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

 

Irish Dog Foods learns new market research tricks to target export growth

 Irish Dog Foods learns new market research tricks to target export growth

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When Irish Dog Foods needed to learn more about the relationship between man and his best friend, their first port of call was the Enterprise Ireland Market Research Centre.

The award-winning manufacturer has worked with Enterprise Ireland to develop innovative new product ranges for export during a relationship spanning more than 10 years – but the partnership has stepped up a level in the last two years.

Marketing Manager, Darren Keating explains: “Irish Dog Foods has used the Market Research Centre for every new market we’ve entered in the past two years – Portugal, Germany, Korea and Spain.

Excellent access to information

“The access to information they provide you with is excellent. They give you the tools and facilities to be better prepared when you move into new markets. As a company, you learn and benefit from the process of working with the Market Research Centre.

“We might be having a conversation internally about whether to put some effort into Poland or Denmark. At that point, we have some key questions to ask, such as what is the size of the market, who are the big players, is it dominated by retailers, is it dominated by pet stores, is it dominated by brands, or by private labels?

“One of the best avenues we would use to answer these questions would be the reports which are available at the Market Research Centre. They can give us access to data by company, sector, market and general country information. We still have to clean the data, but we wouldn’t be able to do it as professionally, quickly or as comprehensively without the facilities that the Market Research Centre provides.”

Knowledge it takes to break new markets

After more than 25 years in business and with around 50 exports markets globally, Naas-based Irish Dog Foods is one of the most recognisable names in pet food retail across the globe. However, this old dog is always keen to learn new tricks when it comes to breaking in to new international markets.

Darren explains: “When we launched in South Korea this year it was the result of 26 months of planning and preparation.

“One of the things we learned during our market research is that almost all the dogs are small – there are practically no large dogs in Korea because it’s mostly large population centres with apartment living. That meant we specifically targeted the owners of small dogs.

“We also learned that the average spend on pet food was very high in Korea, so we were able to target our very high-quality foods at the buyers and retailers. That information came from reports provided by the Market Research Centre. It meant that when we were making our pitches, we were knowledgeable, we were experienced, we knew what we were doing, and it was impressive in terms of the buyer listening to us.

“The impression the buyers got was, ‘these guys know what they’re doing. They’re not just throwing everything on the table, they have an understanding of what will work in my market. It wasn’t the reason why we got the business, but it was a big help and it did make our pitches more professional.”

New markets can be big revenue drivers

The new markets Irish Dog Foods has moved into recently are expected to become significant revenue drivers over the next five years, and the company plans to continue its work with the Market Research Centre.

Darren says: “Recently, we started thinking about targeting the Polish market. We want to know things like, what’s the percentage of dog-owning households, what’s the dog population, what is a consumption of dog food – and what about dry food versus wet food? We can get that information in reports from the Market Research Centre and it helps us really get into the detail of the dog food category in Poland.

“We can also use them for lead generation. Who are the top 20 retailers in Poland? Can I get a database of all the pet distributors in Poland? If we get 200 leads and there are 50 targetable leads after cleaning, then that’s a good start.”

“The Market Research Centre doesn’t do our work for us, but it does provide the material
for us to do our work – and that makes the process much easier.”

Learn more about Enterprise Ireland’s Market Diversification supports here.

 

Smart sourcing fintech talent

Smart sourcing pays dividends for fintech talent

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Irish companies must be flexible and innovative, in order to make the most of the talent pool here, delegates heard at Ireland: A Fintech Factory, an event hosted by Enterprise Ireland as part of MoneyConf 2018.

“In terms of accessing talent, we as recruiters need to start looking at moving away from demographics and the traditional boxes we put people in, and start looking at them in terms of values,” said Karl Aherne, director of strategic business development at Fexco.

“It’s about understanding your company’s values and then finding the right people based on values for those roles, irrespective of age or gender.”

A great country for homegrown and international talent

Not alone has Ireland got great homegrown talent, “it’s a great country to attract talent to as well,” said Paul Smith, co founder of Top Tier Recruitment, an agency that specialises in fintech and financial services recruitment.

As a recruiter, the uncertainty around Brexit is an opportunity to secure specialist skills from EU workers unsure about their future in the UK, he said.

Don O’Leary, head of EU operations and Ireland country lead at payments company Stripe, has been hiring significantly recently. “The talent has been extremely strong and, as a company that is trying to attract talent from all over Europe, it has been fantastic,” he said.

Untapped talent pools

And there are still large pools of talent as yet untapped, according to Vanessa Tierney, co-founder of Abodoo, a new career platform that connects employer with ‘smart workers’ – agile knowledge workers who want the flexibility to work from home, from local co-working hubs or on a hybrid model basis.

“Since launch, we’ve had thousands of really talented people register with us because people want choice. They don’t want to be commuting every day. There are a lot of skilled unemployed people out there – globally there are 200 million skilled professionals estimated to be not currently working,” she said.

Any start-up or scaling business has to make a strategic decision about how they recruit. Don O’Leary of Stripe said, “When you are looking at building an organisation of 200 to 300 people you can go in two directions. You can get people in on the ground by hiring a team of junior people and starting off the operations that you want to start. Or you can go for senior people who have the experience and the willingness to roll up their sleeves and get the job done themselves.”

If possible, go the latter route. “These people can do the initial work but can actually span as the organisation grows and have that strategic leadership and direction. They’re difficult to find but if you can find that type of hire early on in your organisation then you’ll really get control of the growth of your organisation as you scale out,” said O’Leary.

Stripe was able to do that successfully in Dublin, not despite the competing presence of Google, Twitter and Microsoft et al, but because of it, he said. “There was that 10 or 20 years of experience of building up these teams. There was that management bench strength that we were able to tap into, of people who wanted to come and join a small start-up at the time. That was a huge advantage for us starting out.”

Ireland’s key fintech strengths

It’s one of Ireland’s key strengths for fintech start-ups. “When you start looking at those initial contributor-type roles, Ireland still has that ability to attract talent. It still has that brand awareness across Europe as being a tech hub. And then for us, as a financial services company, we were able to tap into the bench strength of the financial services sector. Initially we were looking at more technical-type roles but as soon as we started building out the functions into risk and compliance we were able to tap into a wealth of experienced individuals that were already in the country.”

Locating in a rural area can help attract people who are looking for a different pace of life outside work, said Karl Aherne of Fexco, which employs 1000 people in Killorglin, Co. Kerry.

Ireland’s diaspora can also be better leveraged. “We have a massive pool of expats out there around the world, who are really looking for the right opportunity to come back to work,” said Paul Smith of Top Tier Recruitment.

Supporting smart working

Smart working can help, and Ireland has over 200 privately and publically owned co-working spaces, pointed out Vanessa Tierney of Abodoo. She estimates that many of those who left the country in the past five or six years would return home “if we could offer them careers, maybe in rural Ireland.”

A number of skilled parents and people with disabilities would like to work too, if they could do so in a flexible manner.  “We also have an aging population, many of whom don’t want to stop work completely when they get to 65, so the opportunity is huge.”

The biggest challenge is often one of company “mindset” – a reluctance to trust that the worker will work, and a perhaps outdated attachment to having an office. The traditional view is that the office is a requirement to ensure a company’s culture is maintained.

Not so, said Tierney, pointing out how successfully Canadian ecommerce enabler Shopify is employing hundreds of workers along Ireland’s western seaboard, without an office, as well as Apple’s rolling out of remote working teams.

This enables them to tap into “an unlimited talent pipeline”, she said. “I really think Ireland could become the smart working economy of the world. We could really set the pace globally.”

The Enterprise Ireland event was attended by more than 100 representatives from the venture capital and international financial services sectors in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the US.

 

Liked this article? Read more about Talent Management in our Exporter Stories

Key questions to ask at your Spanish and Portuguese Market Advisor meeting

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The combined population of Spain and Portugal is more than 10 times that of Ireland, while Iberia’s landmass is 7 times larger than Ireland’s.

If you are considering doing business in Spain or Portugal, your first step should be a call with our dedicated team.

  • What do you need from me to move this forward? Enterprise Ireland works with clients who have the potential to make an impact, by connecting with buyers and finding opportunities in the market. Irish client companies play a great role in this process too. To make the most of your opportunities in the Spanish and Portuguese market, ask your MA what you can do to move the process forward and ensure success.
  • What kind of timeline are we working with? Different markets work on different timelines. Winning business in this market requires dedication over time; developing your relationship with a buyer in Spain or Portugal is as important as any business negotiation. Ask your MA what kind of timeline you should expect when entering this market. That way you can be prepared for the different steps and milestones in the process.
  • What should our buyer persona look like? Knowing who you want to sell to in this market is very important. It is essential to understand the dynamics of your target market. With the help of your MA, decipher what your buyer persona looks like and work to adapt your pitch to that persona. While this can vary within the market (especially in Spain’s autonomous regions), legitimate and specified buyer personas can be useful in identifying who to approach in market first.

Enterprise Ireland is committed to helping Irish firms succeed in global markets and have industry experts on hand, ready to help you access the Spanish market.

Our Market Advisors are always available to support you and provide business expertise and on-the-ground knowledge.

For more, download our Going Global Guide

Enterprise Ireland’s top tips for entering the Spanis and Portuguese markets can be viewed by clicking the graphic below.

Key questions to ask at your UK Market Advisor meeting

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Enterprise Ireland is playing a key role in supporting ambitious companies seeking opportunities in the UK.

If you are considering doing business in the UK, please be sure to reach out to our team in London.

  • What are the associations and organisations I should be speaking to in the UK?
  • Who are the key stakeholders in my sector in the UK?
  • What are the major considerations for buyers in my sector in the UK beyond price?
  • How do I need to present my company in the UK to challenge domestic competition in the market?
  • Who are the potential competitors for my business in the market? How strong is their foothold in the market?
  • What are the differences between how my sector operates in Ireland vs the UK?
  • What is the post-Brexit outlook in the sector?
  • How are Irish companies viewed in the UK?
  • What are the benefits of a UK based office? virtual or physical?
  • What do I need to do to set up a UK registered company?
  • What are the key sources of UK market information in my sector?
  • What supports can Enterprise Ireland UK provide in the market?

For more, please reach out to the MA here and be sure to check out our Going Global Guide

Enterprise Ireland’s top tips for entering the US market

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Ireland enjoys a unique advantage in trading with the US because of our deep historical links, in fact, it is Ireland’s second-largest export market, with almost 800 Irish companies operating across the United States.

If you are considering doing business in the US, please be sure to explore our tips to enter the market below and also be sure to reach out to our dedicated team.

  • The US is the world’s largest economy and is it the most competitive market in the world. Ensure your value proposition is differentiated before you try to acquire customers.
  • The population of the State of Alabama is the same as the entire Republic of Ireland, while Ireland’s GDP is similar to that of Colorado. It may be of benefit to take a more regional approach to your US market development, and not just gravitate to the main cities and economic centres. Spend some time understanding where the largest market opportunity and highest concentration of your customers may be.
  • Building rapport is very important in the US. Spend time developing relationships with your key target customers/buyers.
  • Attention to detail is valued in US business culture. US buyers will expect high-quality sales & marketing collateral, and it’s important that your collateral is updated with US-specific grammar and spelling.
  • Approach the market with a “customer needs” perspective not a “product” or “technology” perspective. What is the problem you are trying to solve with your product or service?

For more be sure to check out our Going Global Guide 

If you would like to know what to prepare ahead of your first MA call, click the graphic below

Spotlight on Skills

Skills in the Spotlight for Irish Companies

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Helen McMahon, senior executive for client skills at Enterprise Ireland, describes what Irish companies can gain from focusing on the critical skills required for growth.

With national and international competition for talent heating up, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Irish companies to attract and retain talent, across all functions of their business. Most Irish companies know that their performance and growth could benefit dramatically from access to a skilled workforce.

Many find it more difficult to define the critical skills they need to align with their strategic priorities. Companies can also find it challenging to assess which specific skills could have the greatest impact on the immediate and long-term growth of the business.

Enterprise Ireland has partnered with the Irish Management Institute (IMI) to deliver Spotlight on Skills, a series of one-day workshops that are run regionally and designed to help ensure that each company’s workforce has the capabilities required to support export growth and long-term strategic development.

Spotlight on Skills is supported by the Department of Education and Skills and is designed to help companies to get a response to their needs from national and regional education and training providers.

To date 76 companies, employing 10,012 people, have taken part in the workshops. Outcomes are both immediate and long-term, with the focus falling on identifying critical gaps across the whole company.

Kevin Clarke, General Manager at Green Isle Foods, describes the benefits of the programme for firms. “Our company’s growth and development is clearly impacted by our access to a skilled workforce,” he said. “The Spotlight on Skills workshop supported us to strategically explore the critical skills we need now and into the future for business growth. It helped us to define the actions we need to put in place for staff-resource planning into the future.”

Roisin Johnson, Head of HR at Ammeon, described the programme as “a practical workshop that provided a toolkit of techniques to help us identify our training needs and support the achievement of our strategic goals by building our company and our people’s capabilities. Spotlight on Skills is a straightforward framework that can be brought back into any workplace and used over and over again. We highly recommend the workshop to Irish companies.”

Spotlight on Skills also helps participants to think strategically about how they can attract and retain talent and develop career pathways for existing employees. Opportunities to upskill and reskill an existing workforce are highlighted and actions that can help to attract the talent needed to drive growth are identified. If a company is suffering from the loss of skilled staff who are departing for rival firms for career reasons, developing avenues for progression within the company can be impactful. Creating opportunities for staff to progress their career within the company can also be attractive to new talent.

Embracing opportunities to upskill and reskill existing employees can reduce the time required to onboard new talent to address shortages. The company report developed through Spotlight on Skills may indicate that existing employees could benefit from mentorship, coaching or other development opportunities. Companies are advised about programmes that can help meet skills needs quickly and get an opportunity to influence the development of new programmes to develop a skills pipeline.

In the longer term, Spotlight on Skills will help to bridge the gap between the priorities of Irish enterprise and the curricula of education and training providers. After a company has developed its report, the Spotlight on Skills team can facilitate contact with regional skills managers working for the DES who can help them to engage with education and training providers in their region.

The programme gives companies a strong voice on their needs. As a significant volume of critical skill needs is identified, providers can be encouraged to update their curricula, create programmes and develop additional apprenticeships or more learning opportunities.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

Bright Horizons for Irish Innovators

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Sean Burke of Enterprise Ireland describes the factors that enabled Ireland to achieve one of the highest success rates for the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument in Europe.

There are areas of innovation we excel at in Ireland and results that prove it. At 13%, Ireland has one of the highest success rates for the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument in Europe, compared to the EU average of 6%.

Horizon 2020 is the EU’s €80 billion programme to support research and innovation, which launched in 2014. A 7-year programme, it is due to end in December 2020. Ireland’s overall success rate exceeds the EU average, with €475 million in funding secured to date for more than 1,100 successful applications by 536 higher education researchers and 430 Irish companies.

The SME Instrument funds the programme’s most commercial applications and is designed to support innovative companies to realise global ambitions and turn strong business ideas into market leaders. Its commercial focus helps companies to convert findings from cutting-edge research into a productised offering for international markets. Delivering grant funding in the range of €1-€2.5 million to support 70% of project costs, no repayment or equity dilution is required. Those conditions make the SME Instrument very attractive to companies with ambitions to internationalise.

The programme is highly competitive. Only 6% of the 31,000 European companies that applied were successful. Projects that succeed are truly innovative, with the potential to disrupt the marketplace. Approval has become a mark of pedigree on an international scale. A successful application can be transformative, elevating a company into the position of market leader. Successful companies span sectors, with big winners in areas including biotech, energy, agriculture, food sustainability, health and environment.

Eight Irish companies were among 210 European SMEs that achieved Phase 2 funding of Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument in 2017. Securing €15.45 million between them from a budget of €297 million, they include companies like AltraTech, Axonista, Soapbox Labs, and SwiftComply.

Axonista received €1.7m in funding in 2017 to develop its interactive video technology product, Ediflo, which enables customers to bring multi-platform interactive story-telling experiences to market faster. COO Dee Coakley explains, “Our product originally served large enterprises through direct sales made by the founders. Horizon 2020 allowed us to hire product development specialists and build a team focused on simplifying the enterprise product for a broader market. New verticals include media companies and brands that want to deliver interactive experiences, using existing video content to better engage audiences.”

The Instrument’s application process thoroughly assesses each company’s proposed innovation-led solution and its potential to achieve market penetration. Project support covers every stage of the business acceleration lifecycle, from business definition to planning and execution leading to full commercialisation.

Axonista’s Horizon 2020 proposal was strengthened by Research & Development work they had recently undertaken. Dee explains, “The R&D grant we received from Enterprise Ireland really helped. The application for Phase 2 funding asks if you have undertaken feasibility research. Being able to describe what you learned from an R&D project and how it helped to identify an opportunity or develop a solution delivers a robust proposal.”

Enterprise Ireland leads the Irish Horizon 2020 National Support Network, the expertise of which acts as a resource for new and seasoned applicants. Enterprise Ireland’s team helps companies to determine the best Horizon 2020 programme to meet their needs, prepare for their initial engagement, and provides feedback to improve the draft proposal. The objective is to build on Ireland’s strong track record and provide hands-on assistance to Irish researchers and companies that participate in the programme.

All innovative Irish companies with an eye on international expansion should apply. An award of up to €2.5 million and the mark of pedigree that Horizon 2020 brings changes a company’s prospects. As Dee concludes, “From an investor’s perspective, securing Horizon 2020 is a validation of the business and your ambitions. Investors know that an investment of nearly €2 million has been made to push your offering past the competition. That validation gives you a lot of leverage.”

Enterprise Ireland’s Sean Burke works with Jill Leonard to support the SME Instrument and Fast Track to Innovation actions in the new European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot in Horizon 2020.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

Local Enterprise heroes

Following in the footsteps of Local Enterprise heroes

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For many companies, becoming an Enterprise Ireland client is a significant step on a journey that started at a regional level. Local Enterprise Offices throughout Ireland provide supports, advice and training to start-up companies and existing micro-enterprises of up to ten employees. It is in this environment that experience is gained and vital lessons are learned which allow companies to prepare for growth and to take their ambition global.

A recipe for successful growth to €21 million annual turnover

It was in 1993 that a young man from Clonakilty got in touch with his Local Enterprise Office (LEO) in West Cork to ask if they could help him turn his business idea into a reality. Diarmuid O’Sullivan wanted to produce traditional churn-made yogurts. He knew how to make yogurts but he didn’t have enough funding to get the venture off the ground.

“I had the idea but not enough money,” Diarmuid recalls. “I heard there was funding available from the Local Enterprise Office, so I contacted them and put in an application. The maximum support they could provide at the time was £50,000 and the LEO in Clonakilty was able to help me put my ideas into a business plan to help secure funding.

“I also received quite a lot of mentoring and coaching. That was all done at concept stage – I hadn’t even identified a production site – but the support meant that I was able to get Irish Yogurts up and running by March 1994.”

Diarmuid’s yogurt-making idea was a recipe for success. His company grew quickly and its products were soon on the shelves of Irish food shops and supermarkets.

“In one of those early years, we grew by about 78.5%. That brought its own challenges, with regard to working capital. The Local Enterprise Office suggested that I move onto Enterprise Ireland, where there were financial supports for fast-growing companies which were creating jobs.

“We hadn’t really focused on exports, not at that stage. That came after we started working with Enterprise Ireland. Our first export customer in the UK was Tesco.”

This progress was recognised in 1998, when Irish Yogurts was named winner of Ireland’s first ever National Enterprise Award. In just a few years, it had gone from being a bright idea with insufficient funding to becoming an award-winning food producer.

Today, Irish Yogurts employs 160 people at its Clonakilty base and sells to every major supermarket chain in the UK and Ireland. Its annual turnover has grown from €300,000 to €21 million, with exports accounting for 30% of their business.

“We appreciate the input of the Local Enterprise Office and Enterprise Ireland, who supported us and our staff every step of the way,” Diarmuid says. “We still work with them and avail of supports and advice. Enterprise Ireland is very much a part of our team.”

A roll of honour

Irish Yogurts is one of hundreds of companies from every corner of Ireland that have transferred from Local Enterprise Office support to become Enterprise Ireland clients. Last year, 80 companies made the move. In 2016, the figure was 40. The roll of honour includes 10 other former winners of the National Enterprise Awards:

It is a track record that the Local Enterprise Offices are proud of. Oisín Geoghegan, chair of the network of Local Enterprise Offices, said, “It’s one of our targets to transfer companies to Enterprise Ireland – it’s progression. Companies which transfer into Enterprise Ireland are companies with growth ambitions to be exporting and creating jobs, which is incredibly important, particularly for the regions. So we would see it as an indicator of success when a company moves on to Enterprise Ireland.”

Local expertise supporting global ambition

Engineering services provider Obelisk engaged with their Local Enterprise Office in Cavan, even before they set up the company in 1996. Four years later, Obelisk won the National Enterprise Award.

Founder director Colm Murphy said, “We were looking to capitalise on the growth of mobile phone usage by offering installation services for operators. The people in our LEO understood the idea that opportunity was coming down the track. That gave us the confidence that our idea was good and could to grow into something big.

“They had an incubator office which we were able to rent and provided grant aid for early employees. They also provided us with advice about how to set up a company, and other supports such as training and mentoring – there was a lot more to it than financial support.”

The support has been paying off ever since, Colm says. “Last year we turned over €27 million. Employee numbers are between 250 and 300 people. We’ve expanded to include infrastructure solutions for fixed telecoms and the energy sector in Ireland, the UK, and South Africa.

“We want to continue growing. We’re looking for further investment. Over the next two to three years, we’re looking to hit the €100 million mark in sales. Exports are currently a third of our turnover but we expect that to become a 50/50 split.”

So what part did being able to access business expertise and support at a local level play in the company’s success? “Back in 1996-97, we would have found it difficult to kick-off from a zero base,” Colm explains. “We were just a couple of guys with an idea, and sometimes going for funding and that kind of stuff can be daunting. But when you get the kind of support that we did from the Local Enterprise Office, that’s a massive kick start.

“I would recommend that any company should be in touch with their Local Enterprise Office. They’ve always been good at describing the product set they have and how they support you. If you don’t ask, you don’t get and if you’re not engaging with them then you won’t necessarily be aware of new supports that are on offer.”

Reassurance and support

The view that “if you don’t ask then you won’t get” is shared by John Lynch, Chief Technology Officer of Acutrace. The Dublin tech company provides software and hardware which allows companies to control and monitor their energy usage. They count the likes of Google, Twitter and IBM among their customers.

Founded in 2015, Acutrace wasted no time in contacting their Local Enterprise Office in South Dublin. John says, “We reached out to the Local Enterprise Office immediately and they were brilliant. They gave us an employment grants and we managed to employ two engineers under that scheme. Within the first three months, we were exporting to London.

The company was growing quickly and the Local Enterprise Office was instrumental in steering Acutrace towards Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-up (HPSU) programme.

John says, “Once we learned the criteria for the HPSU, we used that as our yardstick to reach for. We knew we had to have significant exports, we knew we had to have a scalable product that would generate employment and we needed to have the magic number of a turnover of €1 million, so it was a good objective to hit and we exceeded the target that year.

“By the end of 2016, we had turned over more than €1.5 million and we were exporting 40% of a product that was created in Ireland to the UK.”

The advice, professional support and reassurance they received has left a lasting impression on John and Acutrace.

He says, “I’m coming off the back of 20 years in the industry and so is my business partner Aidan, but it’s a little bit different when it’s your own enterprise – the risks are higher and there’s an isolation you feel, it can be profound. Then you engage with your Local Enterprise Office and you feel part of something, that you’re being protected or mentored.

“There’s funding and that’s important, but it’s also having that extra bit of confidence that there’s someone else behind you who has your back, that if you are going to create employment, well there’s someone there who’s grateful for that and they’re helping you, and they’re encouraging you.”

“You might be destined for Enterprise Ireland but until you hit that criteria the LEOs will mentor you and steer you in the right direction.”

Working hand in hand

That direction involves advice and supports, which evolve and change to meet the needs of encouraging start-up companies and other micro enterprises of ten or fewer employees, says Oisín Geoghegan.

“We provide a very broad range of supports – initial business advice, information and guidance, training and mentoring, and financial supports such as feasibility, priming or expansion grants. It can include money to employ people or towards marketing costs, business development, and so on.

“We also point entrepreneurs and companies in the direction of other supports that are available, such as the New Frontiers incubation programme and Innovation Vouchers from other agencies such as Failte Ireland, Intreo, Bord Bia and Microfinance Ireland.”

“For companies with strong growth ambitions, we work hand in hand with Enterprise Ireland on their journey and ensure that they make that contact at an appropriate stage so their development continues to be supported.”