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CGI, one of Canada’s largest locally-founded IT consultancies, had a strong third quarter thanks to its investments in ready-to-use software.

CGI started out in 1976 as a small tech consultancy with a single office. Today, the Montreal-headquartered firm has more than 70,000 employees scattered across 400-plus offices around the world.

In its third quarter, CGI generated revenues of 3.62 billion Canadian dollars. That’s an impressive 11.2% increase from the same time a year earlier, although about half this growth was driven by currency fluctuations.

More notable was the bookings data CGI reported for the third quarter. The value of the firm’s new bookings, or client contracts that it won during the quarter, reached a massive $4.39 billion.

This is 20% more than the revenue CGI logged during the same period. Because bookings are a measure of future revenue, this number sends a reassuring signal about the firm’s near-term top line growth prospects.

CGI executives shared some insight into what’s driving customer demand after the firm posted its earnings. They detailed that the strong third quarter bookings were driven partly by “intellectual property solutions.”

CGI uses the term intellectual property solutions to describe the growing lineup of ready-to-use software products it offers to clients. Many of those software products are geared towards financial institutions and promise to streamline tasks such as making stock trades.

CGI said its managed services business also contributed to the strong third quarter results. That business functions as an outsourced IT department, taking over certain aspects of client companies’ technology operations such as maintaining important databases. 

After factoring in CGI’s third quarter bookings, the total value of its project backlog now stands at $25.63 billion. That’s 80% higher than its annual revenue.

A secondary benefit of the strong client demand CGI logged during the quarter is that it made a positive impact on the firm’s bottom line. 

CGI reported earnings excluding specific items of $425.7 million, which represents a health year-over-year growth rate of 14.7%. Earnings per share excluding items surged nearly 17% to $1.8. 

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