RM posted its annual reults today, showing the firm had grown profits on the back of flat revenue figures.

The education IT supplier operated at a pre-tax profit of £14.5m, or £0.115 per share, on revenues of £262.3m, down slightly on 2005's £262.7m. RM managed to squeeze its margins though, and profit numbers were up 26 per cent on the £11.5m, or £0.087 per share, it made last year.

The firm said it was benefiting from the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, which was bringing more long-term contracts to its business. RM won or was named preferred bidder four out of 12 BSF contracts in the last year.

Network sales suffered with most schools fully wired up now, and budgetary pressures. The education software market shrank too, with RM blaming the BBC's free Jam service. It said it's not clear that the BBC is sticking to its government mandate of being "distictive and complementary" to commercial offerings, and that the firm cut its R&D in the area.

RM said it could not make specific predictions on next year yet because of the seasonal nature of its business, but it expects the BSF programme to drive better service. ®