to plan.
Our strategy identi昀椀ed technology and AI as being
critical to our future and the explosion in generative
AI and Large Language Models (“LLMs”) has
reinforced that view. Our longstanding AI capabilities
date back to 2003, and ever since we have been
pioneering in neural machine translation, AI data
services and AI-functionality in our Tridion and Trados
products. Our continued investments and the rapid
development in AI and LLMs place us in a strong
position to bene昀椀t internally from AI and create clear
growth opportunities for the Group.
18
clients on Fortune’s top 20
'Most Admired Companies' list
19
out of the globe's top 20
pharmaceutical companies
9
out of the globe's top 10
medical device companies
7
out of the globe's top 10
contract research organisations
9
out of the globe's top 10
investment banks
10
out of the globe's top 10
asset management companies
18
out of the globe's top 20
law 昀椀rms
18
out of the top 20
patent 昀椀lers
During the year we invested in improving our sales
e昀昀ectiveness. Following a successful pilot within IP
Services we extended the programme to other divisions,
with a focus on implementing more rigorous processes
around sales activity and accountability. We also reviewed
and sharpened our approach to account management,
introducing a single Group-wide approach to account
planning and development. This will support our crossselling e昀昀orts as we look to provide more of our solutions
to our largest clients.
In line with our medium-term strategy we continue to
invest in our transformation. In January we successfully
migrated to a single collaboration platform, giving the
Group an enhanced ability to communicate and work
together more e昀昀ectively. We have also made progress in
HR and Finance transformation, with the 昀椀rst phase of our
new HR platform having gone live in early December 2023.
Shortly after the end of the year we implemented the
昀椀rst phase of the new 昀椀nance operating model, including
shared service centres in Brno (Czechia), Bangalore (India)
and Shenzhen (China).
STRATEGIC REPORT
RWS Holdings plc — Annual Report 2023
17
