New combined antenna solution helps Alpha Wireless maximise its potential

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“The Business Innovation Initiative funding allowed us to set up an advisory group of industry experts from across the globe. We worked with them to review the market, decide what technologies were needed and develop something new.”

– Fergal Lawlor, CEO, Alpha Wireless

 

Case Study: Alpha Wireless

“The telecommunications market is changing rapidly; 5G is on the way, and new antennas are required to provide increased data capacity while meeting new stringent environmental standards and legislation” says Fergal Lawlor. “We need our R&D team to consistently come up with innovative new products so we can stay relevant.” Lawlor is CEO of Alpha Wireless, an antenna manufacturer headquartered in Portlaoise.

Alpha Wireless, a recipient of RD&I funding and Business Innovation Initiative funding from Enterprise Ireland, develops and supplies a range of antennas that allow phone masts to communicate with devices such as smartphones.

The company is export-focused; approximately 90–95 percent of its sales are in overseas markets, with North America and Israel among the biggest. A recent round of funding from Enterprise Ireland, however, saw the company develop a product specifically to suit the needs of a market a little closer to home – the UK.

Throughout towns and cities, antennas for telecommunications are now being integrated with street infrastructure, rather than mounted on large masts. This is driven by environmental aesthetics, and is rigorously policed by national planning authorities. Alpha Wireless worked closely with its customers in the UK to design a new product tailored to follow the UK’s specific regulations. Enterprise Ireland’s Business Innovation Initiative funding was key to this effort.

Key Takeouts

  • Enterprise Ireland’s Business Innovation Initiative funding allowed Alpha Wireless to respond to an emerging market need, initially for the UK market, but with the potential to expand to other international markets.
  • RD&I funding helped the company to develop a new type of combined antenna solution.
  • The new product allowed the company to increase sales, exports and number of employees.

“The Business Innovation Initiative funding allowed us to set up an advisory group of industry experts from across the globe,” says Lawlor. “We worked with them to review the market, decide what technologies were needed and develop a new concept.”

Many of the challenges were not just specific to the UK market. The combination of the industry panel and a dedicated on-site R&D department helped the company to tailor its solution and break into the market. They needed to integrate multiple antennas into a cylindrical tube that sits on top of a street pole. “UK planning permission and zoning requirements meant that we had only a 330mm-diameter tube for all the required antennas,” explains Lawlor. The challenge was to get the antenna’s multi-band functionality into that space. The Alpha Wireless researchers needed to miniaturise the technology but keep as much of its functionality as possible.

“It took us six to nine months to design the combined antenna, which was intense in terms of R&D resources. The RD&I funding came in very useful during this period and helped us increase the size of our R&D team,” recalls Lawlor.

The result was a complete suite of antennas small enough to be mounted onto a lamppost, providing coverage at street level where it is really needed. The company’s focus on learning the needs of its market, and the resulting innovative technology, has paid dividends.

Since applying for the Enterprise Ireland funding in 2015, Alpha Wireless sales in the UK are now in the millions and it has more than doubled its Irish workforce to 120 employees. It’s not resting on these laurels, though; combined antenna solutions have global potential, and Alpha Wireless has begun selling variations elsewhere, including the US, Canada and Greece.

Lawlor is enthusiastic about the funding the company received from Enterprise Ireland and explains that the application process can help companies to think strategically. “We always keep our business plan up to date, so applying for the Enterprise Ireland funding was a simple task,” he says. “However, for a company that isn’t already forward-looking then the application will help, by providing an opportunity to think strategically and plan.”

Click here to learn more about Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation supports.

Africa Calling with Opportunity for Irish Exporters

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The reality of the business opportunity in Africa is often different to what SMEs first assume. Beyond the ‘glass half-empty’ headlines lies an expanding market in the second-fastest growing region in the world. Rapid growth has created opportunities for Irish exporters in key sectors such as international education, healthcare, ICT, telco, fintech and aviation.

The scale of the opportunity is evident in the market size alone. Eastern Africa is home to 460 million people, 6% of the world’s population. Kenya acts as an ideal gateway into the region’s target market of 250 million people, covering Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania, in addition to Kenya itself.

The market in the region is developing quickly in ways that benefit Irish businesses. Ethiopia’s economy continues to experience exponential growth, and Kenya, with its rising African middle class clustered mainly in urban areas. 30% of its middle class live in Nairobi, offering a dense market for exporters to the region.

The growth of the Kenyan middle class is creating opportunities for Irish exporters in sectors including education and healthcare. 400,000 African students travel abroad to undertake undergraduate and postgraduate studies every year, creating an enormous market for Ireland’s education sector. Uncertainty generated by Brexit has created huge potential for Ireland to increase the number of African students that study here. A number of Irish universities are leveraging opportunities in the sector. During a trade visit to Kenya, Griffith College signed a partnership agreement with Nairobi’s Riara University, which sees it support the education of the country’s growing youth population. Minister Coveney also awarded International Computer Driving Licence certificates to students who are among the country’s rising skilled workforce.

Irish companies are using innovative technologies to help improve the quality of the region’s medical care. Enterprise Ireland facilitated a multimillion agreement between Novaerus Ireland and Quinton’s Pharmacy, a Kenyan based company, which is set to change the landscape of infections control and prevention in East Africa. Through its partnership with Quinton’s, Novaerus is adding value to Kenya’s healthcare system, reducing the number of infections in hospital environments and creating cost savings of approximately €12 million.

Dublin-based company Vitro Software announced a multi-million US dollar contract with The Nairobi Hospital, one of the most prestigious private hospitals in East Africa. Vitro’s electronic medical record software helps reduce change management challenges and deliver better patient outcomes. Mr. Odundo of The Nairobi Hospital affirmed the importance of innovation to the partnership, saying, “This initiative will bear great testimony to our ability to be innovative in all matters that ensure the highest standards are met.” For Declan Daly, CEO Vitro Software, the agreement is a gateway to the broader East African region, “We are now well placed to grow, not just in Kenya, but to other sub-Saharan countries.”

A number of strengths make Kenya a great gateway for Irish exporters considering expansion to Africa. The port of Mombasa is a key transit point, not just for imports and exports to and from Kenya, but also to and from Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The national air carrier Kenya Airways flies to more than 50 destinations in Africa and has direct connections to Asia and Europe.

Recognising the potential of the market, Enterprise Ireland appointed a dedicated trade representative for Kenya, based in Nairobi. Furthermore, there are a number of planned conferences and trade missions, upcoming. Enterprise Ireland’s advisors can help companies to identify opportunities in East Africa, get introductions to Kenyan buyers and potential partners, and get informed about important procedures, market entry barriers and license requirements.

Ding credits innovation for growth

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“We looked at ways of automating our day-to-day operations so as much of the business as possible is focused on R&D and creating new features & products.”

– David Shackleton, CEO, Ding

KEY TAKEOUTS

  • Developing proprietary technologies led to huge competitive advantage.
  • New products and improved technology enhanced user experience and drove success.
  • Enterprise Ireland offices abroad enabled rapid expansion into foreign markets.

Case Study: Ding

Irish SME Ding offers consumers an easy way to deliver mobile top-ups to friends and family in over 130 countries. People can add data or minutes using the Ding app or website, or by walking into one of 600,000 stores worldwide.

The company allows users to deliver credit to phones from over 400 different operators, with a reach of four billion phones.

“It’s a simple idea, but the complexity becomes a huge challenge when you do it at scale,” explains Ding CEO, David Shackleton.

The company started selling phone top-ups in 2006, but with just a little marketing new customers quickly came on board.

“Back then we had a pretty clunky technology platform, but as people realised they could use this service to provide a gift in another country, word quickly spread,” recalls Shackleton. Ding is especially popular among expats with links to Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Ding received RD&I grants from Enterprise Ireland that were particularly crucial in its early days. “We were able to invest and build up proprietary technologies and push the envelope in terms of the platform’s scale, which has given us a massive competitive advantage,” says Shackleton.

The three major corridors for Ding’s business are currently North America to Latin and Central America, Europe to Africa, and the Middle East to Asia. With 190 employees, 130 of them in Ireland, the company had gross revenues last year of half a billion dollars. It continues to enhance the user experience by improving its technology. Shackleton believes that: “every pre-paid phone in the world – which is 85 per cent of phones – should have an app that’s able to do top-ups. That’s a huge opportunity.”

One project supported by an Enterprise Ireland grant illustrates how solving a complex problem can simplify life for consumers. A customer can walk into a shop, ask to put €5 onto a mobile phone number elsewhere in the world, and Ding handles the rest. “We developed a piece of technology that allows us to predict from somebody’s phone number which mobile operator they use,” says Shackleton.

“It’s a really nice, seamless experience for the user, but behind the scenes there’s a lot of complexity involved in doing it.”

The Enterprise Ireland funding pushed the company to think about what represented business as usual and what was innovative. “Recently, we looked a lot at ways of automating our day-to-day operations so as much of the business as possible is focused on R&D and creating new features,” explains Shackleton. Ding often releases over 20 updates in a single week, such as support for new mobile operators, improved user flow on Ding’s website, or improved content on the app. “You could develop an app for €10,000 but to be truly world-class and operate at scale, the backend system needs to be sophisticated, which takes millions of euros and years upon years of learning and development.”

The core platform runs hundreds of transactions every second, with a surge at peak times on Friday nights and Saturdays. The company also runs deep learning algorithms and machine learning to manage and monitor fraud, and underpin digital marketing initiatives. According to Shackleton: “We can do a reasonably accurate prediction of what a customer might be worth to us over time, which enables us to spend confidently in terms of digital marketing.”

Headquartered in Dublin, the company has regional offices in Miami, Dubai, Barcelona, San Salvador, Bucharest and Dhaka. Shackleton credits Enterprise Ireland offices abroad with allowing the company to expand to markets as diverse as Russia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia: “we couldn’t have done business in all those countries without their help.”

Irish companies aiming high

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Enterprise Ireland clients Gerry Mullins from pTools Software in Dublin and Paul McCarthy, Full Health Medical in Mayo have Europe, South Africa and UAE on their ambition list.

To learn more about Enterprise Ireland supports and for further information on our international office network click here

Iran: From Zero to Trading Hero?

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With the lifting of economic sanctions, Iran could well be THE global market growth story of the coming year

It isn’t often that a large and mature economy opens for business with half the world in one fell swoop. But that’s exactly what occurred, following the lifting of sanctions, on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Only the Saudi Arabian economy is currently bigger in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and Iran, with a population of some 80 million, almost two-thirds of whom are under 30, is poised to challenge for the number one spot in the coming years.

First Steps

Tehran Honorary Consul for Ireland in Iran Alireza Feizollahi says that a path is now being beaten to Iran’s door.

“Right now, if you want to book a hotel in Tehran, it’s almost impossible. Trade delegations are coming here every week from all over the world,” Feizollahi says. But he cautions that this is a highly regulated country and companies must carefully study the market to see how they can be successful.

Sean Davis, Enterprise Ireland’s Manager for the MENA region, has been closely following developments in Iran’s $400 billion economy. He points to a very real hunger in the Iranian business community for new technology and innovation to fuel economic development.

“Iran has been on the side lines of global growth for some time, and there is a huge appetite to redress that. All around, you get the sense of people driven to capitalise on the new opportunities.”

Given the closed nature of the economy in recent times, primary research, in the form of market visits and relationship building, is highly recommended. Davis stresses that preparation and planning are very important on every front, from securing the necessary business visa to identifying the best way to utilise your time there.

“Though English is commonly spoken, it doesn’t predominate. You won’t be able to use your ATM or credit cards, and Tehran is a very large and very busy city, and by no means cheap. Packing a short itinerary with meetings that criss-cross the city isn’t going to be a runner,” he warns.

Enterprise Ireland supported a number of exploratory visits, with sectors such as healthcare, aviation, agri-tech, education, ICT, financial services and fintech, all in the mix. Fintech is likely to be among the more immediate opportunities given that the country’s financial services sector requires considerable investment and upgrading as it reconnects with its peers across the globe.

For clients, Davis recommends the first step is to contact Enterprise Ireland itself. “We are building a contact base of people Irish companies can reach out to, who will help suggest meetings and allow them to hit the ground running.”

Search for Quality

Dr Amir Kordvani, a senior associate with international law firm Clyde & Co, advises on sectoral investments across the Middle East and recently undertook a detailed look at the potential Iran offers to companies across the business spectrum. “What Iranian businesses are looking for, and it will be a requirement to any procurement proposal, is to show that you are bringing the very latest know-how and technology to the country. They are not interested in something from 10 years ago,” he says.

Irish companies are frequently warned of long sales cycles when they enter a new market, but Kordvani’s view is that Iran could represent something of an exception. “It really depends on how strong you are in the area you are operating. However, generally, Iranians are very commercially minded, value strong relationships and are very frank and open, so it doesn’t take that long to build trust from that perspective.”

A final, but important, piece of advice is to recognise that, whatever field you operate in, the value of quality customer service as a differentiator cannot be overstated. “In the past, customer service has been very poor in Iran,” Dr Kordvani says.

“If you want to lead and exploit your opportunity, then you should prioritise your customer service and your after-sales support as much as the quality of your product. Companies that can do that will be very well rewarded in this market.”