A Limerick-based product development company, is developing an advice service for small businesses to help them exploit the increasingly sophisticated information technology industry.

According to the Microelectronics Applications Centre (MAC), advancing technologies offer the possibility of creating new services and products and the opportunity to be better organised.

MAC was set up 16 years ago as a commercial State-sponsored company to assist firms in developing microelectronics-based products. But with around 200 new products under its belt, it is now becoming more involved in advice on the use of information technology. It has also begun to take a share of the financial risk in some projects.

According to MAC's managing director, Dr John O'Flaherty, from working on EU projects, the company has learnt to predict how the Information Society will change opportunities for small businesses.

"You can now set up a virtual company, using telecommunications and the Internet, with staff in different locations, and the company can look as big as an imaginative Web site allows," said Dr O'Flaherty.

There are, however, problems with funding for virtual companies, he points out.

"With a virtual company it is hard to get a grant to set up because in the extreme there may be no one employed, no buildings and no capital."

MAC advises on the use of the Internet, telephony and computing, as well as the more traditional areas of microelectronics products. It has a particular expertise in telematics a combination of electronics, computing, multimedia and telecommunications and it advises on the use of new call-centre technology for small companies or organisations.

Until recently, MAC operated solely on a contract basis, taking on a wide variety of projects for companies developing new microelectronics-based products. Now it has begun sharing the risk of the venture in some instances.

"As long as it makes commercial sense for us to do so, we will consider investing in a project, mainly through work and in kind," he explains.

MAC was established in 1981 to improve the competitiveness and more rapid development of Irish industry through the application of electronic and information technology. Its shareholders are Shannon Development, Forfas and the University of Limerick (where it has its premises), but it generates its own budget through project fees.

It now employs about 14 people the majority of whom are engineers.

Its mission is to work with customers and partners in the profitable application and production of advanced electronics and information technology, in the areas of microelectronics, software, telematics and information.

This involves contract development of new and improved electronic products and processes for Irish entrepreneurs and industry, project and technology management, consultancy and feasibility studies.

MAC's Telematics Applications Team offers consultancy and advice on EU opportunities, flexible working, business process re-engineering, teleworking, imaging, ISDN and other telematic applications.

Among the many products that it has helped to develop is a financial bond PC calculator for Trillium Limited. It is designed for financial houses to calculate various types of stocks and bonds yields.

The battery-powered pocketsized unit uses an 80C186 processor and includes an 8x40 graphics LCD, parallel printer, serial interface and a full keyboard with programmable soft-key functions. It includes flash memory for holding developed applications which are downloaded from a standard PC via the serial port. It also features its own BIOS software which supports yield applications written in standard C code.

Another is the Multiplex fire damper control system. In this project, MAC worked with Actionair to improve, update and enhance its existing fire damper control system. The product includes embedded microprocessor systems, distributed data gathering and fire damper control, and a serial fault-tolerant communications network along with a PC interface for configuration and diagnostics software.

Other products developed include: a vehicle body filler detector; a high accuracy electronic torque wrench; a Compaq memory expansion board; a low-cost domestic attic-water monitor and control device; an automatic kegswitching unit to avoid bad beer and wastage in public houses; and a credit card validation system.