DESPITE HAVING only recently been established and having just one permanent member of staff, software company OnePlace is on the verge of signing a major contract with a large Irish insurance company.

OnePlace has been spun out of Wicklow-based Ability Software with assistance from CorporateSpinouts.com, a consultancy that specialises in creating new ventures from products or services that have been developed within established firms.

Ability was established in 1999 and provides technology consultancy in the banking, insurance and public sectors. A client in the UK commissioned Ability to produce workflow software to help it better manage claims and communicate more efficiently with customers on their status.

“It’s an issue that insurance companies are hitting all the time,” explains Ronan Minogue, managing director of Ability. “A lot of systems are very good at telling you the current picture on a transaction but they don’t tell you what’s happened in between.”

If the deal closes with the Irish insurer, it will generate recurring licence revenues which will be used to fund OnePlace. In the meantime Ability will continue to provide staff and resources to the new venture as needed.

Ability was assisted in creating OnePlace by Pearse Coyle of CorporateSpinouts.com. He is an experienced technology executive who founded his consultancy last year to rapidly create start-ups at a more advanced stage, which have a better chance of succeeding.

Similar to Ability, most of the opportunities he has seen related to companies who have done bespoke work for a client they believe has potential as a product but the company has no expertise in selling products rather than services. Mr Coyle has assessed 34 opportunities, spun out OnePlace and is working on other projects that may result in new companies.