A contract to deliver clinical dashboards and work for the National Programme for IT in the NHS have boosted six month earnings at System C.

The company said that as well as acquisitions, new products contributed to growth, with revenue growing to £18.3m in the six months to November, a rise of 34%.

Of particular importance was winning a major contract with NHS Connecting for Health to install clinical dashboards in a dozen NHS trusts.

Pre-tax profit for the period rose 49% to £2.8m. System C reported that sales of new products accounted for 48% of turnover, up from 24% a year ago.

In June, System C acquired social care software specialist Liquid Logic for £14.2m, and in October it bought Scottish web developer Conscia Enterprise Systems.

The company continues to derive the majority of its revenues from implementation of software supplied by other firms, as part of the national programme. Service revenues rose 22% to £9.6m.

Chief executive Ian Denley, said: "We have worked hard to develop the group on all fronts to ensure that we benefit from the current period of change in our market place.

"Indeed, our sales pipeline for both products and services looks very healthy and we are confident of reporting continuing growth through the second half of the year and beyond."