Things slowly improving for in-line Parity

(By Philip Carnelley, 13 Nov 09, 09:00) IT staffing agency and project solutions provider Parity has issued an IMS saying that trading, 5 months into its second half, has been in line with expectations. It saw “no material change” in conditions. As in its first half, the company is managing to largely maintain revenue and profitability in its primary resourcing division – not an easy feat for an ITSA – and is focusing on diversifying its client base. Its small SI group (c 16% of revenues, around £22m last year), which has been rather struggling – down 13% in the first half – has seen sales ‘improve’. It is also slowly improving profitability, in part due to increasing sub-contracting of work to its new Indian partner, Sonata (see Parity switches offshore partners). Across both divisions, the company says that even short-term visibility of revenues is low, and it does not expect any “near-term strengthening of the markets in which it operates.”