Software company Atlantic Global today blamed a year of heavy investment in its products and infrastructure for a slump in pre-tax profits.

The Cleckheaton-based firm saw pre-tax profits fall 45.5 per cent to £369,000, despite turnover increasing 9.7 per cent to £2.15 million.

The firm, which makes management software that allows large firms to organise people and projects, said it had been a "satisfactory" year but that it felt it could "still do better".

It said the investment in its sales and marketing was paying off with a string of blue chip clients signed up to its flagship product, Corporate Vision. Since its launch in 2003, it has been successfully deployed within big firms such as Barclays Bank and the Metropolitan Police.

The changes during the year included the appointment of experienced heads of the sales and marketing teams and a rebranding across the group. The firm said that "everything is now in place" to deliver a "far higher" volume of Corporate Vision deals during 2005. AIM-listed Atlantic Global, which employs 33, said the feedback from customers had been positive and had given the firm confidence.

Non-executive chairman David Cox said the group had made progress "against a background of a software industry only gradually and partially emerging from the worst few years in its relatively short life". The end-of-year dividend increased 7.1 per cent to 0.75p per share.