1,000 using home plan

BRIEFS:An estimated 1,000 people in Northern Ireland are using a new homecare technology, the company involved in the service claims.

Telemonitoring allows patients to take their readings at home and automatically send information directly to a healthcare provider via a telephone link. The service is provided by the TF3 consortium with the five health and social care trusts.

Kevin McSorley, a director at TF3, said: “We’re already transforming the care of 1,000 patients, and we expect to achieve 400,000 monitored patient days this year, equating to around 2,200 patients.”

The firm said it hoped to benefit up to 20,000 people with long-term health conditions over six years by enabling better control over their health.

With the fastest-growing population in the UK, the prevalence of long-term conditions such as coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes in Northern Ireland is expected to increase by 30 per cent, the company said.

New service from pTools

Irish web content management provider pTools has launched its new Software as a Service (SaaS) web content management. Unveiled at the Dublin Web Summit, the firm says the new software allows content to be securely distributed to users across desktop, mobile and tablet devices for web, extranet and intranet from a single secure source, more effectively than has ever before been possible.

The SaaS application combines all of the enterprise level features of pTools into a single software service, available for a monthly or annual subscription fee rather than the traditional upfront licensing model. pTools says it has invested more than €1 million in re-developing its web content management software for cloud and SaaS delivery.

pTools was recently included for the first time in the long-list of vendors in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management 2012 report.

Keith Wood, CEO of pTools, said: “It’s great to be able to launch this in our home city, Dublin, at what is effectively one of the biggest and most dynamic new technology conferences in the world this year.”

Handybook secures seed funding for US expansion

ONLINE BOOKING service Handybook has secured $2 million (€1.5 million) in seed funding for the expansion of its US-based business.

The online booking system for household services, set up by Irishman Oisín Hanrahan, received $2 million investment from VCs including Highland Capital and General Catalyst Partners.

Spun out of Harvard University’s Innovation Lab earlier this year, the site allows users to instantly book professional home services, including cleaners and handymen, online.

“The way people are forced to book home services today is frustrating and inconvenient. Buying a book or airline ticket online takes seconds, so why does it still take a series of phone calls, emails or text messages to schedule simple services that are supposed to make life easier,” said Mr Hanrahan, a TCD graduate.

The service is available in Boston and Manhattan, but Hanrahan is hoping to offer it in other areas in the coming months.

“A lot of sites offer lead generation by allowing users to request proposals, but Handybook’s business model and underlying technology take that to the next level by making the process seamless and instantaneous,” according to Bob Davis, general partner at Highland Capital.

Mr Hanrahan said both Bob Davis and Joel Cutler, a managing director at General Catalyst, took board seats at Handybook.

“We didn’t just want the cheque, we wanted them to get involved in the business and help us strengthen our product.”

Mr Hanrahan said the funding would be used to develop the company further.

“We want a much better website and a mobile app, as well as an expert user face. We’d like to have the mobile app out by the end of this year.”

The company has five full-time employees, with a new employee due to start in two weeks.

- PAMELA NEWENHAM