Sunday Business Post - Done Deal page - Jul 12 2009
Read the article on the Sunday Business Post website by clicking here.
Mayo company Surface Power has agreed a NZ$30 million (€13.5 million) deal with a New Zealand-based distributor. Under the terms of the five-year agreement with Solar Distribution, the company will establish a distribution and training centre in Tauranga, New Zealand, creating 12 new jobs.
‘‘The training and development centre will deploy our system to tens of thousands of utility customers, managing quality control and the whole exercise effectively,” said John Quinn, founder of Surface Power.
Surface Power makes solar thermal heating and cooling systems to help large-scale utility companies and governments to offset CO2 emissions.
Quinn said the company would announce a number of international deals over the next 12 months on the back of product approval it had secured in over 25 countries.
‘‘We are scaling up from a product development business,” Quinn said. ‘‘We have distributor approaches from most countries in the world at this stage, but we are concentrating on the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.”
Surface Power is seeking external investment to fund its expansion plans.
‘‘Several US-based investors have visited us and we would hope to have funding in place within the next three to four months,” said Quinn
Last month, the company signed a €20 million distribution deal with Irish partner Moritz Group. Established in 2003, with backing from Udaras na Gaeltachta and Enterprise Ireland, it employs 15 staff in Ireland and Britain.
‘‘Our 2007 [turnover] was €500,000. In 2009, we are expecting revenues of between €2 and €2.5 million,” Quinn said. ‘‘Next year, we expect to be in the US and Canadian markets, so the figure will grow significantly again.” Surface Power licenses production to a manufacturing partner in China, but plans to locate all activities in Ireland in the future.
‘‘We plan, in the next 12 months, to manufacture in Ireland to service the European market, particularly Britain,” Quinn said. ‘‘We will also establish manufacturing centres in North America and Australia.”
Monday 13 July 2009
Mayo firm signs New Zealand deal
Monday 15 June 2009
Ronaldo to make his Madrid debut in Ireland
Read the article on the Sunday Business Post website by clicking here.
Cristiano Ronaldo looks set to make his Real Madrid debut in Ireland. The Portuguese star is expected to complete a €92 million transfer from Manchester United in time to line out alongside his new €65 million teammate Kaka´ for a friendly against Shamrock Rovers at their new Tallaght Stadium next month.
Ronaldo and Kaka´ will be accompanying their new team-mates – including Spanish internationals Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos, and Dutch stars Arjen Robben and Ruud van Nistelrooy – on a ten-day preseason training camp at Carton House in Maynooth, organised by Fintan Drury’s sports management company Platinum One.
‘‘The Ronaldo story was fantastic news for us,” said Eamon McLoughlin, head of football at Platinum One. ‘‘We knew from speaking with them early on it was their intention to bring in some top, top players. We’ve done Barcelona in Scotland for the last two years, and all the top players were there: Messi, Henry, Xavi and Iniesta. We cannot know what will happen with injury or illness, but 25 players from Real’s first team squad will be in Maynooth.”
McLoughlin said that Real Madrid would play one match against an Irish team during their trip, but could not yet confirm the date or opposition.
‘‘We are talking to the FAI and the clubs and to South Dublin County Council, before we can release details of the date and the match times,” he said.
It is understood, however, that the game will take place on July 20, and that extra temporary seating will be installed at Tallaght Stadium to allow a 10,000 attendance.
McLoughlin said that Madrid’s Irish trip – which takes place from July 13 to 22 – would form a key part of new first team coach Manuel Pellegrini’s preparations for Madrid’s 2009-10 Primera Liga and Champions League campaigns.
‘‘It is the hardest part of their pre-season, with twice daily intensive sessions,” said McLoughlin. ‘‘It is too warm to do those in Madrid at that time of the year. The new manager’s fitness coaches were in Ireland this week.”
McLoughlin said that Platinum One would be covering all of Madrid’s costs for their time in Ireland.
‘‘We will cover everything from chartering the flight to the training pitches, to the food, civic engagements in Ireland, security and everything else,” he said. ‘‘From the minute they get on the plane in Madrid, to the minute they touch down on return to Madrid, we will control everything. Quite a bit of planning has gone into it.”
In return, the company gets to market all the team’s activities during the training camp, including TV rights for the game, McLoughlin said.
‘‘All management, commercial and media issues around the game would be covered by Platinum One,” he said. ‘‘We will run daily press conferences at Carton House, where we would expect 100-plus media from around the world. The game will be live in Spain and, with the sort of players they are signing, there is a fair chance it will be live in quite a few countries.”
IFI to get €1.7m facelift and redevelopment
Sunday Business Post - Done Deal page - Jun 14 2009
Read the article on the Sunday Business Post website by clicking here.
The Irish Film Institute (IFI) has announced plans to invest €1.7 million in the redevelopment of its premises in Dublin’s Temple Bar.
As part of the project, said IFI director Sarah Glennie, the Eustace Street facility will get a new 60-seat cinema to screen films and documentaries. The institute already has two cinemas as well as onsite retail, pub and restaurant facilities.
‘‘This is much-needed work for the IFI. We are very tight at the moment, with two screens. This will really let us expand our activities and show new films for longer, as well as different seasons and sorts of programmes,” said Glennie.
The new cinema would have digital projection technology enhancing historical and independent screenings from the Irish Film Archive and emerging Irish filmmakers, Glennie said.
‘‘We are the home of the Irish Film Archive, which is an incredible resource of Irish heritage. We will be able to really expand the amount of material for people to experience. We will also look at more education programmes and courses,” she said.
The design for the revamp, by O’Donnell & Tuomey Architects, follows an earlier upgrade to the Eustace Street facility by the same architects, dating back to 1992.
‘‘The feeling of the merging of the modern with the old listed building will remain, but the experience will be better,” said Glennie. ‘‘On entering the building, you will come into a dedicated film and bookshop, which will really signal what the IFI is about. The bar, which is a very important source of income for us, will have a much-needed facelift, and there will be new washroom, box office and information facilities.”
Glennie said that funding for the €1.7 million project had come from a mix of public and private sources.
‘‘We were awarded an access to capital grant of €1.2million from the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism in 2007. We then had to secure matched funding. We got an anonymous private donation, and the remaining amount came from ourselves,” she said.
"Building work will commence on the site on July 6.The cinema will remain open for the duration of the project. We will be open throughout the summer in the evenings and all weekend. The build work will be revealed in stages and finally complete by the end of October,” said Glennie.
The IFI’s most recent published accounts, for the 12 months of 2007, show turnover of €1.7 million. It employs 60 staff.
The IFI is preparing to host the ‘Stranger than Fiction’ documentary festival, which opens on June 18.
‘‘There is a very strong programme of new international and Irish documentary films. The highlights include the Irish premiere of the Michael Moore-style corporate infiltration documentary, The Yes Men Fix The World,” said Glennie. ‘‘It will also mark the world premiere of a very interesting film called ‘The Liberties’ by young Irish film-makers, which looks at the history and key characters of Dublin’s Liberties area.”
Trusting open source
Sunday Business Post - Computers in Business Magazine - June 7th 2009
Ten popular commercial open source applications...
Alfresco
Alfresco is an open source enterprise content management system, which includes content management functionality, along with collaboration and interoperability tools, and a menu of services and training options. It is available in community (free) and enterprise (paid-for) versions.
Canonical / Ubuntu
Canonical is the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, a communitybased operating system based on the original Linux open source OS. The company offers paid-for 24/7 support and professional services, engineering services, and hardware and software certification around the Ubuntu system, which itself is free to download and use.
JasperSoft
JasperSoft's open source business intelligence suite includes reporting, analytics and integration tools for SMEs. It's available in either standalone or SaaS editions, and offered in community (free) and enterprise (paid-for) versions.
Liferay
Liferay Portal is an enterprise open source portal framework, offering integrated web publishing and content management, an enterprise service bus and SOA for application integration, and compatibility with all major IT infrastructures. The standard edition can be downloaded free, the paid-for enterprise version comes with support, training and services.
Magento
Magento is an open source enterprise-grade eCommerce application for managing online stores, which includes marketing and catalogue management tools. The community version is free, while the paid-for version with extra functionality, services and support starts at $8,900.
MySQL
MySQL is the world's most popular open source database. It's free to download and use, and many companies (including Sun, which ownsMySQL) offer a range of paid-for support and services - Sun's MySQL Enterprise Server and Production Support product costs $599.
Onepoint
Onepoint's open source project management software integrates project planning, controlling, monitoring and reporting into a single web 2.0-based project leadership software solution for project-oriented companies. Onepoint Project 8.1 for a single user costs €149, while five-user versions cost €1,499. Meanwhile, larger enterprise solutions are costed on a peruser basis.
Openbravo
Openbravo is a fully functional open source integrated web-based open source enterprise resource management (ERP) system, with procurement, financial, reporting, sales and project management and many other modules. SME users pay €1,500 plus €400-€500 per concurrent user, while the enterprise edition costs €500-€700 per concurrent user.
Red Hat
Red Hat provides Linuxbased operating system software along with applications, management, and middleware solutions.The basic subscription to Red Hat Enterprise Linux costs $349 and offerings range up to the premium Subscription (24/7 phone support, web support, unlimited incidents) at $2,499.
Sugar CRM
Sugar CRM is the world's largest provider of commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software. Sugar Express costs $499 for one to five users, while the Sugar Enterprise edition is $600 per user.
This list was a panel for a longer piece I wrote for CIB looking at the increasing availability of business-ready open source applications. Read the article on the Sunday Business Post website by clicking here.
Monday 25 May 2009
Start-ups ‘gridlocked’ by lack of funds
Sunday Business Post - New Business Section - May 24 2009
Read the article on the Sunday Business Post website by clicking here.
Start-ups and other small companies are "gridlocked" by a lack of available finance, according to Eilis Quinlan, the newly elected chairperson of the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association (Isme).
‘‘The absolutely crucial issue overriding everything else at the moment is cashflow,” said Quinlan. ‘‘That, teamed with the late payments issue, is absolutely grid locking a lot of companies. The money is just not moving out there.”
Quinlan, who has run her own accountancy practice in Naas for 17 years, said her primary objective in her new role would be to help Isme’s 8,500 member companies to get money flowing through their businesses again.
Stilted cashflow was forcing otherwise viable companies out of business, according to Quinlan.
‘‘Bad businesses will always fail anyway, unless they are particularly lucky,” she said. ‘‘They do not deserve to succeed. Good businesses, which have been operating for ten to 15 years, with fundamental good business models and tight ships, and which are not operating in areas of the economy that are defunct, cannot get paid. Their debtors are taking longer and longer and the banks will not extend their overdrafts.”
Quinlan said small businesses in Ireland faced a number of other challenges.
‘‘The loss of competitiveness is also a major issue,” she said. ‘‘The cost of doing business in Ireland has become massive - labour costs, local charges, fuel costs. For exporting businesses, the fall in sterling is an issue.”
Quinlan said start-ups, and entrepreneurs who might otherwise opt to set up in business, needed forceful action from the government.
‘‘General economic uncertainty is a problem. People do not know what the government’s plans are, or even what government is going to be there in six months. There is no idea in place of any sort of overall master plan.”
Quinlan established her own independent firm of chartered certified accountants and registered auditors in Naas in 1992.The practice employs ten staff to provide auditing services, taxation advice and management consultancy, primarily to SMEs.
Quinlan is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, holds a certificate in computing from Dublin City University and has an accredited commercial mediator award from the Mediation Forum of Ireland.
Quinlan is also a committee member of Naas Chamber of Commerce, a member of Mensa and a member of the government’s SME Management Development Council. In her new role with Isme, Quinlan succeeds outgoing chairman JJ Killian, managing director of Clonmelbased Flancare Distribution.
‘‘I am a qualified commercial mediator, and I am an experienced liquidator, but more important than any of that is that I am actually an SME myself,” said Quinlan.
‘‘I am a small-time employer and a risk-taker. I understand the business risks, and I hope this will stand in my stead very well in my new role.”
Quinlan said there had been a rise in the number of new businesses formed so far this year, particularly by entrepreneurs made redundant as a result of the recession.
‘‘There are huge amounts of sole traders and small companies starting up, as people do not just want to lounge around on the dole,” she said.
‘‘People are taking the opportunity to set out on their own. A lot of these are highly educated and highly skilled people, who have been thinking about taking the leap for the last ten years.”
Redundancy may turn out to be a positive event for many of those now starting out on their own.
‘‘There are really positive aspects about owning your own business, so this push could be the best thing that could have happened for them,” she said. ‘‘Any SME owner manager will tell you that there is not much work-life balance during the start-up phase, but in the medium and long-term the payback is huge.”
Quinlan advised potential entrepreneurs, with viable business ideas, not to be disheartened by the current difficult-looking business climate.
‘‘My advice would be to go for it if you have a good idea,” she said.
‘‘Entrepreneurs have always been brave and willing to take calculated risks. There are always opportunities out there and there still are. HP and Nokia were both set up during recessions.”
Quinlan added difficult economic times could be advantageous for some new businesses.
‘‘The cost base, in some ways, is now relatively low,” she said. ‘‘Insurance costs can be found cheaper. You can shop around for things like fuel, and rents can often be negotiated down in the current climate.”
Quinlan added, however, that it was imperative that new businesses secured sufficient funding to get off the ground. Access to start-up bank credit was an issue for entrepreneurs at the moment, she said.
‘‘At the time I was setting out, it was easier to get bank support than at present. A bank will want to see the paper, and they will want to see the figures. I can totally understand that as even in the good times banks are entitled to reasonable projections and a master plan.”
Quinlan advised new business owners to seek support and guidance and not feel they had to do everything themselves.
‘‘Do not try and be everything to all people,” she said. ‘‘Reach out and get help. If you have an excellent idea that is your unique strength, do not be embarrassed if you do not know the financial rules or the legal end of things.
‘‘One phone call or e-mail to Isme and we can comeback with the right answer. The support that is available from us is worth ten times the cost of the membership.”
Quinlan said new start-up companies would create the momentum to lift Ireland out of the economic doldrums.
‘‘Small businesses are the lifeblood of this economy,” she said.
‘‘When things get rough, your corner shop or local boutique or garage does not up sticks and move to another country. We are very adaptable and we can change direction quickly.
‘‘We can take setbacks on the chin and come back for more. In a way, we are much better poised to react to things as they happen than bigger business is.”
More government assistance is needed to improve credit access for small and medium-sized businesses, said Quinlan.
‘‘A government commitment to promoting SMEs would help,” she said. ‘‘The banks say they are lending, but we have seen no examples of that, I am afraid. Isme was instrumental in securing €350 million from the European Investment Bank, but it is just not being passed on. ‘‘The lip service paid to an SME stimulus provision in the last budget was pathetic and heart-breaking.
[Minister for Finance] Brian Lenihan had one line about €50 million being given through Enterprise Ireland, but how much of that will filter down to SMEs?
‘‘Then you have to go through hoops and piles of paper to get anything. In the meantime, new and small businesses are failing. Liquidations are coming across my door every day of the week, including good, serious businesses.”
