One-off costs mask the progress of performance management consultancy and software provider Avisen.

Second quarter trading was particularly strong and this rate of trading is continuing into the second half. Pharma is a particularly strong sector and the public sector is not a significant customer. "We are in a very good spot", says chief executive Marcus Hanke.

Revenues increased from £1.73m to £6.05m in six months to July 2010. Xploite has little in the way of revenues and most of that improvement came from Inca which was bought in July 2009. The inclusion of Inca means that 23% of revenues are recurring.

The reported interim loss increased from £2.75m to £6.27m. That includes £6.22m of one-off costs and write-offs - mainly related to the merger with Xploite. There have been £1m of annualised cost savings since April. Net debt was £148,000 at the end of July 2010.

AIM-quoted Avisen has come to an agreement with the administrator of Cantono about the cash owed by Xploite to Cantono relating to the purchase of the former's managed services businesses. The original deferred consideration was £1.1m (due on 15 March 2009) but the administrator was suing for £4.54m. The final agreement is for a payment of £300,000 plus a possible £300,000 more under certain circumstances.

It is possible that storage analytics company Storage Fusion, which is currently loss-making and came as part of Xploite, could become a valuable asset in the future but management needs to move it into profit first.

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