An Irish start-up company is poised for rapid growth after making a software breakthrough ahead of established global competitors in the customer relationship management (CRM) market.
Details of the development were outlined by eWare executives when they travelled to Boston this week in a bid to raise $6 million (€5.7 million) from US-based venture capitalists and private investors.
They are understood to be near reaching agreements with a number of investors, following contacts they made at an Irish software roadshow in Boston in June. Leading investment bank, Hambrecht & Quist, expressed considerable interest in the company at the time.
eWare's breakthrough is believed to be the first time CRM software has been developed to allow companies to manage their customer relationships solely through an Internet browser.
"To use this software you don't need to buy hardware or any techie-geekie stuff. All you need is a browser and you can remotely record all customer and sales activity and update it in real time," says Mr Ivan MacDonald, chief executive officer of eWare.
The company was founded three years ago with the sole aim of addressing this gap in the market. Mr MacDonald says many established competitors - including Siebel, a $700 million company - have been promising Internet based CRM for months, but have failed to deliver it.
Since eWare began an online trial of the software on its website (www.eware.com) two weeks ago, it has recorded more than 800 user visits to the site. It is also generating a lot of competitor interest.
Mr MacDonald says the potential market is huge, and though reluctant to put a figure on future revenues, he predicts eWare's turnover will increase from tens of thousands this year to around $15 million next year.
AMR Research in the US has predicted the CRM market will grow from $1.2 billion in 1997 to $11.5 billion in 2002.
Mr Sean Melly, former chief executive of MCI WorldCom Ireland, holds a sizeable minority stake in the company and has a non-executive role. eWare also raised £250,000 under the BES scheme in April of this year.
The primary shareholders in eWare are Mr MacDonald, Mr Greg Casey, sales and marketing, and Mr Alan Wyley, chief operating officer. The three met when working with Point Information Systems several years ago.
"We saw the market for anywhere access and went about developing the product. Now we need to ramp up our sales and marketing arm to start selling direct and through the reseller channel. We will also open an office in Boston before the end of the year," Mr MacDonald says.
eWare will initially target medium to large telecommunications and technology services companies which have large on-the-road workforces. Because the software is entirely Web enabled it can be used on a range of mobile devices including palmtops, mobile phones and laptops.
