06/17/96 PRESS 1 NOW FOR PRECISION

PRESS 1 NOW FOR PRECISION

Like many other tech stocks, Precision Systems (PSYS) is sizzling. Trading a year ago at 4, it has zoomed to 14 1/4. Some say it's just warming up.
Precision CEO Russ Pillar, 30, agrees: ``The best is yet ahead of us''--because of Precision's network-based software that lets corporate customers enhance their communications. And, he adds, because of Precision's impressive roster of marketing partners: Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, L.M. Ericsson, AG Communications (an AT&T-GTE joint venture), and Tandem Computers.
``Pillar and his team have developed revolutionary software, UniPort, for the wired and wireless cable industry,'' says Richard West of investment firm Gaines Berland. Other applications include voice-activated dialing, debit cards, and a single-number service that searches for a specific person.
Precision has also developed Atlas, a dialing system for automatic answering agents. It lets users operate on the Internet and phone networks concurrently.
Precision has signed an alliance with Sun Microsystems to deliver an Atlas using Sun's Java programming language. Applications will include phone answering, voice-based interactive communications, and call message delivery.
Investors are intrigued by a big-name investor who has pumped in $14 million for nearly a 20% stake: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Allen ``gives great credibility to Precision's technology,'' says West of Gaines Berland. Allen has no standstill agreement to stop him from buying more.
West reckons Precision will be in the black when the fiscal year ends on Aug. 30, 1996. He thinks it will make 25 cents a share in 1996 and 55 cents in 1997.
But these numbers, says West, don't include earnings from two acquisitions last April: Vicorp, a Brussels provider of network-compatible interactive voice, data, and videotext software, with revenues of $36 million, and BFD Productions, an Internet-access provider offering automated World Wide Web services, with sales of $10 million.
These newcomers, says West, should double Precision's revenues, to $75 million, and boost earnings by 10 cents a share. Vicorp and BFD will add even more big-name partners to Precision's customer list. Vicorp customers include Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Cable & Wireless, and Sprint TeleMedia. Some of BFD clients: Sega of America, Sony, and Activision.
Pillar is negotiating to improve not only ties with his marketing partners but also pricing: He wants transaction-based, revenue-sharing deals with them. ``That will substantially boost Precision's bottom line,'' he says.
BY GENE G. MARCIAL