Hornbill, who celebrated its 10th anniversary in April, has had a very successful year in which the company saw 20% of its staff pass ITIL examinations, record numbers of new customers sign up, the announcement of several new industry partnerships, its User Group voting to become independent and winning two important Industry Awards.

During 2005 Hornbill successfully implemented systems for many high profile customers including House of Fraser, Halfords, Flextech TV (part of Telewest Broadband), Atos Origin (in preparation for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin), leading law firm Taylor Wessing, Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, The National Archives and many more. Hornbill has announced several new industry partnerships which supports the company’s determination to provide customers with best-of-breed solutions through its Open Integration policy.

A large group of Hornbill staff have undertaken training to enter ITIL examinations, and all who participated in the program passed with flying colours. All of Hornbill’s pre and post-sales consultants, trainers and lead application developers are now ITIL qualified.

The highlight of the year was when Hornbill was awarded the 'Best Business Use of Support Technology' for the implementation of Supportworks at Sharp Electronics. In addition, Camelot Group plc, another Hornbill customer, won the HDI ‘Helpdesk Excellence Award for Smaller Teams’. The success in the industry awards – the first that Hornbill has entered its flagship product for – demonstrates Supportworks as an established player in the service desk environment.

Delegates at the 5th annual Hornbill User Group meeting, which took place in Birmingham in September, voted to move the User Group to a more independent basis. Plans for an autonomous Hornbill User Group are a mark of just how far Hornbill has come since it started the business ten years ago. The product and solution range has grown sufficiently that it is now fully capable of provisioning the largest of corporations, supporting a whole host of applications and both internal and external customers.

The User Group was timed to coincide with the publication of the results of an extensive customer satisfaction survey which covered every aspect of the customer lifecycle, from hearing about Hornbill to implementing and running its solutions. The results of the survey confirmed the generally positive attitude Hornbill’s customers hold towards the way the company is run and the products and services it offers. Hornbill took this opportunity to communicate the survey results with its customers and publicly commit to specific improvements and additional resources.

Hornbill’s international operations have continued to show steady growth, with many new customers signing up during the year. Hornbill now boasts customers across the USA, Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific, and as a direct result, Hornbill’s US operation has increased in size too with staff now based in New York, Texas and California. Hornbill has also seen the addition of two new Hornbill Select Partners in Greece and Sweden, increasing Hornbill’s reach across Europe.

Gerry Sweeney, Managing Director at Hornbill Systems commented, "Hornbill’s 10th Anniversary year has been fabulous in many ways. Not only have we seen commercial success both in the UK and overseas, we have continued to help our staff to develop their careers by encouraging as many as possible to take professional exams, as part of our drive to support best practice. We are all looking forward to the move to our new offices which provides a significant enhancement to our facilities for our staff, as well as customer training, education and support. Easily accessible by road and rail as well as a short 20 minute journey from Heathrow International airport to accommodate our many international visitors. I would like to end the year by thanking everyone involved with Hornbill’s success during 2005, especially all of our customers."