What do Baltimore Technologies, Aimware, Vision Consulting, and Apion Technologies have in common? Apart from being among the most ambitious and successful technology companies operating in Ireland, they each have exarmy officers at their helms.
Mr Denis Murphy, managing director of Belfast-based Apion Technologies, was chosen to head up Apion when it was established four years ago by parent company, Aldiscon. Today it employs around 150 people and expects a turnover this year of £6.5 million (€8.25 million).
Mr Murphy was one of a team of Irish army officers who worked together in the late 1980s to early 1990s when various units of the defence forces merged their activities to establish a Directorate of Information Technology in Glasnevin. They were among the first people in Ireland to begin working on open systems, relational databases and extended local area networks. They developed programmes using Unix, Oracle and client-server applications.
"The army gives you the best management training possible. You learn very quickly how to prioritise the implementation of strategic business projects," says Mr Murphy.
This view is echoed by many of his former colleagues. "The training is useful for management, team building, esprit de corp and setting out clear objectives. In other countries the military is seen as an ideal training ground for skilled technicians. It's not viewed like that here, there's a bit of an attitude of get them in and keep them till their 50," says Mr John O'Sullivan. Today he is executive vice-president of engineering for Baltimore Technologies worldwide.
Mr O'Sullivan was behind the project to computerise the stores and logistics units of the defence forces, and the design of a full Oracle-based stores system from scratch. From there he was involved in the procurement of a national defence network to link every barracks in the State.
According to Lt Col John Dunne, acting director of the Communications and Information Services (CIS) corps of the defence forces, the longest most personnel stay in the CIS unit is around five or six years. "This mirrors the same tendency towards mobility in the IT industry, and in fact there is greater loyalty within the army than you would find in the civilian world."
He says this trend to get in and out quickly fits in well with the army's goal of developing a younger age profile. "The movement opens up progression to positions of responsibility more quickly. While there is a negative aspect to losing people, the positive side is the younger people coming through who tend to be very enthusiastic and keen to make an impression." The CIS unit currently employs around 120 people, and they are responsible for the IT requirements at every level of the defence forces' 11,500 personnel.
The preponderance of ex-army officers in the IT sector has been prompted in many ways by the recommendations of the first Gleeson Report on remuneration in the defence forces. Suddenly the writing was on the wall that the organisation was about to change radically, and it was in for a major downsizing.
In 1990, Mr Paul Farrell had completed the project to select the national defence network, and was not comfortable with the establishment of representative bodies within the military, believing they didn't fit in with the ethos of the organisation. He, like a number of his peers, was approached by consultancy companies to pursue a consultancy career in the technology arena. Today he is a partner with Ernst & Young focusing specifically on the IT sector.
"Defence forces personnel get very good experience in personal responsibility and managing people from a very early age. In the civilian world people are somehow expected to absorb management skills by osmosis, where we received formalised training," says Mr Farrell.
It is an unfortunate fact that there is a high turnaround of skilled IT specialists in the military - it cannot compete on price with the private sector. Now, Mr Farrell says the military needs to plan for high turnover and provide some form of "back filling" of resources from the private sector where some activities can be outsourced.
When the highest salary possible within the IT unit still falls short of £30,000, bigger, more stimulating challenges in the commercial world are greatly enhanced by the pay package that comes with them.
According to Lt Col Dunne the transition for ex-officers to the civilian world is quite smooth as the network of ex-officers is quite tight. They meet regularly on a social basis and the team aspect of their army training will prompt them to do their best for their former colleagues.
"While we inevitably lose people with high-level skills, it is also a good thing that the defence forces is providing the booming economy with highly skilled people. They bring immediate leadership qualities from their military training that would take years to develop in the workplace," he says.
Mr John Crowley is another ex-officer who went into IT consultancy. After he admired the work done by Andersen Consulting when it was enlisted to conduct a strategic study of IT within the defence forces, he left to join PricewaterhouseCoopers. Today he is a director of Vision Consulting with responsibility for its US operations. The one factor he believes the military imbued in him and his colleagues was a high level of commitment.
"Once we're in something we're in it seriously, and will do everything to make a success of it. It is the same for all of these guys - whatever they say they are going to do, gets done."
