Social media USA

Social media #success in the USA

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

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.”

IoT

Finding the 0.01% that moves the dial in IoT

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.

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

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

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.

 

Channel sales

Channelling Success with Channel Strategy

Máire P. Walsh, SVP Digital Technologies at Enterprise Ireland’s Silicon Valley office, explains how an effective channel sales strategy can give Irish companies a wide international reach.

The business plans of start-up companies often focus on direct sales, aiming to sell as many products and solutions to as many consumers and end users as possible. The right channel sales strategy can, however, give Irish companies of all sizes and stages of maturity a wider reach, helping them to grow more quickly than a business plan that relies on direct sales alone. A successful channel strategy enables Irish exporters with unique technologies to harness sales opportunities at scale, driving business results in the US market and beyond.

Enterprise Ireland recently held a Sales and Channel Strategy Seminar in Dublin, which featured US industry thought leaders and senior executives, and was designed to advise and guide high performing Irish start-ups to expand into the US through the channel ecosystem. World-class experts on sales planning and channel strategy shared tips and success stories, while the event showcased a number of Irish companies that are already capitalising on the potential of the channel ecosystem to drive rapid growth.

Irish companies can apply insights shared by the event’s global speakers to use a smart channel sales strategy to quickly grow their business.

A “Best Practices in Channel” panel featured Kevin Morata, Global Channel Strategy at Dell EMC, Gerard Sheridan, Global OEM Sales Director at DataStax, and Kurt Hoppe, Global Head of Innovation at GM. The panel discussed how true collaboration is key to building successful relationships with channel partners. Companies should be aware that not all channel partners are created equal. With 20% of partners driving 80% of sales, Irish companies should allocate more time and resources to partners that will help to maximize business results. One tip for building trust is to feed leads to new channel partners at the beginning. That will allow them to gain experience in selling your product while developing a strong understanding of your value proposition.

Tiffany Wagner, Global Head of Sales Planning at SAP, described how a successful strategy must focus on your value proposition, rather than on the features and functions of your solution. At SAP, design thinking is key to well-orchestrated enterprise sales planning programs. All enterprise sales require a “3 x 3” influence model – three decision makers and three influencers must contribute to the process.

Insights were shared by Irish companies, including AltoCloud, Channel Mechanics and PlanNet21 Communications, that have scaled by partnering with the channel ecosystem. Kenneth Fox, Channel Mechanics CEO, described the three points of the channel triangle:  vendors, distributors and partners. The Channel Mechanics solution sits at the centre of the triangle, providing automation that runs the entire ecosystem.

Barry O’Sullivan, AltoCloud CEO, described how his company was formed with the channel in mind. Leveraging the business and personal relationships of partners has allowed AltoCloud to build a strong partner channel. One tip for Irish exporters is to have a ‘corporate vendor resources’ presence in the US and not attempt to drive it from Ireland.

When launching as an ambitious company almost 20 years ago, PlanNet21 Communications convinced partners to accept them into their channel program. The strategy has delivered revenues close to €50m, with the company on a mission to hit €100m within the next two years. Denise Tormey, co-founder of PlanNet21 Communications, described the strategy that drove their success, “Trust is hard won. We manage communication face-to-face, over the phone and by mail, to build those interpersonal relationships. We listen. We respond in a timely manner. We ask ‘Why?’ We care. We are true partners.”

The insight echoed the guidance of many of the day’s Irish and US speakers. A foundation of trust must be established to build effective relationships. Otherwise channel partner alliances are destined to fall flat and fail to deliver the growth promised. For channel strategy support, contact Enterprise Ireland’s Strategic Marketing Review program, which acts as a mechanism to review and develop your market development strategy overseas.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

Smart sourcing fintech talent

Smart sourcing pays dividends for fintech talent

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

Setting up shop stateside: How to establish a US business entity

If you are an Irish company setting up in the United States, taking time to organise operations properly is essential.

Going Global USA: Learn your Legals is a concise and yet comprehensive guide to the most important elements you should consider, covering how to manage taxation, visas and immigration, and trade and customs. In this deep dive, learn how best to approach establishing a US business entity.

How to establish a US business entity

Setting up in the US without adequate research and planning exposes your company to the risks of litigation and state and federal taxation penalties.

To qualify to do business in the United States, you must, at the very least, have a registered branch office in the country. Choosing the branch office option can, however, make the parent company in Ireland a more visible target for lawsuits and legal claims, and liable for US federal, state, and local income taxes.

Form a distinct US legal entity

It is more prudent, and in the long run more cost-effective, to form a distinct US legal entity, be it either a US business corporation, known as a C-Corp, or a US limited liability company (LLC).

A C-Corp is similar in structure to an Irish limited company and is usually a better option than an LLC for overseas businesses. While there are tax advantages to forming an LLC, they apply to individual shareholders rather than shareholding parent companies. As C-Corp shareholders are perceived to be more ‘separate’ from the everyday activities of the company, C-Corp owners tend to be less exposed to litigation, and to have more limited liability.

Remember, however, that C-Corp profits can be taxed twice, under the US ‘double taxation’ system.  Firstly, at federal and at state level, a C-Corp is assessed for corporate income tax on profits. Then, if the company chooses to distribute earnings, shareholders will pay capital gains tax on dividend income.

On the plus side, C-Corps are familiar entities to both customers and institutional investors, are scalable, and can be made public. And as most early stage companies reinvest profits to fund growth, when dividends are not issued, double taxation is not a major concern.

US location, location, location

Wherever you plan to do business in the United States, it is probably best to set up in the State of Delaware, where legislature deservedly enjoys a reputation for having America’s most business-friendly laws.

Delaware is one of only five US states with a separate non-jury Court of Chancery, with judges focused solely on business law. The Chancery Court is also unlikely to interfere in arrangements where signed corporate agreements are already in place.

Unlike in other states, shareholders and directors of Delaware-registered corporations do not have to be Delaware residents. In addition, Delaware corporate law applies to Delaware corporations no matter where they actually operate, or where their physical headquarters are located.

Delaware also offers favourable taxation laws. The state does not tax royalty payments and non-residents are not liable for personal income tax, including capital gains tax on dividend income.

While it may cost less to register a business in other states, potential short-term savings should be off-set against the long-term legal certainties that the Delaware legislature provides.

As easy as ABC Delaware: How to form a C-Corp or LLC

There are four steps to forming a C-Corp or an LLC in Delaware.

  • Firstly, check online that your preferred choice is available and decide on a business name for your corporation or LLC.
  • Secondly, appoint a registered agent to receive service of process and other correspondence on behalf of your company. If you have a Delaware address (which must be more than a PO box number), you can do it yourself. Otherwise, you can appoint an attorney or an accountant as a registered agent, or you can use a registered agent service company, which will charge you as little as $50 for their services.
  • Thirdly, file a Delaware Certificate of Corporation that includes the name of the corporation, the name and address of its registered agent, the purpose of the corporation, and the total number of shares that the corporation is authorised to issue. The fee for filing this documentation is $89 (at time of writing), if all your information is contained on one page. Otherwise, an extra $9 is charged for each additional page.
  • Lastly, you must remain ‘in good standing’, which requires you to file an annual report and pay a franchise tax. That part is crucial. If a Delaware corporation loses its good standing, it loses its limited liability shield, and the corporation’s creditors can make claims on shareholders’ personal assets.

Franchise tax is not based on income. It is based on overall share value and is assessed using two methods: the authorised share capital method and assumed par value capital method.

It is important to take professional advice to avoid paying more franchise tax than is necessary. If you authorise a large number of shares but only issue a small portion of them, or if the shares have no par value, you could end up with a franchise tax bill for tens of thousands of dollars. A corporation with 5,000 or fewer authorised shares, will pay at least the minimum franchise tax fee of $175 annually.

Foreign qualifications

If your US company is conducting business in any state other than the state in which it is incorporated (for example, outside Delaware), it will most likely also need to register in each additional state, in a process known as ‘foreign qualification’.

As the rules for foreign qualification vary from state to state, consult with a business lawyer or, at the very least, conduct some research on the state’s Department of State website. Foreign qualification involves additional paperwork and expense. A Delaware corporation applying to do business in New York will spend at least $334 to obtain all required certification.

Note that, whether you file a foreign qualification or not, a company deemed to be doing business in a particular state will be subject to state income taxes in that state. However, there are states, such as Texas, where generous tax-free allowances mean that most small businesses pay little or no state income tax.

Talk to your Enterprise Ireland advisor to get advice on setting up your company’s presence in the United States or read more in Going Global USA: Learn your Legals

Retail tech USA

Irish companies shop innovative tech solutions to US retail sector

Eva Murphy Ryan, market executive for education and technology based in Enterprise Ireland’s New York office, explains how Irish companies are poised to disrupt the fast-moving US retail tech sector.

From the rise of data analysis and personalisation to voice recognition applications, new technologies are continually changing the retail landscape. With brands and retailers feeling an increasing pressure to stay ahead of the competition, the retail technology sector in the US represents a significant and growing opportunity for Irish exporters. The scale of that opportunity is huge, with the US retail industry already estimated to be worth $2.6 trillion. (Source: National Retail Federation)

While the US has long been a hub for digital technology, innovation is now poised to transform the ways in which consumers shop. This month, US retailer Nordstrom acquired two retail tech companies, integrating new tools to further improve customer experience. These acquisitions enable Nordstrom sales associates to communicate with customers outside of the store, offering style advice and personalised product recommendations, while strengthening Nordstrom’s ability to send consumers customised mobile messages.

With US giants such as Nordstrom and Amazon viewing tech integration as the future of retail, we have begun to see Irish companies target growing opportunities in the US. Hannah Webb, Head of Retail Technology for Enterprise Ireland in the USA, comments “Retail technology companies in Ireland understand the challenges that US retailers face. They provide highly advanced platforms and innovative solutions that address issues, such as how to track online to instore purchases, how to manage data analysis, and deliver enhanced customer experiences.” 

Three such companies supported by Enterprise Ireland are VisitorM, Pointy and Voysis.  

Limerick start-up VisitorM bridges the gap between physical and digital customer experiences. Touchscreen stations allow customers to provide feedback on their in-store shopping experience at the point-of-sale. VisitorM’s technology is soon to be used by shoppers in the US under a new deal with established clothing retailer Old Navy.

A second innovative Irish start-up, Pointy, makes it easy for local shops to display their full product range online, enabling them to be found by local consumers on search engines like Google. The solution helps retailers to reach a much wider audience and drive in-store visits. In the US, more than 2,000 retailers across 50 states currently use Pointy, with the company on track for adoption by 1% of all US retailers by the end of 2018.

Irish start-up Voysis helps retailers to respond to Alexa and Amazon’s position in the market. The brand-specific platform that Voysis provides adds voice capabilities to websites and mobile apps, delivering a more conversational experience to consumers, that moves beyond the use of smart speakers. Voysis aimed to replicate the experience of speaking to an in-store associate, allowing their solution to be just as helpful and knowledgeable about the context of what the consumer seeks while shopping. With the prediction that, by 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches, solutions like Voysis are shaping the consumer experience now and informing the future of retail. (Source: comScore)

Showcasing Irish innovation and building strong networks with keys buyers are important steps to growing business in the US retail tech sector. With support from Enterprise Ireland, these companies and others from Ireland’s retail tech cluster have the opportunity to present their solutions at major US trade shows, such as NRF Big Show, which attracts 40,000 attendees, and Shoptalk, attracting 8,500 attendees. David Andreasson, Director of Finance and Operations at Voysis, comments, “At Shoptalk, one of the largest retail conferences in the world, brands immediately saw the value of what we provide and the experiences that are brought to life through the Voysis platform.”

With retail evolving rapidly, brands and sellers, from the established to the emerging, will continue to source innovation and technology that will help them compete into the future. As Irish technology companies continue to target the US retail market, they will succeed by promoting strong and highly differentiated value propositions.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent.

Spotlight on Skills

Skills in the Spotlight for Irish Companies

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.

Local Enterprise heroes

Following in the footsteps of Local Enterprise heroes

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.”

KTL Lean transformation

When KTL targeted growth, they focused on competitiveness

KTL Lean transformation

“..agility can come at a significant cost to the bottom line. Lean allowed us to optimise and standardise most key business processes.”

Niall Byrne, Director KTL

Key Takeouts:

  • KTL is a leading provider of engineering services to the telecommunications and utility sectors.
  • By implementing Enterprise Ireland’s Lean transformation programme, KTL has increased turnover by 30% in the last four years.
  • After standardising their customer acceptance process, KTL allowed customers to onboard solutions much faster and more efficiently, which vastly improved their competitiveness.

Case Study: KTL

Enhanced competitiveness has enabled engineering services firm KTL to achieve significant gains in both turnover and profitability. Since implementing an Enterprise Ireland-supported Lean transformation programme four years ago, turnover has increased by 30% to €40 million, while 1.5% has been added to net margins.

The Naas-headquartered company currently employs 300 people and is recognised as a leading provider of engineering services to the telecommunications and utility sectors, working primarily with mobile network operators, electricity network operators, and major equipment vendors. With operations in Ireland and the UK, KTL’s reach extends to projects in Europe and Latin America.

“We came from small beginnings,” says Director, Niall Byrne. “The company was founded in 1998, as a small civil contractor working out of a house and yard in Maynooth with 15 people. We started out just as the mobile networks were beginning to take off and we were well positioned to serve that market. I’m not sure if we fully realised that at the time. Digifone was our first mobile network customer and we added Vodafone shortly after that. We then moved into power infrastructure.”

Today, KTL works with leading blue-chip clients in the UK and Ireland, including Vodafone, Three, Telefonica, EE, ESB, Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE), and SSE Renewables.

“We see ourselves as a design and build partner for our customers when they are upgrading their networks or installing new technologies,” Byrne points out. “Our focus is on delivering value to customers. We have been an innovative company since we started and have always looked for ways to improve. We began working with Enterprise Ireland in 2008, when we were starting out on our international journey. We worked with them on market research and feasibility studies at that stage.”

Plans for growth inspired focus on operational excellence

In subsequent years, Enterprise Ireland also assisted the company in the implementation of growth plans.

These growth plans led the company to seek ways of improving its competitive position. “We stood back and took a look at the business and at our competitiveness and capability,” Byrne adds. “With the support of Enterprise Ireland, we embarked on a LEAN transformation programme in 2014. We had always tried to be an agile company. We have to be, because we work in a very fast-moving sector. But that agility can come at a significant cost to the bottom line. Lean allowed us to optimise and standardise most key business processes.”

The best example of the benefits of the Lean programme is the customer acceptance process, according to Byrne. “On the face of it, it’s different for every customer and project. It’s a highly complex, 100+ page document for each individual site, of which there are thousands in a mobile network. Anyone who has experience of it will tell you how challenging and time-consuming the whole process is. But when we looked at it and peeled the skin off, we saw how much of it could be standardised. We figured out an innovative approach to it and we also developed a software tool, Infratrack, to do it.”

That sped up the process greatly for KTL and allowed customers to onboard solutions much faster and more efficiently. Other benefits of the Lean transformation programme included a significant reduction in site visits, a 14.7% reduction in expenses through the introduction of a fleet management solution, a 13% reduction in employee turnover, and a 35% reduction in lead time in various processes within the business, including invoicing and purchase order generation.

“It improved our competitiveness, and that enabled us to acquire additional customers and improve our profitability at the same time,” says Byrne.

For the future, he believes that ongoing growth in the mobile market, with 5G coming down the line and continued network renewal by the power companies, will deliver opportunities for the company. “We will continue to develop our fantastic team,” he adds. “We are a service company and our competitive position relies on a talented, experienced, loyal pool of people. We are nothing without our fantastic team. Enterprise Ireland has also been a key part of the team, which enabled us to internationalise and expand the business.”

Learn more about Enterprise Ireland’s Competitiveness supports here.

hospital supply chain

How Irish medtech suppliers can navigate the US hospital supply chain

For Irish medtech suppliers, few opportunities are more attractive than successfully breaking into the US market. But doing so is not always easy.

 That isn’t just because the US medtech market is fiercely competitive. It’s also a matter of navigating a supply chain environment which is radically different to that familiar in Ireland.

Enterprise Ireland recently hosted a knowledge event aimed at helping Irish suppliers to prepare for entering the market. Dave Walsh, Director of Supply Chain Administration at the Boston’s Children Hospital, and Charlie Miceli, VP Network Chief Supply Chain Officer at the University of Vermont Health Network, shared insider insights on what US hospitals expect from potential partners.

Understand the role of supply chain

As an Irish supplier, you should begin by understanding the landscape and, importantly, how communication, collaboration and relationship building are more important than what Dave described as “the hot pitch”.

“If this isn’t a need we have right now, we’re going to tell you,” he explained. “If the opportunity isn’t there right now, but we think we’re going to need it in six months, we’re going to keep in touch with you.”

Establishing an introduction is based on networking and understanding that, as long as a deal is mutually beneficial, business can inevitably be done.

“We’re a team, we all work together. We want to work with you if there’s a benefit on both sides.”

Get to know different types of hospitals and procurement methods

Buying in the US market usually takes place either directly, when a hospital or health network deals with distributors and suppliers, or via a group purchasing organisation (GPO), in which smaller systems pool together to help them buy at scale.

While the promise of bigger orders can make large networks and GPOs attractive, their scale can also force them to be more risk-averse, so that sometimes it is more beneficial for Irish companies to work directly with smaller hospitals.

“Getting in at group level can reap huge rewards. There are six hospitals in the University of Vermont Health Network,” explained Charlie. “But innovation can sometimes take place at smaller hospitals.”

Make sure you have boots on ground

As working with a supplier on another continent can be perceived less favourably than local alternatives, perceptions of risk must be minimised for potential buyers.

“Being Irish can raise questions,” Dave said, “‘It’s a good quality product, but what if we have problems?’”

The most effective solution is also the most straightforward: to be present in the US, and available for regular meetings with key stakeholders. While that can mean frequent flights, it is also often essential to success.

US hospitals and GPOs will often expect to meet the boss, and just not their representative or distributor. The founder and head of your organisation will bring a uniquely intimate knowledge of the solution, and their involvement is also crucial to the collaborative approach required by US supply chains.

Consider your first move

While your first interaction is crucial, it will also depend on where your business is in its growth pattern. Begin by determining what stage you are at, and then select the time and venue to meet the right people.

“Trade groups are great,” explained Dave. “Whether national or smaller, such as regional meetings, they’re all worthwhile. I can meet 50 people in two days at these events. It could take an entire year at the hospital to achieve that.”

And while getting a slot at some trade shows can be expensive, ‘reverse expos’ – in which buyers occupy stands and are approached by suppliers, rather than the more traditional format – offer an increasingly popular approach to networking.

“Is it worth investing for a small company? A booth can be pricey but get into a reverse expo with the right plan and it could easily become money well spent.”

Consider your reimbursement model

Frustratingly for suppliers, there is little consensus on how the reimbursement model may change with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and subscription models.

However, it is a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ things will change, and the best advice for now is to monitor the market closely to prepare for an impending shift.

“If change happens, it will happen quickly,” commented Charlie.

Avoid the ‘circular wheel’

The selling cycle in the US medtech market can be very long – approximately six months for a defined need, followed by a vetting cycle of three to six months, and longer again if a solution is not in response to a specific requirement.

For that reason, finding the right person at the right stage is crucial. Every time you’re passed sideways to another department or another contact can add days or weeks to an already lengthy process.

There is one simple way to avoid ending up on what supply chain calls the ‘circular wheel’: ask the question of how to engage.

“Try to understand what the roles are,” said Dave. “Ask us the question, we’ll find you the right person to talk to at the right stage.”

Take the heavy lifting off IT

“As everything becomes more digital, there is more pressure on IT departments in hospitals,” Charlie noted. “So you need to be able to take the heavy lifting off IT.”

At a minimum, it means that producers of digital products should be able to demonstrate an intimate working knowledge of technical details, from the interface standard to security risks and mitigations.

But beyond that, it may also have implications for companies that rely on free pilot schemes in healthcare facilities as part of their sales process. Such is the time and cost associated with implementation, that they must also be sold convincingly to make the offer worthwhile.

“A pilot has to go through the governance process, because IT has bigger cost growth than other departments,” added Charlie. “Free pilots do happen, but not without work. Implementation will be costly.”

Know your suppliers

There are few, if any, medtech suppliers who do not rely in some way on third-party suppliers. It’s crucial to recognise that, as the producer, you hold full responsibility for who they are, how they work, and their components or contributions to your end product.

“You’re accountable for everyone who feeds into your product,” explained Dave.

“It’s important to bear in mind that customs, standards, specs, and so on will vary from region to region.”

Use the data you have

One of the perceived barriers to entry into the US market is a lack of data, particularly in instances where it’s difficult to implement an initial pilot.

While local data is always preferable, due to differences in health system structures, European and Irish data can nonetheless make an incredibly strong contribution to the case. In fact, depending on the industry, it can even offer an advantage if it happens to be one where the EU is seen as a leader.

“Sterilisation, for instance, is more advanced in EU than the US,” said Charlie. “And the latency is five to seven years, due to testing and so on. So the demonstration of reliability and data from successful European adoption can make all the difference.”

 

Ireland enjoys a unique advantage in trading with the US and is Ireland’s second largest export market. Learn more about entering the US market here.