Fiscal 1998 saw Geac reap the rewards of the acquisition, as Geac moved to enhance management efficiency of the much larger Geac and initiated an outreach program to its customer base. The extraordinarily successful resolution of problems acquired, such as the collection of fully reserved overdue receivables, contributed significantly to the earnings peak. This contrasts with past years when Geac's fourth quarter results reflected declines from on going internally generated sales results. More importantly, with respect to the future, Geac has initiated an outreach program. Geac executives have been calling and meeting with customer executives to understand better what Geac can do to enhance the value of our customers' Geac software, and to address currently unfulfilled but perceived information needs.
Customers face severe shortages in information technology resources.
In response to the first requirement, Geac has made most of its product line Year 2000 enabled and, where appropriate, capable of supporting Euro currency. Secondly, in the new technologies area, Geac continues to invest heavily in order to ensure that Geac customers have vital and responsive computing environments that will carry them well into the next century. As well, Geac continues to offer more products that operate in the popular Microsoft Windows NT and SQL server environments. Thirdly, in order to address the resource shortage, Geac has introduced a number of new service offerings. In fiscal 1999, Geac intends to place an even greater focus on our customers.