Easier Living

Recession bites for engineers, new use for instant messaging, software for GPs and a smart way to track staff holidays

Setback for clinical trials Online tracker for holidays Practices made perfect Real-time connections

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING:THE WORSENING economic climate has sent shivers through the Irish economy, as Marto Hoary knows only too well. The director and chief technology officer of Embricon was due to sign a funding deal for clinical trials of its endovascular product at the start of the year but the investor has deferred that decision.

Hoary is a former engineer who most recently worked in Digital and who now runs medical-device research and design company Embricon on NUI Galway's business campus.

The company has a pipeline of complementary vascular products but is concentrating on a new treatment for varicose veins.

Hoary is reluctant to reveal the exact nature of this treatment - citing commercial confidentiality - but says it differs from existing procedures by seeking to remove the vein rather than treat it with laser or radiation. As a result there is no burned tissue left in the patient.

The company is a collaboration between Hoary and Sherif Sultan, a vascular surgeon and lecturer at University College Hospital Galway. "We are basically the biomedical engineers that can turn his ideas into products. We have all come from multinationals; we have all done it before and now we are doing it for ourselves.

"The first device is a treatment for varicose veins by removing the vein. It is an established process but many current procedures are either painful or dangerous. These burn the vein out, but there is a lack of control in that burning process and they can do damage.

"We have been through the patent process and the consultant community recognises that we have a good idea. We are definitely going to go through clinical trials.

"We had planned human trials for June of this year but we may now have to revise that based on the funding situation."

Although such medical devices are subject to less stringent trials than pharmaceutical products, Hoary is keen to get the product successfully through the process to maximise its marketing potential.

Enterprise Ireland has taken an equity stake in Embricon and Hoary said the agency also provided "very beneficial expertise". The company hopes to bring its product to market in 2010; it employs six people.

Real-time connections 

ONLINE MARKETING:A NEW TECHNOLOGY that allows organisations instantly communicate with consumers is to be launched later this year. Developed by Waterford-based company Zimbie, the technology uses the basic principles of instant messaging but on a far larger scale.

Seán Lyons is chief executive of Zimbie and a member of the Telecommunications and Software Services Group at Waterford IT which has been researching instant messaging applications.

Instant messaging, he says, "is in real time, you know the person is there and ready to react, so it's almost like a personal phone call".

Zimbie is targeting the market for time-sensitive products that require an instant response from potential customers alerted to the offer through text message or e-mail.

If a company has a special offer on flights or a lunchtime music sale, it can notify pre-registered people who are interested in travel or music. Unlike most online marketing tools, the message is only sent to those who are online at the time of sending, or who log on in time to avail of the offer.

"The system will show you how many people have clicked on it and you know by the time the sale starts how many have seen it.

"Ask any marketing department if they want to know how many of their potential customers are available right now or how many have actually seen an offer and every one will say they do want that data," he says.

The technology can be used for any time-sensitive product such as hotel rooms, concert or sports tickets, flights and share prices.

By pre-registering users are able to gain access to a wider range of offers of interest to them more quickly than by trawling the web.

"You could, for example, specify that you are interested in the share prices of 10 companies," says Lyons.

Zimbie is running trials with online marketing company Pigsback ahead of a full launch later this year. Enterprise Ireland has supported research and commercialisation at Zimbie.

Practices made perfect

MEDICAL SOFTWARE: WHILE STUDYING for a degree in computer science in Sligo IT Dermot Dolan ran a small company carrying out IT support for local businesses.

While maintaining the computer system for a GP's surgery Dolan felt the software package could be improved and that he could design a better system. Within weeks of finishing their degree in 2004 Dolan and class colleague Brendan O'Connor had started work on the product, funded by family and friends.

Following consultations with a number of GPs they had their practice-management system Socrates ready for trials within a year for a cost of €110,000.

By the end of 2008 the software had been installed in 250 practices and the suite of products had jumped from one to six. Because the market in Ireland is relatively small - with an estimated 1,100 computer-enabled practices - Dolan is now looking overseas.

"We have the dream job. We get to work in computers developing software, I'd do that for free. We are making money and we can do whatever we want," he says.

Dolan says the company is profitable and it now employs 10 people. Among the new products developed is an occupational health version and a practice-management system for physiotherapists and primary care centres.

The company raised private equity from family and friends for the development and also received grant aid funding for new staff from Sligo Enterprise Board.

Online tracker for holidays

HUMAN RESOURCES:WHILE HELPING a friend develop a computerised system to monitor holidays for their company, Alistair Thacker spotted a gap in the market for human resources software.

He developed the idea into vacationtracker.net, a web-based service that allows companies manage their employees' planned and unplanned absences.

Thacker has a background in software development and worked with Microsoft and SoftCo before setting up Evolution in 2006 to develop and market his idea.

He joined the M50 Enterprise Programme which provided Cord funding. This can cover up to 50 per cent of a person's previous salary while they bring a product to market. Evolution is based in NovaUCD.

Vacationtracker.net is sold on a monthly licence basis and 80 companies have signed up. During meetings with recruitment companies Thacker identified a second opportunity.

"We found recruitment firms were getting bogged down with paper-based time sheets. Coming from an IT background I saw how this could be turned into a system." Evolution's second product is tempsheets.com and Thacker admits to being surprised no other company had thought of the idea. It allows temporary staff to complete and submit their timesheets online, where they can be approved by the client company and sent on to the agency.

Thacker plans to market the product in the Republic before launching in the UK market.

Users are able to gain access to a wider range of offers of interest to them more quickly than by trawling the web

Unlike most online marketing tools, the message is only sent to those who are online at the time of sending