DeviceAtlas makes sense of the world’s mobile traffic

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Irish start-up DeviceAtlas emerged from humble beginnings. It began life with four employees and a borrowed internet router, working out of a one-room office above a travel agent on Dublin’s Dawson Street.

The company may have started small but it had a big vision – and a steely belief that the world was going mobile. It may seem obvious now but back in the pre-iPhone days of 2006 nobody could tell how far mobile technology would go, and how fast the device population would grow.

DeviceAtlas knew what was coming. The company was formed as part of the dotMobi domain initiative, with a mission to take the pain out of device diversity. It was a tough sell in the beginning, not least because most companies had yet to experience that pain.

“That was probably the biggest bump we faced in those early days, a lack of belief that the technology would evolve to this point,” says DeviceAtlas CTO, Ronan Cremin. “Companies just didn’t believe that they’d need this sort of help.”

Becoming one of the world’s foremost providers of mobile device data

As the technology exploded, and devices began to proliferate, the vision started to make sense. “Of course, all the things people said would never happen have now happened, but the lack of faith was a big obstacle,” says Cremin. “We trusted in the vision though, we had complete belief in what we were doing and that made sure we never got knocked off our path.”

Today, DeviceAtlas is one of the world’s foremost providers of mobile device data. The company supplies detailed information about the nature and capabilities of connected devices – as of today, they cover more than 50,000 different devices – to give clients deep insights into their mobile traffic and usage patterns.

The company accumulates data from a global network of websites and apps that monitor traffic and identify devices that have not been seen before: some 50 to 60 new devices are launched every single day. It is exactly the scenario the company envisaged a decade ago, when they were knocking on doors.

“All connected devices have different characteristics and different capabilities so for any company trying to keep track of them all, it’s a headache – it’s messy,” says Martin Clancy, the company’s marketing chief. “Our mission is to recognise what each device is and what it can do, and in that way bring order to chaos for our clients.”

Growth has been smooth and steady over the past decade, but the company still acknowledges the foundational role played by Enterprise Ireland, which stepped in to provide funding for early-stage R&D  recruitment. “Thanks to Enterprise Ireland, we were able to hire the right people who could build the technology quickly, which was critical to our launch plan,” says Ronan Cremin.

“The funding was the obvious one but Enterprise Ireland also gave us lots of advice and guidance that was really helpful,” he says. “For example, when we were trying to break into the Chinese market they added heft to a lot of introductory meetings as well as giving us tips about adapting to the local culture. Small but invaluable things that made a difference.”

DeviceAtlas clients include more than twenty Fortune 100 companies

These days, DeviceAtlas needs little introduction. The company counts nearly a quarter of the Fortune 100 among its client roster – with companies such as Adobe, Amazon, AOL/Oath, Appnexus to take just the start of the alphabet – and estimates that its technology is used by “most of” the Fortune 1000 via its OEM customers. Incredibly, some 1 in 3 of all digital ads are underpinned by DeviceAtlas.

From four people, the DeviceAtlas team has grown to more than 50 – a rising total that includes an impressive 18 nationalities so far – serving customers in 56 countries worldwide. And as ever more devices populate the landscape – not just smartphones but game consoles, TVs, watches, speakers, anything connected – there appear to be no limits to what the future holds.

“The direction of our industry is clear – everything’s getting smaller,” says Ronan Cremin. “Mobile technology is sinking into the woodwork, if you like, it’s becoming invisible. One of these days, you might open your box of Cornflakes and find a free mobile connected device in with the cereal!

“I know it sounds far-fetched and we’ll have people telling us ‘It can’t be done’, just the same as they did when we were starting out,” he goes on. “But in this business you can’t rule anything out. There’s a line in the movie Jurassic Park that I always remember: life finds a way. Well, technology will find a way. And probably sooner than you think.”

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Competing for the future at International Markets Week

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Competing for the Future

Developing foreign markets can be daunting even for companies that are highly successful in their home market, the audience heard at Competing for the Future, a panel discussion organised as part of Enterprise Ireland’s International Markets Week programme.

“When you go abroad to foreign markets you are starting at ground zero, which is not an easy place to be,” said Harry Hughes, CEO of Mayo-based safety clothing and equipment company Portwest.  “It just takes time and you have to stay with it.”

Hughes has helped grow what was once a small family business with a turnover of €100,000 in 1978 into a €205 million a year business employing 3,000 staff. The UK was Portwest’s first export market and remains an important one, accounting for 40% of its sales, he said. However, by taking on new markets one at a time, the company now sells into 120 countries worldwide.

 

Top export insights from International Markets Week

He was joined onstage by Vivian Farrell, CEO of Shannon-based Modular Automation, a 32 year-old company that delivers advanced technological solutions to customers such as Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, Stryker, and Medtronic.

Working with their manufacturing sites in Ireland provided Modular Automation with an entry point into the US market, which has transformed the business over the past five years, enabling it to double staff numbers to 150, Farrell said.

Delegates also heard from John Brophy, business development manager of PM Group, a leading project delivery company that works in engineering, architecture, and construction management.

The now 45 year-old company began developing export markets in earnest during the last recession. Today, while PM Group remains headquartered in Ireland, it has 17 offices around the world.

 

Fulfil your export potential

Complacency can make companies fail to fulfil their export potential, delegates heard. “We were probably very slow learners in the beginning, in that we were 25 years selling in Britain and had reached maturity in that market before, 15 years ago, we started looking into Europe,” said Hughes.

Portwest has taken a “one step at a time” approach to new markets since then, starting with the Netherlands, and then France. “There are only two ways to get sales, you can either buy them by purchasing a company in the market, or you can go out and build them yourself,” he said. Either way it costs money.

Modular Automation was able to leverage its multinational clients here and follow them overseas. International markets are now “hugely important in terms of reaching our ambitions for growth,” said Farrell.

“We’re investing heavily in R&D and innovation in Ireland and we see that as a catalyst for growth, in particular in the US.”

Read about Enterprise Ireland’s R&D and innovation supports

Three years ago, the company opened an office in Florida, both to service the sister sites of clients in Ireland and as a base to develop new customers. “That is our strategy for growth and it is working for us. But it’s only achievable if we do a good job for multinationals in Ireland, and critical to that is R&D and innovation.”

In 2007, PM group was faced with a diminishing home market. At the time, it had offices in Ireland, the UK, Russia and Poland, but the majority of its work was based in Ireland.

“In order to diversify, we had to look out, and mainland Europe was a very accessible market,” said Brophy. “We focused initially on Belgium, which was a massive market for many of our customers.”

 

Target opportunities in the Eurozone

Irish companies should view the eurozone as “a continuation of the domestic market,” said fellow panellist Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland. Doing so may require a “mindset shift” but having role model companies such as Portwest, Modular Automation and PM Group helps encourage other companies, she said.

That includes steps companies are taking in response to Brexit, such as Portwest’s decision to acquire 140,000 sq ft of warehousing in Poland, reducing its warehousing space in Britain. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of Brexit, such a move makes good business sense, said Hughes.

PM Group has also taken action to mitigate the risk of Brexit. It has responded by growing its footprint in the UK, acquiring a company there and adding two new offices, in Manchester and Edinburgh – “because no matter what, the UK is a big country and you need to have a regional presence,” he said.

It has also diversified into more sectors, including chemical and petrochemical, which the recent acquisition will help it to service. “So we have widened what we can do,” he said.

 

Act now in response to Brexit

Over the past year, companies have moved into action mode in response to Brexit, said Sinnamon. “Companies are beginning to invest in innovation and competitiveness to look at new markets. We are seeing a big increase in the level of demand for participation in trade missions and market study visits,” she said.

Mistakes will happen. In Portwest’s case, a key hire made in Ireland and relocated to Europe turned out not to be the right solution. “Now we employ French people in France, Germans in Germany, and so on. The boots on the ground need to be local,” said Hughes.

Innovation is key. “You really have to find a way to differentiate yourself from the competition. You can’t go in there and say ‘We’re here, isn’t that good enough?’,” said Brophy.

Julie Sinnamon agreed. “You are not going to conquer the world with me-too products. You have to have something that differentiates you,” she said, pointing to Enterprise Ireland’s Market Discovery Fund as a way of helping with costs, and its Agile Innovation Fund as a fast-track way of getting R&D support to ensure a product is fit for purpose in new market.

Above all, see the eurozone as a local market, delegates at International Markets Week were told. “We have the same currency and the same laws and there are no borders,” said Hughes. “You need to see it as a local market and get out there and invest.”

 

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The importance of multilingualism

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The drive for new markets shines a light on the importance of multilingualism. Julie Sinnamon, CEO Enterprise Ireland outlines why language matters.

Ireland’s small, open economy depends heavily on being able to trade internationally. The global dominance of the English language has worked to our advantage but with Irish companies looking to export into even more diverse markets, the need to acquire more languages has never been more important.

Recognising the cultural value of communicating in the buyer’s local language and developing a workforce with foreign language expertise can improve relationships and increase efficiency when entering new markets.

Learn how Enterprise Ireland can support your business with the Market Discovery Fund

 

Irish exporters set to benefit from Italy’s economic revival

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Paul Maguire, Enterprise Ireland’s manager for Italy, Morocco and Algeria, describes the opportunities attracting growing numbers of Irish exporters to the country

Two months after Italy’s fraught general election, the IMF’s World Economic Outlook delivered positive economic news for the country. The report indicated that Italy’s 2017 growth rate of 1.5% was its fastest since 2010, with growth projected to remain stable this year.

Following slow growth since the 2010 recession, the Italian economy is starting to strengthen. With a return to growth, sectors such as life sciences and medtech are presenting strong opportunities for Irish exporters, particularly in the context of Brexit.

To support exporters targeting these opportunities, Minister for Trade Pat Breen T.D. led a mission that included 18 Irish companies to Italy in April. 15 companies visited a specialist medtech event and a further three attended a procurement conference in Rome. The Minister visited the Rome Talent Garden (TAG) digital incubator and met Enterprise Ireland-backed company City Wonders, founded by Italian entrepreneur Simone Gozzi.

€2 billion addressable market for Irish companies

The Italian sector encompassing life sciences and medtech continues to flourish, currently valued at €25.2 billion. With 10% of that value reserved for investment, Irish companies have an addressable market of €2 billion. Enterprise Ireland-supported companies are securing wins in the market, increasing life sciences exports to Italy by 147% to €65 million in 2017.

This year’s medtech event took place in Mirandola in the Modena region, known as Italy’s Silicon Valley specialising in medtech. Modena is home to more than 100 medtech companies, including large Italian multinationals such as Sorin, Gambro and CID Vascular.

By attending Enterprise Ireland’s Mirandola medtech event, Irish companies such as Anecto, Synecco and Statistica Medica had an opportunity to gauge the market and network with potential Italian partners. Opportunities for Irish life sciences companies are particularly strong in the drug development, manufacturing, packaging and regulatory sub-sectors.

Anecto see exponential growth in Italy

Galway-based Anecto offers product and packaging testing and are enjoying success in Italy. David Morrissey, Sales Manager at Anecto, commented, “The opportunity to meet clients in Italy has generated significant leads for us. We’ve seen exponential growth there in recent years. Irish companies looking to expand in Europe should look to Italy as a potential market.”

Brexit is also generating opportunities for Irish companies interested in entering the Italian market. Research carried out by the UK Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply in 2017 reported that 46% of European businesses expect to reduce their reliance on UK suppliers.

Earlier this year, 50 senior Italian procurement officers attended an Enterprise Ireland conference held at the Irish embassy in Rome, seeking to source alternatives to existing UK suppliers. Key themes discussed included the impact of Brexit on the supply chains of Italian companies, opportunities for partnership, and Ireland’s commitment to the European market. Sean O’Dwyer President of the Irish Institute of Purchasing & Materials Management (IIPMM) and Board Member of the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management (IFPSM) delivered a keynote presentation to the Italian audience.

One insight that emerged was that supply chain opportunities in Italy continue to be overlooked in favour of those in other European markets, such as Germany, France, and the UK. Yet despite being underrepresented in Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy continues to deliver deals for Irish exporters.

How Irish companies can win in Italy

To win opportunities in Italy, Irish companies should take a long-term partnership approach. Taking time to build relationships with Italian clients is essential to securing trust, while having a local presence with ‘boots on the ground’ is a distinct advantage.

Italian companies are impressed by Irish companies that deliver innovative products and services that have been developed with high levels of R&D and can be integrated with their own offerings.

As the Italian market is highly networked and regionally focussed, recommendations from Italian companies carry significant weight during negotiations.

Enterprise Ireland’s Milan office helps Irish companies to facilitate visits to Italy. Pre-visit and in-market supports, such as identification of potential partners and securing reference sites, are included, enabling companies to meet the right clients and create a presence with true local resonance.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

To learn more about exporting to Italy visit Markets and Opportunities

 

Irish companies Branding US

How to brand for success in the USA

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Irish companies selling in the US market should use branding and marketing communications that are more direct and more Irish than they would use at home.

That was a key insight that emerged at the E3: ‘Entrepreneurship Export Exchange’ conference in Dublin, during a session on ‘Defining your brand and pitching your company in America’, led by Brett Bruen, President of Global Situation Room, and Gina London, a former CNN correspondent turned communications consultant.

Straight talking

“What works well in Ireland, the UK, or the rest of Europe, does not necessarily lead to success in the American market,” advised Bruen, a former US diplomat, who served at the White House as a director of global engagement in charge of public diplomacy, international media, and crisis communications.

“Many Irish firms that work with Global Situation Room have an understated quality to their marketing communications that is not as well received in the United States as it is here,” he said.

“In the US, you need to emphasise why you are the best.  It’s not just about your technology. You need to tell the story of your company and explain why it is passionate about its products.”

Playing the green card

One of Bruen’s key insights is that Irish companies should take full advantage of their national identity, and the ways in which Ireland and the Irish are viewed so positively in the USA.

“Whether you are selling soap or solar panels, Enterprise Ireland-backed companies really should wrap themselves in the Irish flag,” he advised. “In the US, Irish identity is associated with a level of honesty. US Americans, no matter what their own ethnic background might be, have an affinity with what they believe the Irish represent.

“That means, for example, that you should say that you are an Irish company in your PowerPoint presentations, and should also explicitly say so on your website.”

Bruen’s firm, Global Situation Room, were co-sponsors of the conference with Enterprise Ireland. He advised attendees that strong, relevant website content was a crucial element of branding and marketing in the US.

“I would really encourage Irish firms coming to America looking for business or investment to have someone with expertise in the American market go through their website and check for inconsistencies,” he noted.

“Just because your digital content is in English don’t assume that it will be OK for American audiences. There are cultural preferences and linguistic differences that you need to adopt for marketing messages to succeed.”

Branding is also about you

Gina London advised that Irish business leaders should remember that how they present themselves, and how they communicate personally, is an important aspect of branding and marketing, especially when seeking the backing of American investors.

“When you meet other CEOs, you need to have a handshake that is firm. You need to maintain eye contact. You need to be upfront and not pull back,” London said. “You have to show that you are confident, that you are a peer, and an equal.

“Americans are more direct than Europeans. They make a decision about whether to do a deal with someone largely within the first few minutes of meeting, when they determine if you are credible and ‘have the goods’. Americans are wired to look for weakness and to see if one party has an advantage over the other in a relationship. You are more likely to get a deal, and get a better deal, if you are not going cap in hand to someone.”

Of course, there are company founders and CEOs who are more reserved than others, and aren’t as comfortable making full-length presentations to, for example, a group of potential investors.  Nevertheless, London advises that the CEO should be present at such meetings, and should speak for at least a few minutes about how they founded the company, before handing over the rest of the presentation to another member of the senior management team.

Practice your pitch

“Every company founder should be able to tell the story of how they came to create the company without difficulty,” says London. “They should rehearse it until they have it pat.

“The Irish pride themselves on being a nation of storytellers. As a result, they sometimes tell their story on the wing, or from the hip. That isn’t good enough. You need to rehearse telling your story so that it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and especially a good ending that emphasises why you are the best at what you do, and why you meet a real need.”

“Don’t leave an American audience to draw its own conclusions, when you are pitching your business,” adds Breun. “You are dealing with a different culture. You need to keep it short and sticky and make your exact value proposition clear to the person you are engaging with. Emphasise that and underline it.”

Think local

Both Bruen and London stressed that America should not be seen as one homogenous market. Both advised that marketing communications that work in New York or Boston will not necessarily work in Mississippi or Georgia.

“Do your homework,” advised London. “This is very basic stuff but when meeting a potential client or investor spend some time online researching the individuals you will meet and their companies. Also, find out about the places they live and work.  If it looks like you understand the local culture, you will look like you know what you are talking about.”

 

Learn how Enterprise Ireland can help your business to export to North America on our USA Markets page.

Irish fintech disruption in AsiaPac

Irish fintech disruption in AsiaPac

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Attendees at Routes to Growth Asia Pacific, a major conference which took place in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, heard that the region offers growing opportunities for Irish fintechs.

Payments company Fexco, one of Ireland’s oldest fintechs, began selling into the region in 2006, on the back of existing clients such as Jetstar, Australian carrier Qantas’s low-cost subsidiary.

Subsequently opening an office in Hong Kong, Fexco currently employs 20 people in what has become one of its fastest-growing divisions.

“In the beginning, we went out there with a kitbag bringing our services,” said Barry O’Sullivan, Fexco general manager.

“Now we have learned so much from the likes of companies like Tencent and Alipay that we are bringing more back in our kitbag from the region, that we can sell to Europe and the rest of the world. It has been a tremendous success for us.”

Fintechs interested in following suit need to be adequately resourced. “You have to invest. You have to take a long-term view and you have to put people on the ground and hire locally,” he said.

It’s a particularly opportune time to sell into Japan, delegates heard.

Japan wide open for Irish fintech

“Japan is wide open for Irish fintech. It has a huge financial services sector but a very small entrepreneurial sector. They simply cannot meet the demand for the fintech solutions that they require internally,” said Richard Okuno, a consultant with NMG Consulting.

The advent of Australia’s New Payments Platform, NPP, increases the country’s appeal for Irish fintechs too.

The recently launched platform enables customers with accounts at different banks, building societies, and credit unions to make payments to each other more easily, as well as providing real-time settlement via the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Fast Settlement Service.

It has proven transformational. “I can send money using an email address or mobile phone number,” said Paul Lahiff, NPP’s chairperson, pointing out that the new infrastructure is just that: “It’s not a product factory”.

Australian banks have spent the past three years connecting legacy systems to the new platform, and are only now investigating its potential to add value.

“While some applications can be done internally, we are also looking to partner with others outside, and we’re agnostic. So the best advice is for fintechs here to go there and talk because, having launched the railroad in February, the timing is right,” he said.

Because of the time it takes to generate business in Asia Pacific, which extends from Australia and New Zealand to India, China and South Korea, align stakeholder expectations before you go, advised Barry O’Sullivan.

“We followed our airline customers into the region and yet it still took three years before we saw any payback. But people in the region like to see that you have invested there, that you are going to stay around, and that you are setting down roots.” Use Enterprise Ireland’s assistance and tap into the Irish diaspora, he recommended.

Get market research help from Enterprise Ireland

Enterprise Ireland can also help with market research, which is important, given that there isn’t just one India but many regional variations, pointed out Deepak Sharma, chief digital officer at Kotak Mahindra Bank. A respect for local business culture is vital in each.

Part of what makes India unique in fintech terms has been the government’s move to take nearly 90% of its cash out of circulation in 2017. “That was a defining movement that accelerated the pace of change in the consumer mindset,” said Sharma. It left consumers with no option but to consider a move from cash to alternative payment methods.

The country also has an open payments infrastructure in place that allows for real-time gross settlement and national electronic funds transfer. “So, unlike other countries in which a payments company has to build the railroad and then figure out how to monetise it, the railroads are already there in India, irrespective of the customer market you are targeting.”

India has 400 million smart phone users, providing huge opportunities for mobile-first solutions. There is an appetite for innovative solutions, such as payment ecosystems which use biometric fingerprints, or QR codes too.

For fintechs to succeed in India four cs are required, he said. “The most important is the content. Do you have the right use case and the know-how to get into this market? Second, context: do you have an understanding that what works in one market won’t work in another, especially when you have quite different railroad and infrastructure which is already there.”

Third is commitment. “Once you get to the market, you need to look long term. India is huge. The price points are very different. Success does not come early. You are looking at large volume, low value, so you need to stick to long-term horizons. Finally, connect – at the end of the day, India is not one country. Just like the EU and Africa, it is distinctly different, so you need to think about how you will start building the kind of interfaces required.”

Collaboration and co-creation between banks and fintechs are key too, as is the importance of understanding the regulatory environment. “Pick up a partner or a sponsor bank who can help you navigate,” he said. “India is a very big market, it’s open for business, and a lot of fintechs from around the world are heading there.”

Social media USA

Social media #success in the USA

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Sean Davis, Enterprise Ireland’s regional manager for North America, shares insights about how social media can be used to propel your business in the market.

Your corporate online presence has for some time been a cornerstone of the image and brand equities your company wants to communicate. The past five years has seen enormous growth in social media platforms as an enabler of those communications. The hits and misses of viral content demonstrate its potential to help build a presence, particularly in the US.

The effectiveness of social media to help companies to engage with customers was explored at the E3: ‘Entrepreneurship Export Exchange’ conference in Dublin, co-hosted by Enterprise Ireland and the Washington DC consultancy Global Situation Room.

Business confidence is high, presenting opportunities for Irish companies across the US. With 313,000 jobs added in February, the US unemployment rate is at 4.1%, its lowest since 2001. GDP growth for Q4 2017 was also faster than predicted.

A third of E3’s conference speakers hailed from a media background and advised that ‘getting your story right’ is critical for Irish companies in the US, when using social media and presenting pitches to customers and investors. Business leaders should practice telling their story succinctly in a way that makes its impact easy to grasp.

Declan Fearon, Managing Director at Tipperary Crystal and CEO at Freezadome, comments, “Freezadome attended to explore strategies for growing exports to the USA and Mexico. E3 was the most informative conference I’ve attended in years. The knowledgeable mix of speakers in the packed room travelled from the US and UK to share expertise on how to sell and grow your business, and how valuable the Irish connection can be in the market.”

With the US long leading the development of cutting-edge marketing, most innovations are now shaping the digital space. North America is home to the world’s highest penetration of social media users. According to Statista, the global statistics portal, 81% of US Americans had a social media profile in 2017. That range of penetration enables Irish companies to access a huge potential customer base on networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn at potentially low cost.

With social media marketing reaching a point of maturity, it is important to consider the most recent trends in your sector. A quick competitor review of how effectively others are using social media can help you to decide which channels are worth investment.

Smart use of social media at industry events provides one of the best opportunities to engage a highly-targeted audience. Event hashtags are closely followed by attendees many of whom may be potential customers and partners. Staff should include the event’s handle and hashtag to share insights that can help build the right following and engagement.

Philip Martin, CEO of Cora Systems, comments, “The #IrishAdvantage is allowing Cora to power transformation in enterprise organisations such as Teleflex, Allergan, Boston Scientific, Analog, Elanco and Nabriva. Introductions made at Enterprise Ireland events helped Cora to develop strong partnerships in the US. The multinational nature of our client base enables seamless implementations of our enterprise portfolio and project management solution for US customers.”

How Irish companies should negotiate contracts with US clients was another important topic explored at E3. Irish businesses can be daunted when approaching American firms, viewing themselves at a disadvantage, with odds stacked in favour of the larger company.

Irish suppliers should remember that domain expertise can help you to occupy a strong negotiating position. Being the main sectoral expert in the room and owning the subject matter can add value to the potentially broader capabilities of large US companies. The well-known flexibility of Irish companies should also apply to contract negotiations. Irish firms should remember to sell US clients what they need, and not simply what you offer at present.

To learn more about what US locations offer, Irish companies should contact local economic development offices (EDOs), which operate at state level from coast to coast, north to south, and at city and county level. EDOs aren’t just interested in big firms but are open to conversations with SMEs interested in opening a sub-office with even two or three employees. The EDOs’ umbrella organisation SelectUSA has personnel in the US embassy in Dublin.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

Visit out US Market pages for key insights and information on routes to market.

From Howth Head to the frontline: How D4H helps emergency responders save lives across the world

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Most companies say they provide customers with the best service. But do they go the extra mile to really understand their customers’ needs? D4H Technologies certainly does.

Based in the Baily lighthouse on Howth Head, D4H has created a suite of market-leading software solutions that enhance the readiness, response and re-evaluation capabilities of emergency service providers and public safety teams around the world.

Helping and protecting others is in the blood for the people at D4H. Robin Blandford, founder and CEO, is also the deputy officer in charge of the Coast Guard station in Howth. Many of his employees hold similar positions.

“Nearly all of our staff would have some sort of role in the emergency response services – on search and rescue teams and emergency management,” Robin explains. “It is a factor we look for when we’re hiring staff. It gives them a passion for our market. I use our product with the Coast Guard and it gives me a very good understanding of the user and what they need.”

How D4H started their journey with Enterprise Ireland

D4H evolved from a database that Robin developed for his Coast Guard station to look for patterns and trends in local incidents. “Slowly that transitioned into becoming a useful tool for managing the unit itself until I eventually gave up my regular job to focus on the software fulltime in 2008,” he says.

“We went straight into Enterprise Ireland and the DIT hothouse incubator. We got €17,000 in funding to help cover costs while we built our product. That was year one.

“When we came out the incubator, it felt like we were coming off a cliff because we needed to find customers and revenue and we weren’t quite at that point. So we applied for the first-ever year of Enterprise Ireland’s Competitive Start Funding and were accepted. It was a real turning point for us. Enterprise Ireland gave us €50,000 for 10% of the company, and it was the last investment we have taken.

“Since then D4H has just grown organically. Budgets are reasonably steady in public safety, so there was no impact from the recession – we were exporting from day one. We are now up to 12 employees. Our growth has been steady at around 50% annually. We have a very strong base with some very big name customers.”

Specialised software that saves lives

The threats of terrorism, industrial accidents and severe weather might seem a world away from a quiet lighthouse on the northern edge of Dublin Bay, yet it is from there that D4H’s work helps saves lives when such events occur.

Robins says, “Dealing with these threats requires specialised teams with specialised equipment and specialised training, and that’s exactly who we serve.

“Our software helps track the training, qualifications and availability of personnel and the equipment they use. We have an incident management product which tracks everything the response teams do, and an incident reporting tool which lets teams analyse and re-evaluate their performance. That feeds back into the readiness, so it’s a cycle between our products.

“About 80% of our customers are in North America. We supply police, fire, SWAT, chemical response teams, bomb squads, disaster response, medical response, search and rescue teams, and others throughout Canada and east coast United States. We’ve done the Boston Marathon for the last two years, assisted with software for that.

“We’re also working with a number of cities on the west coast of the US. A lot of the firefighters tackling wildfires there recently would be tracked using our system with regards to training and their equipment readiness.”

“Another growth area is corporate organisations. These events hurt them, they shutdown offices and affect their sales. This year we’ve seen a massive uptake in very large companies contacting us and asking us what public safety are doing and how can we replicate this.”

Leveraging Enterprise Ireland’s overseas network

Most of D4H’s target customers won’t be found on any generic list of companies and so the company leverages Enterprise Ireland’s network to open doors and make introductions.

Robin says: “We tell Enterprise Ireland who we want to be introduced to and their local office do some research around the company, or provide an introduction letter, or get us a meeting.

“We’re dealing with bomb squads, SWAT teams, hazmat teams and others. If we have a big meeting and we get a letter of introduction from Enterprise Ireland, something which states that they stand over us and are an investor in our company, then it provides us with good credibility.

“I’m very comfortable with how were doing it. All the signals are very good. Ours is a very niche market, you can’t just pump in advertising and marketing money and expect to clean up. Public safety is a very risk averse industry, you have to build trust and relationships, and we’ve done that very well.”

How R&D helps Reamda to protect the Irish Defence Forces

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The next time you see TV footage of the Irish Defence Forces dealing with a suspicious device at home in Ireland or in the Golan Heights, they will most likely be using equipment designed and manufactured in Tralee, by Irish company Reamda.

Reamda, which is an acronym for Robotic Electronic And Mechanical Development Agency’, was established by Padraig O’Connor in 2001, and since then has specialised in supplying military and engineering products to customers in both domestic and international markets. In particular, the company addresses the highly specialised field of robots for use in extremely hazardous situations, such as dealing with improvised explosive devices (IED) or evidence-gathering following a suspected chemical weapons attack.

“Padraig O’Connor had worked with a robotics company in Cork during the 1990s and when that company left Ireland he decided to set up Reamda,” explains R&D director, Julie Behan. “Our main customer is the Irish Defence Forces. When we started working with them, they were using HOBO robots to deal with suspicious devices. These were originally built in the 1970s and we got the contract to upgrade them to digital electronics.”

In 2012, the company won the contract to upgrade the mechanical aspects of the Defence Forces robots and this resulted in the development of the Reacher, Reamda’s latest robot. This highly versatile robot features a sliding turret and a low-profile arm, which can be manipulated into numerous positions, including over obstacles, below ground, and under vehicles.

Enterprise Ireland support derisked Reamda innovation project

Enterprise Ireland support was instrumental to the company’s success in winning that contract, according to Behan. “Over the years, we have received support from Enterprise Ireland in the form of Innovation Vouchers and an R&D grant,” she says. “The Innovation Vouchers allowed us to work on some small projects with the Institute of Technology Tralee. This resulted in us developing a relationship and we are now working with them in partnership on larger projects. We hadn’t made bigger platforms ourselves before winning this latest contract and the Enterprise Ireland support derisked the project. It allowed us to engage in the mechanical side of the robot and to spend the time and effort on its design and development.”

The new Reacher robot can be remote-controlled from up to 1 kilometre, with human operators shielded from harm. It also comes with a number of accessories and special features, one of which is a two-way drawer which can be used to house another Reamda device – the Remote Disruptor Robot (RDP).

“The Reacher has a payload bay which can carry a marsupial RDP robot and other tools and equipment,” says Behan. “The RDP was originally developed as an accessory to Hobo. It can go under vehicles to look for and disarm suspicious devices. It has a disruptor weapon on board which destroys the electronics in the device without detonating it.”

The Reacher is also armed with a disruptor and can carry sensors and forensic evidence-gathering tools into the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack. “We have been involved in a Horizon 2020 research project on forensic evidence-gathering using a robot platform,” Behan adds.

The company currently employs 20 staff, split roughly evenly between manufacturing and mechanical, electrical and software engineers involved in R&D. “Our main market has been the Irish Defence Forces up until now and we have been exporting through a channel partner in the UK who sells products around the world. We have also been exporting control systems to other robot manufacturers for the past 10 years. We will start looking in earnest for export markets for the Reacher once the Irish Defence Forces order has been delivered.”

IoT

Finding the 0.01% that moves the dial in IoT

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Robert Bushnell, Senior Development Adviser in Digital Technologies at Enterprise Ireland, describes how Irish companies are shaking up the fast-moving IoT sector.

As the much-hyped next wave of IT solutions, the Internet of Things (IoT) can, in theory, create a huge number of opportunities for Irish exporters across sectors. Over the last three years, however, it has become clear that, while IoT projects generate huge amounts of data, that is not always an advantage. 99% of data currently generated by IoT technologies is useless. 99% of the remaining 1% may potentially be useful but value cannot be extracted in a meaningful way. Can the remaining 0.01% actually make a difference to a business?

IoT is the slightly grandiose moniker given to a collection of technologies and equipment that connects things, as opposed to people, over the internet. An IoT project usually involves sensors, cloud, connectivity, and lots of data and analytics. There the futuristic pitch ends, as many IoT applications are more practical than first impressions might suggest. One of the most prominent Irish early movers in the area is Davra Networks, whose CEO Paul Glynn explains, “IoT simply means connecting assets that have not been connected before in order to tell management what is happening in their business.”

All Irish exporters active in IoT must ensure that the data they generate belongs to that crucial 0.01%. Many companies working in IoT sell on a Software-as-a-Service monthly subscription model. If the data generated is not moving the dial for clients, monthly payments will soon stop, and the large upfront costs incurred at the beginning of a project written off.

A number of Irish companies have found innovative ways to make themselves essential by delivering that 0.01% of meaningful data, saving lives and securing energy along the way. Davra Networks has implemented a potentially life-saving solution for a Mexican mining company. Mines contain reservoirs of water to help minimise dust. If those reservoirs overflow, lives are lost. Davra’s platform monitors reservoirs and builds in local weather data, opening pumps to prevent floods. Paul Glynn explains, “We build a digital twin of the reservoir – a digital version of a physical asset that changes the way it acts in the real world”.

A second fast-growing Enterprise Ireland-supported company active in the space is Asavie, who works with some of the world’s leading mobile network operators (including AT&T, Telefonica, Vodafone and Verizon) and hardware manufacturers (including Dell and MultiTech). Asavie makes secure connectivity simple for thousands of businesses, notably in the energy sector. In a critical and highly-regulated sector such as energy supply, having visibility and control of communications at all times is essential. Asavie has helped a global energy intelligence management company to securely connect thousands of industrial companies to energy utilities in order to offer on-demand, real-time energy demand response services that do just that.

Beyond those examples is a wave of innovative Irish companies ready to capitalise on the anticipated explosion in demand for IoT technologies. Cubic powers the IoT strategy of global companies including Audi and Panasonic, Taoglas delivers world-class antenna technology, and Druid Networks uses cellular IoT technology to work on Sweden’s zero car accident initiative, providing connectivity for high-speed trains, planes and container ports.

Analysts consider the IoT wave to be still in its early adopter stage, creating lots of potential for Irish companies, higher education institutes and the public sector to collaborate on the development of solutions. Enterprise Ireland’s IoT cluster works with Dublin’s local authorities on the SmartDublin project and is exploring partnerships in areas including ports and harbours, search and rescue technologies, and drones.

Ireland’s higher education institutions, such as the Connect Centre in Trinity College Dublin and the Nimbus Centre in Cork Institute of Technology, have dived into these opportunities head first, producing interesting work in areas such as specialist IoT communications and sensor layers.

The most important thing companies can do is focus on that 0.01% of data that makes them essential while others succumb to the hype.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

 

Enjoyed this article? Read more on IoT here.

Ceramicx Electronics

Invention, innovation, invoice: How Ceramicx uses Knowledge Transfer to win

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The Herschel machine test instrument, developed in a collaboration between Irish company Ceramicx and Trinity College Dublin won Ireland’s Collaborative Research Impact Award under the Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI) initiative.

Ceramicx won in a tough field, competing against Intel Ireland, Microsoft Ireland, Croke Park, C&F Group, DCU, and Dublin Institute of Technology. The win was testament to the company’s groundbreaking technology and its practical applications, as Ceramicx uses specialist knowledge to directly benefit customers.

In 2016, Ceramicx founders Frank and Grainne Wilson were finalists in the annual Plastics Industry Awards for their work in a capital equipment upgrade at international giant, Linpac Packaging. Ceramicx was also one of four winners selected by InterTradeIreland for a Project Exemplar award, only the latest in a series of its productive knowledge transfer liaisons.

 

Translating knowledge transfer into tangible results

This consistent success demonstrates how seemingly rarefied initiatives like knowledge transfer can translate into the most tangible results. It is no coincidence that in 2016, Ceramicx also signed its fifth Innovation Partnership with Enterprise Ireland, when Trinity College Dublin was selected as its academic partner.

Ceramicx Ltd has been established for over 25 years in West Cork and has been providing Infrared (IR) energy efficient solutions from 1994 – mainly for industrial users but also for consumers in the form of IR heating.

In the last 18 months, Ceramicx has been pursuing similar gains and benefits for the international composites industries, where double digit demand for lightweight materials and structures is helping drive aerospace, automotive, construction and many more sectors.

In short, the Ceramicx view is IR based energy futures are essential and inevitable. Ceramicx is playing its part in IR energy strategies of the future; and also creating a series of popular video presentations that will educate and inform all about the benefits of IR heating.

 

Knowledge transfer as ‘advanced common sense’

Frank Wilson, Founder and Managing Director of Ceramicx, describes the approach, “For me, knowledge transfer works best when treated as advanced common sense. Organisations like Knowledge Transfer Ireland help SMEs like us to connect with a world of academic expertise and institutions they might otherwise find difficult to access. KTI can help your company to focus clearly on what your specific project needs. You might want to implement a product process that no other company is using yet. The expertise and fresh perspective of academic specialists can be invaluable to helping realize those plans.”

Ceramicx follows several preliminary steps before embarking on innovation work, and before any third party, including academic institutions, is involved.

 

Do not try to reinvent the wheel

“The first question to answer is extremely practical,” says Wilson, “What is already out there? No one should try to reinvent the wheel. Do your research. Find out if someone is already supplying something, be it machinery or solutions, that already meets the need you identified. Then work from that.”

If no such service or solution exists, “the next best thing is to find the machine or solution that appears closest. Interrogate the technology and determine whether and how it could be adapted, modified, or changed to suit your purpose.”

In the third scenario, one in which Ceramicx regularly engages, “there is no existing machine or solution on the market – just your ideas. The task, then, is to engage with those ideas, plans and visions. It is also the scenario most likely to benefit from the involvement of academia. After all, who better to involve in ideas than ideas people who can argue a number of options from theoretical positions? And who, thanks to their fresh perspective, can think outside the box.”

This third scenario is also very high risk, Frank warns, “Although the rewards can be great, very few want to risk company time, money and energy on completely new, untested projects.

It is, therefore, essential to work and rework ideas to the point of near exhaustion and to attempt several theoretical dry runs on any project before cutting any metal or committing resources.

Collaborative thinking in this way, the Irish Meitheal approach if you will, is particularly good at airing and articulating ideas and avoiding expensive assumptions.”

 

Invention, innovation, invoice

The cross-functional team, the Meitheal within companies, is also essential for new projects. Any new manufacturing venture needs not only the expertise of engineers and scientist (To answer, “Can it be made?”) but also purchasing and cost mangers (“How much will it cost?”) and sales and marketing (“How and where will it sell?”).

“Ultimately”, Frank advises, “The knowledge transfer process should help sustain and encourage your vision. Always paint your own picture and have a simple end game in mind – invention – innovation – invoice.”

 

Read more about Enterprise Ireland’s innovation supports.

Seed supply causing concern for fintech start-ups

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A shortage of seed funding, and a concomitant need for larger Series A deals, are twin challenges facing Irish fintech start-ups.

Ireland: A Fintech Factory took place as part of MoneyConf 2018 at the RDS in Dublin, attracting more than 100 representatives from the global venture capital and financial services sectors.

Supporting the fintech sector is a national priority

“Enterprise Ireland’s focus on financial services is in line with the Irish government’s focus on it as a strategic sector,” said Leo McAdams, divisional manager financial services and business process outsourcing at Enterprise Ireland, introducing the event.

Ireland’s fintech sector is exciting and disruptive, he told delegates, and includes specialist subsectors such as payments, international compliance, regtech, and deeptech.

Recent years have seen a considerable increase in the number of fintech start-ups, many of which are supported by Enterprise Ireland.

PitchBook identified Enterprise Ireland as the third-largest seed investor in start-ups in the world. “That is quite an extraordinary effort from the organisation but is because we have such an excellent set of entrepreneurs here,” said McAdams.

Ireland’s world-class environment for fintech start-ups

Ireland offers a world-class environment for fintech start-ups too, a central part of which is the partnership engagement Enterprise Ireland offers, providing access to its portfolio of 200 fintech companies. As well as supporting innovation through its technology centres, Enterprise Ireland cofunds in partnership with VCs and banks.

A need to improve funding supply is becoming evident, delegates heard. While Ireland has benefited from significant amounts of capital inflows in recent years, it “hasn’t hit all points equally,” said Donnchadh Cullinan, manager, banking relations and growth capital at Enterprise Ireland. 

In particular, a gap at seed stage is emerging. This is having a knock-on effect on the later stages of a fintech start up’s funding journey, pointed out Nicola McClafferty an investor with Draper Esprit. The venture capital firm is based in London and Dublin and invests in early-stage and high-growth technology companies, from Series A upwards.

She, too, identified supply constraints in private capital for early stage investments as a challenge, pointing out too that, as a result, deal sizes in Ireland are increasingly anomalous in European terms.

“Enterprise Ireland is unique in a European context and that brings a significant advantage to Irish companies, but that gap is very real for broad scale, private capital at the seed stage,” she said.

This is despite the fact that, across Europe, there has never been so much private capital available at seed and growth stage level for companies. Its availability has caused European funding rounds to grow to a point where a previously typical €5 million Series A round is now more likely to be €10 million. Series B has gone from €10 million to €20 million, she said. 

This has not happened in Ireland, however, a fact which is not without consequence: “If you are looking at an Irish Series A company, against a UK or a French Series A company, the challenge is that there’s a lot more institutional seed funding available in the UK or France, to get companies further along to support a larger A raise. I often see Irish companies coming in to raise their €4 million A round, and you just don’t typically see that in the UK now,” she said.

Supporting Irish companies to compete globally

“What we need to do is to get companies to be able to compete at that level. It will open up even more external capital.”

Not getting to that point puts Irish start-ups hoping to raise seed funding in the UK at a disadvantage.

“Unfortunately there is a mindset of ‘You should be able to raise your seed capital locally and then go to international investors’,” said McClafferty. “If you haven’t managed to raise your seed locally, the feeling is that it says something about your company, rather than the local eco system.”

It’s a conversation she has had with seed investors in the UK. “Why can’t they raise in Ireland? is their question,” she said.

“Seed investment has shrunk in Ireland in the last year and it’s something we need to look at. Enterprise Ireland plays an amazing role but we need to see that matched from private capital to get these companies to a point where they can compete at an international level for funding.”

 

Enjoyed this article? Learn more on fintech opportunities here: Irish fintechs primed to shine with post-Brexit opportunity