Talk us through the Q4 highlights as you see them, Stephen?
There's probably three things to mention. First of all, the cash balance was better than we anticipated, and that was down to good collections and strong cash management. Second, bookings were within the range that we published, and some good particular momentum on the comparable of last year, when we did $2.2 million, which showed some decent growth, both comparable but also sequentially on Q2, Q3, and into Q4.
The final thing is getting ready for FY24 with a Turnaround Plan. We've now realigned the go-to-market resources, which we'll talk about, to make sure we're much more focused externally, to manage more predictable sales cycles.
Ijeoma, talk us through the financial performance in Q4.
So we're looking to close Q4 with about $2.7 million of bookings. That compares to $2.2 million, which we did in Q4 2022. That's a 23% growth year-on-year. In terms of how that compares to the guidance that we gave, which was the sort of $4.3-$6 million of bookings in the second half of the year, we would've done around $4.4 million of bookings.
You know, that shows progress on two accounts. One is progress on a quarter-on-quarter growth, so we would've grown sort of Q3 off of Q2, and then Q4 against Q3, so you know, showing progress through the year. Secondly, it's also shows progress across the two lines of businesses.
So we've grown the business, the DI business, Data Integration business, quarter on quarter, since Q2, and we've also grown the ALM business quarter on quarter, since Q2. Secondly, we also guided on our cash position at the end of the year. I'm pleased to say that our closing cash position will be at least $18 million.
That is a strong performance against our guidance range of between $16 million and $16.5 million. That's been driven by two factors. Number one, we've done very well at collecting cash, so we've done better than what we had forecasted when we gave the range. And secondly, we've also done a lot better on managing our cost base. So those two things have led to a stronger performance on the cash position at the end of the year.
In terms of future disclosures, when can investors expect the next update?
So we're looking to publish the full year results between the middle of March and the middle of April, and within that, we'll also give guidance in terms of bookings and cash position for 2024. As Stephen has said, we're still firmly focused on closing the year on a cash flow breakeven position, so we're generating positive cash as we move into 2025. In terms of the RNS announcement, you would've seen that we've taken out the key performance indicators table. The KPI table, we'll start publishing that on the website, which will allow us to announce our quarterly updates very quickly after the quarter has ended.
The idea is to over-communicate?
Yes. I mean, you know, we're very transparent in terms of our communication. You would've seen throughout 2023, after Stephen and I were appointed, we've been very communicative with investors, and we will continue to provide quarterly updates to investors throughout 2024.
If we revisit the Turnaround Plan, what further update can you give us on that? What's left to do?
Yeah. The Turnaround Plan we shared with the investors during the summer is substantially completed. And we'll share all the results of the eight work streams when we stand up at the prelims to ensure that everybody's fully sighted on that. But we've got ourselves already a match fit for FY 2024, and that was the purpose of the Turnaround Plan, 'cause we're really focused on, from FY 2024 onwards, growth, and the Turnaround Plan enabled the foundation for that.
You've mentioned the realignment of the GTM resources. What's the strategy here?
With the go-to-market resources, what we've, you know, have struggled to do in the past, and it's fair to say, is we do well working with customers on sales cycles, but what we've failed to do well is actually close them predictably. And there's been slippage, in reality. Now, with the go-to-market, what we've sought to do is really flatten the organization, so there's only one level of management between myself, the Chief Executive, and the individual salesperson or the sales consultant, and they're represented, those individuals, by Rich Baker running international, Chris Cochran running North America, and Justin running the Application Lifecycle Management product line.
And therefore, what it means is we're much more focused externally. The activity levels will increase, and that should help us become much more, in terms of pipeline growth, but also much more predictable in terms of closure rates.
You've had a lot to do in the last nine months. What else do you want investors to think about right now?
I think there's probably a few elements of the strategy that we're seeing some green shoots associated with. First of all, in the data integration business, where we've landed some new customers, some big logos, so customers like Experian, General Motors, FordDirect, I think that validates the strategy that customers are seeking to move significant volumes of data and that they see Cirata as the best solution for that.
Secondly, sort of this land and expand. Once we've won customers of those marquee names, then what we want to do, obviously, is expand the usage, and again, good validation of that with companies like NatWest expanding their relationship. And then on application lifecycle management, it's an area that hasn't been focused on in the past, and we announced as part of the strategy that we are actually breathing new life into that business unit.
With Justin's leadership, I'm very confident that we can see that move from basically flatlining towards, growth into FY 2024. Then the other two things I think today validates the strong cash management and discipline Ijeoma's really set throughout the company of cost management, but also managing the cash, and the working capital. And the final thing was building the executive team for making sure we're match fit for growth in 2024.
What are your personal aspirations for the business for the next quarter, for 2024 and beyond?
Yeah, I came in during the summer, obviously, when the company, sadly, at that time, was on its knees after the scandal. We have to thank Ken Lever, our chair, interim chair, coming in and effectively rescuing the company. But also, I think it's a great opportunity just to thank all our investors for the $30 million fundraise and their loyalty and their commitment during that period, and phenomenal support.
Then the other factor, looking forward, directly to answer your question, is it's all about growth. We put the turnaround plan together. We've come through that. We've substantially concluded that, and they are the foundations for growth in the data integration business and the ALM business, both in North America and International. I'm very excited about seeing some growth in the ALM business that's been neglected in the past.
So, you know, we always say in software, growth cures all evils, and I think that is a true statement in many respects, and we want to drive high-quality growth with marquee Fortune 500 companies. And that's my personal aspiration.
And with that growth, we'll meet all our expectations to our investors, and ultimately, that really means we exit this year with the company at cash flow positive, with momentum, growth, and the aspiration, ultimately, this is a big year for growth, to get on our journey and our adventure towards global market leadership, which we set out for ourselves as a goal by 2028.