Michael Gaffney. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

Five sales staff will be added to the Kanata workforce of In-Touch Survey System Inc. (TSX-V:INX) in the aftermath of an acquisition of a Chicago-based company, says CEO Michael Gaffney.

Rival NCI Mobility LLP will be bought for 1,222,000 common shares of In-Touch, plus a maximum of $750,000 cash paid over three years to take care of NCI's accrued accounts payable liabilities.

The west-end office will see consolidation of its operations, research and development to improve profit margins.

"All it involves is putting five people in the folks on sales and operations, for all of (NCI's) customer service will happen out of Canada," Mr. Gaffney says.

"It involves putting more marketing in their toolbox, if you will; getting all the operations of another company off In-Touch's back and going forward."

NCI, which will lose five sales staff in Serbia, will be renamed In-Touch Survey Systems Corp. NCI will be responsible for meeting revenue targets in order to get debt relief from its Canadian owners, Mr. Gaffney adds.

He also plans to negotiate with creditors in efforts to reduce the outstanding debt.

Customers using In-Touch's technology range from Victoria's Secret to General Motors to the base stores of the American army, navy and marine corps.

NCI is the second acquisition In-Touch put through in recent months – it bought Minneapolis rival MarketLine Research Inc. in May – and others are on the way, Mr. Gaffney says.

In-Touch's Q2 financial results will be released this weekend. Although Mr. Gaffney could not speak yet to how well the company did last quarter, he explains that its deep Q1 losses came from troubles with a client.

"We lost a major customer that was worth $2 million (in Q1) because of the oil-rich debacle in U.S.; they had pulled back spending," he says.

"If it weren't for that customer, it would have been an amazing year. So we overextended ourselves a little, but we'll be in good shape by Q3."

In-Touch had a net loss of $225,797 in fiscal 2007, compared with $145,542 the year before.