Techie who is keeping tabs on MPs' tabs

WILDGEESE:Emigrant business leaders on opportunities abroad:  Michael Sheehan, London CEO, systems@work

A NEW bathroom suite, piano tuning and, most famously, the draining of a moat were just some of claims that emerged in the MPs expenses scandal that rocked Westminster two years ago.

But that was before an Offaly man got the job of keeping things in check.

“It was a fascinating contract to get,” says Michael Sheehan of the business awarded to his financial software company systems@work. As a UCD commerce graduate with a track record in student politics and a bent for technology, he says the “intersection of technology, business process and politics” involved made the contract all the more satisfying to win.

Leaving Belfield for London in 1988, Sheehan says he was “probably the last wave out of the country before the Celtic Tiger kicked in”.

While there were accountancy opportunities for commerce graduates here at the time, with “half” of his class following the well worn path into big firm traineeships, the 21-year-old had travel in his sights.

“Being an accountant was just not what I wanted to do,” he says. “And, I suppose, coming from the country, I probably felt I had a better chance of doing something with my career if I went to London rather than trying to break into the Dublin scene here at the time.”

Initially sharing a London flat with four other newly-minted UCD graduates, his plan was to get into technology somehow.

“My father [a garda] bought us literally one of the first computers that came out on the market – a Commodore VIC-20 back in the very early 1980s when I was just a teenager.

“Since then I’ve always had an interest in technology,” he explains. “To be frank, other than a degree in my back pocket, I was broke,” he recalls of his arrival in London, “so getting a job was more important than getting the right job.”

He took a role as a credit control clerk in the accounts department of US technology company Business Land. “My theory was that they would see me, I’d get promoted into other parts of the business and, to be honest, that’s what happened.”

After just eight weeks, he was drafted onto their graduate programme, which, he says, gave him an accelerated sales and marketing training course. “At that time, it was very much Thatcher’s Britain,” he says, “and like it or not, she certainly created a culture of meritocracy.”

Getting a good grounding in technology sales, he stayed with the company for three years before going briefly to the US on a Morrison visa.

His US experience taught him that the future was in software. “Hardware was becoming very commoditised and basically there were very low margins. There wasn’t a lot of anything clever in it.”

Returning to London, Sheehan joined financial reporting software company Management Science, which was then “a small software company that wasn’t fulfilling its potential”, he says. Attracted by the opportunity to get on board at a senior level, he ended up buying a 50 per share in the company in 1994 when he was just 28.

“I suppose the benefit of doing that when you are young is that you don’t know as much as you should about the risks,” he jokes. “It was an opportunity to work for myself so I was effectively in control of my own destiny. Also there was an opportunity to make money and that was certainly one of the motivators.”

Sheehan and his business partner sold the company in 2001 when, at 35, he says he was keen to try something else. The proceeds afforded him a year out, part of which he and his wife and two young daughters spent living in Italy.

He set up his current endeavour, expense management software company, systems@work in 2004.

“It’s a very nice fit. It’s a software company which is what I wanted but one of the things about selling is that you need to have credibility with the client and having a grounding in accountancy and finance certainly gives you more credibility. At least if you understand debits and credits.”

In addition to winning the Westminster contract, the company’s British clients now include the Premier League, Lloyds Insurance, the English Rugby Football Union with others in Europe, the US and Australia.

“Now all MPs in the UK use our software to input their expenses. It reinforces the rules to ensure they are claiming the right amount,” he explains.

So is there a column for moats?

“If I had a pound for every time somebody said that, I could retire!” he says.

With a September meeting of the UK’s public accounts committee being told that 99.7 per cent of claims made through the new system were within the rules – “no abuse and public confidence in MPs’ expenses improved” – Sheehan’s software is doing its job.

And what is his take on the London emigrant experience?

“I found being Irish over here was an asset. Irish people were considered very well educated but I think as well, just being naturally open, inquisitive and talkative and being able to present yourself stood very well to the people that came over at that time.”

Of the current wave of emigration he says, “I know it’s tough to leave a country but I have to say, I never saw the emigrant experience as being a negative one. I saw it as an opportunity to embrace new cultures, to meet new people and I know this sounds slightly odd, but I also saw it as a way of sort of being an ambassador for the country.

“It’s not like 50 years ago when you go away and never come back. Go away, get the experience, develop new skills and, when things turn in Ireland, you can always go back. I see it as a hugely positive thing.”