Cork private hospital in €8.5 million finance deal

Below is coverage from today’s Sunday Business Post that covers the deal that Sheehan Medical have signed with Siemens for their new private hospital the Cork Medical Centre.

I have pasted the text in below and also include a link in case you want to the view the article on the SBP’s website.

http://www.thepost.ie/story/ojaucwsnsn/

Cork private hospital in €8.5 million finance deal
04 July 2010 By Susan Mitchell

Backers of a new €90 million private hospital in Cork have just agreed an €8.5 million financing deal over seven years with Siemens Healthcare.

The new Irish private hospital operator, Sheehan Medical, will use the funding to purchase healthcare technology, ICT and diagnostic equipment at the Cork Medical Centre which is due to open in September. It will be the first new private hospital to open in the city for 30 years.

Sheehan Medical signs €8.5m deal with Siemens

Sheehan Medical agrees €8.5m deal with Siemens for Cork’s newest private hospital

Major contract awarded by Cork Medical Centre to supply and finance the latest medical diagnostic technology.

4^th July, 2010. Cork Ireland: Cork is due to get the Ireland’s most high-tech hospital following an announcement today by Irish private hospital operator, Sheehan Medical, that Siemens Healthcare has been awarded the €8.5m contract to provide the healthcare technology and financing for their new private hospital, the Cork Medical Centre.

The new €90m hospital will open in Cork in the September and will be the first new private hospital facility to open in the city for 30 years. Owned by the Sheehan Medical, the Cork Medical Centre will be a technology driven hospital that will lead the field with the newest and most promising interventions for stroke, brain tumours, back pain and other sites of chronic pain.

According to James Sheehan, the Chief Executive of Sheehan Medical, he said a key factor in choosing Siemens was their ability to provide the latest technology to enhance clinical outcomes, plus their ability to support it with financing, ICT and project management ‘‘We have first class technology in all our hospitals and aim to make the Cork Medical Centre the most high-tech facility ever developed in Ireland. Siemens is an important part of this aim, their ability to provide an integrated approach that covers innovative technology will allow us levels of diagnosis and treatment that will be in unsurpassed in this country. The success of this deal marks the next stage of the on-going five year relationship with Siemens whose technology we have used extensively before.”

The contract includes financing for all the hospitals equipment from Siemens Financial Services, the company’s first deal in Ireland. Approximately half €7m the total is for technology from Siemens Healthcare, including a suite of state-of-the-art equipment, including its flagship angiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT), x-ray and ultrasound equipment (specific details on the equipment are outlined in the Notes To Editors below).

Kevin Dand, Head of Siemens Healthcare in Ireland, stated “We were keen to partner with Sheehan Medical in a vision to provide the best in surgical and diagnostic services. The technology advancements of our imaging equipment will assist Cork Medical Centre in their mission to offer a much quicker, safer and seamless journey for the patient, improving the speed of diagnosis and treatment.”

Increasingly patients and physicians prefer minimally invasive therapy over surgery because of the reduced recovery time. “With the Artis zee Bi-plane technology, these interventions can be much quicker. Cork Medical Centre will take delivery of the latest bi-plane technology, enhancing the clinicians’ ability to diagnose, guide and treat the disease whether cardiac, neuro or oncology,” explains Dand.

The Cork Medical Centre will be a 5 star facility providing 75 single in-patient bedrooms, fully sealed with the latest in infection control.  The main focus of the hospital will be surgery; there will be four operating theatres and a same day surgery centre with 20 out-patient beds.  The hospital, which is located at the City Gate Complex in Mahon Point, will have a strong focus on neurology and cardiology.

The hospital will also house an intensive care unit; radiology a cardiology, oncology and neuroscience facility. International accreditation, benchmarking and auditing will be provided by an internationally renowned healthcare organisation

For further information please contact: Simon Palmer, at Republic on + 353 (0) 851 341 761 or email: simon@republicpr.ie

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Siemens’ technology

Siemens Healthcare will provide a suite of equipment including its flagship angiography system, the Artis zee bi-plane flat panel detector, a revolutionary new system for advanced imaging in interventional radiology, cardiology and neuroradiology investigations.

Siemens Enterprise Communications will provide a turnkey Information and Communications Healthcare Network focused on productivity, security and mobility; delivering complete access to clinical information and patient workflows from any device, regardless of location.

Siemens is also delivering state-of-the-art equipment in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT). The Siemens’ Magnetom Essenza MRI system, which due to its 1.5T field strength, will allow CMC to deliver superior image quality and offer greater diagnostic confidence to support a complete range of clinical applications, including neurology, orthopaedics, body imaging, angiography, cardiology, breast imaging, oncology and paediatric imaging.

The Essenza also offers shorter scan times increasing productivity, due to its revolutionary TIM (total imaging matrix) technology, which eliminates the need for patient repositioning during scans. Additionally, the Essenza’s ultra-short bore design will alleviate concerns of claustrophobia, since many patients can be imaged with their head outside of the bore.

The Somatom Definition AS 64 brings together high-end CT imaging including neuro CT scanning. With 64 slice imaging, the AS provides physicians with more information to detect and diagnose conditions earlier. Siemens is also delivering additional x-ray and ultrasound equipment.

Key elements of the High Availability solution are Siemens OpenScape SIP based Voice & Unified Communications Server – a carrier class architecture based completely on Open Standards for third party application integration , Enterasys Secure Networks LAN and Wireless LAN using the latest 802.11n technology for immediate access to information from mobile devices, an EMC Storage Area Network, VMware Virtualised Server & Client Environment from our technology partners, Fujitsu and a Nextgen Technologies Triple Play IPTV Patient Entertainment Solution.

About Sheehan Medical

Sheehan Medical was set up to operate private hospitals in the UK, Britain and mainland Europe. The company is operated by Chief Executive, James Sheehan, and his father Dr Joseph Sheehan C.M., who is Chairman.

Sheehan Medical’s aim is to bring best practice in US medical techniques and standards to Ireland. The company prides itself in combining the operation of first class medical facilities with a successful business model. The unique share holding structure allows doctors and consultants to buy into the ownership of their hospitals and share in the financial success.

An active surgeon for over 35 years Sheehan Medical’s Chairman, Dr Joseph Sheehan, along with his brother Dr Jimmy Sheehan, both Dublin natives, were two of the founders of the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin, which opened in 1984. In January 2006, he was part of a small group that purchased the controlling interest in the Blackrock Clinic from BUPA. An €80m expansion project is currently underway.

In 2004 he again partnered with his brother Jimmy to open the Galway Clinic, which received international recognition and re-established Dr. Sheehan’s commitment to raising healthcare standards through dedication to quality improvement and technological advances.  Further information can be found by visiting http://ww.sheehanmedical.com or http://www.corkmedicalcentre.com

About Siemens

Siemens is a global company providing products, systems, services and solutions for the industry, energy and healthcare sectors. The company employs over 1,000 highly skilled people in Ireland and has offices in Dublin and Cork.

Siemens Healthcare is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. The company is a renowned medical solutions provider with core competence and innovative strength in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies as well as in knowledge engineering, including information technology and system integration. Siemens Healthcare is the first integrated healthcare company, bringing together imaging and lab diagnostics, therapy and healthcare information technology solutions. Siemens Healthcare delivers solutions across the entire continuum of care — from prevention and early detection, to diagnosis, therapy and care. Further information can be found by visiting http://www.siemens.ie

Siemens Enterprise Communications is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based architectures to unify communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning “Open Communications” approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company’s OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications companies include Siemens Enterprise Communications, Cycos, and Enterasys Networks.  Further information can be found by visiting http://www.siemens-enterprise.com

Jobs at Sheehan Medical’s new private hospital the Cork Medical Centre

The recruitment process for Cork’s newest private hospital the Cork Cork Medical Centre (CMC) is now underway. Based at City Gate in Mahon, Cork City the hospital is the first private facility to open in Cork for over thirty years.  Cork Medical Centre will open in September.

There is a new email address for CV which should be sent to hr@sheehanmedical.com

Please contact us for further details via the Cork Medical Centre’s Facebook page via the link below

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cork-KY/Cork-Medical-Centre/345303049764?ref=ts&_a=17

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STATEMENT BY THE DUBAI ACTION GROUP

Following the meetings this week between the Dubai Action Group and Mr Probir Chatterjee, of Innovation SEZ Developer Ltd, at the Carlton Hotel Dublin, the Dubai Action Group would like to make the following statement:

Mr Chatterjee presented his proposals to approximately 150 investors, over a series of meetings during his two day stay. In summary the proposal is as follows: Innovation SEZ Developer Ltd has taken over the shares in the three development companies responsible for building Eagle Heights, Bermuda Views and Profile Residence. They have declared that they will build out our buildings if they get sufficient numbers of investors to sign up to their proposal, which includes a new payment schedule.

Innovation SEZ Developer Ltd intends to shortly send out an addendum to our current contracts for approval and signing.

Whilst the Dubai Action Group is interested in examining this proposal we cannot recommend it to our members until we have had the opportunity to study the written documentation in detail.

We believe a cautious and measured approach to any proposal containing adjusted payment schedules is vital given our experience to date.

We welcome all comments and suggestions from our members and a more detailed email will go out to members next week.

Kind regards,

The Committee for and on behalf of the Dubai Action Group

Management flexibilty is the key to Ireland’s future success, says Verify Partners

Media release

Management flexibilty is the key to Ireland’s future success, says Verify Partners

The Verify Partners

3^rd June, 2010; Dublin, Ireland: Verify Partners, a new interim management and consulting company was formally launched today at the Irish Management Institute in Sandyford Dublin.  Verify Partners, provide Irish companies with access to experienced independent and flexible senior business executives across a broad range of skill including HR, ICT, finance, taxation, business change, marketing, and international business development.

Verify Partners is a new sister company to Verify Recruitment, the innovative IT recruitment company founded by Cathal Grogan. His view is that “we need to up our game if Ireland is going to remain a leader in attracting foreign direct investment. The key is providing a highly experienced and flexible local management support structure that allows the foreign company to rapidly establish their operations, overcome inherent cultural differences and to quickly reap the proven benefits of basing their business in Ireland”.

Bernadette Kiely, is a key member of Verify Partners, and was instrumental in establishing Motorola’s initial operations in Ireland, she said: “overseas companies need more than just access to low corporation tax and subsidies. This was fine when these incentives were enough to close the deal. However, the world has changed. In an increasingly competitive environment, they are now looking at how they can create profitable businesses that will achieve a rapid and sustained return on their investment in Ireland”.

Verify Partners believe that future employment of senior managers will be based on flexible engagements. Pensions, careers paths, share options, benefits packages etc may become a thing of the past for many senior managers in the private sector. Executives will need to constantly up skill, remain very flexible and fleet of foot, be prepared to go where the work is. Careers will consist of many short term assignments rather than a slow transition up the ranks of one company.

“Immediate access to flexible top class management talent at a local level is very important”, said Ronan Farren, a Verify Partner and a Silicon Valley veteran. “The US has it right. We also need to prove that Ireland has a similar culture of flexibility and of high performance at a management level.  Being able to tap such talent not only will speed up the insertion of a Foreign Direct Investment project into Ireland by many months, but will also enable the company to better compete and win business in-theatre, replicating its “home” operations, thus generating quicker returns on investment”.

This is not necessarily a bad thing – this level of flexibility and a lack of dependence on the corporate HQ organisation will certainly help to regain Ireland’s competitiveness and can lead to interesting and continuously challenging careers for the individuals involved. It cam also great boost Ireland’s GDP, a recent study by McKinsey (the management consultants) and the London School of Economics was recently presented to the IMI, which found that improving management practice in Irish companies could add 1% or over €2 billion to Irish GDP.

For more details visit www.verifypartners.com or contact business@verifypartners.com

For more information please contact Simon Palmer of Republic on: +353 (0) 1210 3520 or email: simon@republicpr.ie.

Notes to Editors

Verify Recruitment opened in Dublin in May 2009 and is led by Cathal Grogan. Cathal has 20 years experience in the IT industry, and has held senior positions in Program & Project Management, Product Management, Management Consulting, and Change Management in local and multi-national organisations, within Enterprise Software, Financial Services, Contact Centre and Automotive industries – www.verifyrecruitment.com

A list of biographies of key members of Verify Partners is attached.

Areas of Special Interest

FDI: We are in discussion with inward investment agencies in Ireland about helping them to attract and work with FDI clients from the emerging BRIC markets (namely Brazil, Russia, India and China) through the provision of a ‘swat team’ of senior resources from Verify Partners who can help to fast track the FDI company into Ireland.

Corporate Governance and Risk Management: A number of Verify Partners are experts in the area of Corporate Governance and Risk management. These skill sets are in particular demand as Irish companies learn the lessons from recent history. We can help to put the right processes and procedures in place, however, good corporate governance must come from the top and permeate every aspect of a company’s operations.

Banking: Until now, Irish banks have focused management attention on the very large loans going into NAMA. The next issue will be how to deal with the huge number of loans between €1-5 million that are going to have to be managed with great care. Verify Partners have the asset management and business experience to help manage these assets to ensure they can remain performing thus preventing foreclosure.

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You & Your Money

I have been asked to do the PR column in the ‘Business Bulletin’ section  for Ireland’s leading personal magazine You & Your Money. The focus on the Business Bulletin is to offer free advice to businesses on different corporate issues.

The initial focus on the articles will be to help businesses use digital PR and new media to promote their business. This approach has been taken because a lot of new media is free and can learned fairly easily. Whereas by focusing on traditional media i.e. press and broadcast is a bit harder to teach in 180 chunks and comes more from experience. This is not say I won’t touch on the traditional media in the future.

Here is this month’s column. In it I show how businesses can use blogging software such as WordPress, which this website is built in, in order to add content to their own websites, boost their SEO profile and link to social media.

(Please click the link below for the article).

You&YourMoney(June2010)

Calling investors in Kensington Royale in Dubai Sports City.

Dublin legal firm Anthony Joyce & Co have contacted by a group of investors in Kensington Royal, in Sports City, part of Dubailand in Dubai. The developers are MED (Middle Eastern Developments)  has recently written to the purchasers looking for money despite the fact that the developer has not complied with the contract. The group hope to gather more members in order to increase their bargaining power and obtain answers their numerous concerns. If you are a concerned investor in Kensington Royale, please contact Simon Palmer of Republic PR at simon@republicpr.ie for further details.

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Sheehan Medical the million dollar men

Sheehan Medical recently signed a deal with Boston firm MEDITECH for an integrated IT system for their new private hospital the Cork Medical Centre in Cork. It was covered in the Done Deal section of the The Sunday Business Post yesterday. Here is a link to the article, which I have also pasted in below.

Sunday Business Post \’Done Deal\’ 9th May 2010: Sheehan Medical invests €750,000 in IT.

Sheehan Medical invests €750,000 in IT
09 May 2010 By Elaine O’Regan

Healthcare provider Sheehan Medical is investingUS$1 million (€750,000) in an integrated IT system for its new facility, Cork Medical Centre.

The first phase of the system by Boston-based Meditech, will be completed in August in time for the centre’s opening.

The second phase of the project, which will integrate the hospital’s clinical and financial systems, will be completed early next year.

Philip Sheehan, chief operating officer of Cork Medical Centre, said that the system would make all medical information, relating to each of the hospital’s patients, accessible to all of the consultants handling their care.

‘‘This is from entry to the facility through to completion of treatment and, crucially, it can also be accessed by all medical practitioners undertaking subsequent external aftercare, such as GPs or physiotherapists,” said Sheehan.

Cork Medical Centre will be the anchor tenant in City Gate, a mixed-use scheme in Mahon by local developer John Cleary.

Extending to 135,000 square feet, the €75 million City Gate facility will have 75 in-patient rooms, four operating theatres and a same-day surgery centre with 20 out-patient beds.

The facility will also house an intensive care unit and cardiology and neuroscience units.

Projected revenues for its first year of operation are €20 million, rising to €40 million in year five.

Sheehan Medical is operated by chief executive James Sheehan and his father, Dr Joseph Sheehan, who is chairman.

Joseph Sheehan was one of the founders of the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin in 1984. He was also part of the consortium that built the Galway Clinic in 2004.

When it is completed, it is expected that Cork Medical Centre will create 300 direct jobs and 150 ancillaryp ositions. There will be 75 doctors located on-site, providing up to 39,000 patient treatments annually.

In addition to Cork Medical Centre, Philip Sheehan said that the Meditech system had been used in other Sheehan owned medical facilities.

‘‘We have been working with Meditech at our other hospitals for a number of years,” he said.

‘‘Their IT system was adopted by our Galway Clinic in 2004,where it is a great success and it is also in use at the Hermitage and Beacon clinics, and Mount Carmel Group hospitals. This type of advanced IT system is crucial to the modern patient care and the efficient running of the hospital.”

Sheehan Medical has agreed a separate US deal with Loyola University Health System, which will manage a number of services at Cork Medical Centre. In conjunction with Loyola, it is developing a €37 million hospital in Chicago.

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60% of technology companies do not check social media profiles of potential employees and 63% do not have corporate blogs.

Some interesting research was released yesterday by global public relations firm Eurocom Worldwide, on  the use of social media and blogging by European technology firms (it can be found here:  http://www.eurocompr.com/prfitem.asp?id=12519 ). It found that:

- 60% of technology firms do not check the social media profiles of potential employees;

- 63% of technology companies do not blog

- almost a third (32%) of technology companies do not see the point of corporate blogging; and

- 39% said that blogging was too time consuming.

- 65% didn’t have a company Facebook page

The survey, which was conducted by Eurcom Worldwide during January and February 2010, only surveyed 286 senior level executives in technology companies, mostly across the European region. Whilst this is a very small sample it still shows either a lack or ignorance or low priority given to social media and on line marketing.

I find these figures astounding. After all I would’ve expect the use and awareness of this technology by technology companies to be much higher.  Of all the sectors that you would expect to embrace social media and blogging you would think it would be the IT sector.  I bet that if a similar survey was undertaken in the world of the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector that the results would be a much higher because  this sector is much more forward thinking and cutting edge.

It appears for technology companies there only positive response was that 73% network on LinkedIn.

I’d be interested in a similar study in relation to how much use public relations and traditional media technology companies undertake and perhaps this would’ve been more apt for a PR company like Eurcom to undertake, but still it gives a very interesting insight into how technology companies think and act.

Part of the problem is their lack of knowledge and disinterest in marketing and PR. But it may be more to do with the fact that there is a perceived lack of need to focus on this. With a lot of technology start ups things move very fast and sometimes companies only think about PR and marketing when there is a lull to drum up new business.

Also with technology start ups the focus is on new technology. This is their priority and rightly so. Marketing could be seen as a luxury. In my experience a lot of tech companies do not know a lot about SEO, surprisingly so, and therefore, don’t appreciate the benefit of blogging.

Blogging is one of the single most beneficial ways for a company to boost its Google Ranking. And it is especially easy for companies to do because they have so much going on and so much information that can be put on a blog. Content such as the obvious media releases, but also press coverage, commentary on industry issues, product focuses, photos of events, video, all of which can also be automatically be sent to a corporate Facebook and Twitter feed.

With all my clients I ask them to incorporate a blog into their websites, which I then help them update with all their news,  not just the more traditional blog posts on the issues in their industry. I think this is an essential accompanyment these days to more harder copy / traditional forms of PR, that is still a priority to clients.

If a client is having some news covered in the media it is vital that they have full details on there website for when people look them up after they’ve read the article. If they don’t then they’re missing a major trick. Blogging software allows me to do this for them, without waiting for the client’s IT department to it, because I can log in to the blog element of website, without having to go into the main back end (content management system) of their website, which the IT guys don’t like (and rightly so) as the blogging software is kept in a different sub-directory with a separate login. Importantly clients should not make the mistake of having the blog hosted by the blogger provider, as this would do nothing for the search engine optimisation as it is kept on blogging providers website and not their own company site.

But this does not explain why companies do not use social media to analyse staff. Whilst 73% are in LinkedIn 60% do not check out the LinkedIn profiles of their potential employees. Why not? This is the obvious thing to do. After all many people have a LinkedIn account for that very reason, it is the equivalent of an on line CV. It’s the first place I would look to get background on potential employees.

On the whole there is sometimes a misnomer about the technology industry, whilst the products and services are very cutting edge sometimes the thinking isn’t. It reminds me of the scientific industry. There can often ve a very blinkered approach and people stick to their area  of expertise. The specialists in the industry know how to make their product, but don’t know how to market it and sometimes don’t even appreciate its wider application. That’s where people like me come in to help them get their product to market, get the word out and get them up to speed as to what they need to be doing internally to help them promote themselves.

It’s not hard but sometimes it takes someone from the outside looking in to point this out especially when a company is so immersed in launching it’s new product or service.

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“Open season to help save on IT spending” The Sunday Business Post covers Dublin software firm Openplain

As a freelance public relations adviser I often dread opening the papers on a Sunday morning. Over the years many a restful Sunday has been ruined by coverage of client that wasn’t quite to their disliking, even due to the minutest detail. However, there has been equally as many Sunday’s where I have been pepped up by good coverage for clients.

Thankfully yesterday was the latter. As well as a mention in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post  for Anthony Joyce & Co in my previous post  my client Openplain, the Dublin software company, received more deserved recognition in a great feature on them in the People In Business section, which focuses on Irish businesses that have a unique angle. In this case Openplain are the only Irish company that make software that companies can use to get a holistic view of their IT costs, thus allowing them to save a good chunk of cash on software licenses and programmes that they don’t use. This is an all too familiar occurrence in Ireland at the moment where companies weighed down by their Celtic Tiger Hangover with too many costs weighing them down from the boom.

One of these major costs are IT, with companies paying for too much software that they don’t use, which can be a very expensive mistake to make. On average Openplain can IT software costs for companies by 25%; back in Novemember they estimated that a medium sized company of 100 employees could cut €42,00 per year in software costs alone: http://www.republicpr.ie/2009/11/24/save-fortune-electricity-costs/

Yesterday’s featured focused on the good work that award-winning entrepreneurs Jon Mulligan and Damien O’Brien are doing helping Irish financial services companies cut their IT software costs. Here is a link to the article http://www.thepost.ie/peopleinbusiness/open-season-to-help-save-on-it-spending-48635.html which has also been pasted in below.

The Sunday Business Post: Open season to help save on IT spending
18 April 2010 By Dick O’Brien

As Irish businesses struggle to cope with the continuing weak economic environment, the focus for many is on cutting costs in a bid to maintain their margins.

It is a prime market for any company promising to help clients to save money. One of them, Dublin-based software firm Openplain, said it had experienced strong growth over the past 12 months.

According to Jon Mulligan, managing director of Openplain, the company specialises in analysing customers’ IT expenditure and identifying areas in which they can make savings. One of the company’s main products is Office metrics, which looks at an organisation’s entire business process, from the initiation of transactions, through back office processes and on to how a product or service is delivered.

‘‘Managers know how many transactions are being completed every day, and how long they are taking,” said Mulligan.

‘‘They can compare agents or teams, and identify inefficient work practices. That can be as simple as identifying excessive personal web browsing or discovering training requirements.”

Openplain was founded by Mulligan and technical director Damien O’Brien in 2006. The pair are both software industry veterans, having previously worked together at Baltimore Technologies.

In 2008,Openplain won the Inter Trade Ireland All-Island Seedcorn Business competition, which it followed later that year by winning first prize in the Docklands Innovation Park awards. Backers of the company include the AIB Seed Capital Fund, a number of private BES investors and Enterprise Ireland.

Mulligan said Openplain’s main focus at present was its Licence metrics software.

Managing software licences is a headache for most businesses, involving issues such as ensuring that money isn’t being spent needlessly on software which isn’t used, and avoiding penalties for running unlicensed software.

Licence metrics monitors a firm’s software usage in order to identify any licensing issues or under-utilisation. ‘‘We’ve just completed a project with a company in the financial services sector which we rolled out to 1,000 desktops,” said Mulligan.

‘‘It found that it had Microsoft Project on 450 computers, but in the previous three months it had only been used by 80 people. The company was paying subscriptions and maintenance on those subscriptions which were totally unnecessary. Another example is that it had 200 copies of Adobe Acrobat, but only had 45 people using it.”

There are about 80,000 users of Openplain’s system worldwide. Some of those are using a pared-down, free version of the software, and the challenge for the company is to persuade them to upgrade to the paid version.

‘‘Recently, through our own direct sales activity, we have been picking up a number of larger Irish clients,” said Mulligan.

‘‘They are mainly in financial services, but we would serve all markets, especially anyone doing a lot of back office processing.”

He said Open plain was already profitable and was on track to achieve a fourfold or fivefold increase in turnover this year.

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