blur Group using shareholder funds to build barriers to entry

With cash from its recent fund raising under its belt, blur Group (LON:BLUR) is out-innovating others and raising competitor barriers, Panmure Gordon asserts.

In a note following the crowd-sourcing leader’s announcement of the early release of a new and improved app for submitting project briefs to the blur business services exchange, the broker concedes that it is still early days in the blur story, but an early start to the transition to version 4.0 of the platform is another sign of the company’s ability to execute well.

“From here the journey could take many paths – becoming a platform play and an associate of the ERP [enterprise resource planning] software stack; similarly it could be a BPO [business process outsourcing] of sorts managing the long tail procurement (the serendipity specialist) for large companies, or indeed it could enter co-related vertical markets and continue the current tack,” Panmure Gordon speculates.

“With ‘4.0’ all options remain open as blur shows that the twin pillar of (1) customer centric development, and (2) use of technology for competitive barriers is unchanged – nice release guys,” the broker continues.

The release of the app, which works as a stand-alone tool and is therefore not tethered to the blur platform, is the first phase of the 2014 road map to deliver a component-based platform architecture.

As Panmure observes, this means investors can expect faster future integration of exciting new functionality and technology).

The shares have virtually tripled in the last year but Panmure Gordon says shareholders should stay on board, and retains its ‘hold’ rating ahead of forthcoming full-year results in early April.