Call centre technology firm Netcall rose strongly after it announced the new financial year had started well, with sales orders significantly up on the previous year.

The company reported revenue in the year to the end of June up 7% to £14.6m, with pre-tax profit up 273% to £2.05m as the firm pulled in new clients and cross-sold its products.

It announced a dividend of 0.5p per share, an increase of 25% on the maiden dividend it made the year before.

Netcall also said it had bought Serengeti Systems, a provider of information management software to the UK public sector.

The firm said the deal would cost up to £2.9m and was expected to be earnings enhancing in the current financial year.

Serengeti has a customer base of over 40 public sector organisations, who use its software to manage information, including paper documents, forms, emails, instant messages, and electronic documents.

The customers include the University of Cambridge, Trafford Council, Forestry Commission and Metropolitan Housing Partnership.

Netcall's Chief Executive, Henrik Bang, said the deal increased the opportunity to drive further cross-selling across the group's 700 strong customer base.

"The combination of Serengeti's ECM solutions together with our BPM and intelligent contact handling portfolio provides a compelling value proposition for our customers," he said.

At 0945 on Tuesday Netcall's shares were up 7.4%.

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