Keith Shirley

As some of you may be aware – Shercom was lucky enough to be awarded an Innovation Voucher from Enterprise Ireland. I’ve enjoyed working with the people from IT Carlow and think it’s a great idea – although I’m probably biased as I was awarded one. I can be a sore loser.

For those that are lazy readers – It’s a relatively easy way for a company to get a 5000 Euro voucher towards some research activities in association with their local Institute of Technology. By easy I mean you don’t need to invest much time in filling out the forms. Of course – you want to make the most of it so investing some thinking time is suggested. In terms of research funds – 5000 Euro will not go very far. For a small company it can be a very good starting point.

Last time I mentioned this I was only able to squeeze in the announcement at the last moment. Thank you to Mary O Higgins from the Carlow County Enterprise Board for the timely reminder. This time I’m able to give you some advance notice. Hopefully Mary won’t mind me reproducing her mail here:

Good afternoon

Some of our clients have got Innovation Vouchers in order to grow their businesses.  So here is some information ……

If you own or manage a small limited company with a company registration number and you have a business opportunity or problem that you want to explore, you can apply for an Innovation Voucher worth €5,000.  The Innovation Voucher allows you to concentrate on running your business while knowledge providers (among the 38 third level institutions around all Ireland) come up with a solution that could take your business to the next level

The next call will open on 1st September 2008

For more details and an application form, please refer to http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/innovationvouchers / www.innovationvouchers.ie

Innovation Vouchers can be used for any kind of innovation such as:

• new product / process development;
• new business model development;
• new service delivery and customer interface;
• new service development;
• tailored training in innovation management;
• innovation / technology audit

There is certain stuff that is ineligible, mostly training course costs and marketing/sales activities so please check out the website.

A reminder to anyone thinking of applying for an Enterprise Ireland innovation voucher that the closing date for the current round is 30 June 2008. If you do miss it however the next round runs from 1 Sept to 30 Sept 2008.

The idea behind the innovation voucher is to help build links between the Institutes of Technology and business. It’s a great opportunity for a small business to get involved in some research activity which they otherwise might not be able to afford. The voucher is for 5000 Euro – which although is not a lot in the research world is certainly very helpful if you are trying to flesh out an idea.

If you have an idea for a new business or product – then make sure to avail of the advice your local Enterprise Board can give you.

Shercom was awarded a voucher last year to further develop backups solutions for businesses with large amounts of data. When I applied for it I was specifically thinking of smaller businesses like printers, graphics designers or photographers that are sometimes producing large amounts of files but are stuck with a small broadband connection.

We did actually issue a press release at the time and I’m embarrassed to say I forgot to put it on the blog. Better late than never, I’ll let you read it now.

Shercom Limited, Ireland has been awarded 5000 Euro through the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Program. This acknowledgement of Keith Shirley‘s vision for the company will further his commitment to developing the Irish market. Shercom Ltd. will work closely with the Carlow Institute of Technology to research additional offsite backup options for those companies hampered by slow or expensive broadband connections.

Quietly launched in 1999, Shercom Ltd. has been focusing on international clients in the IT and Telecoms sectors. Mr. Shirley, a Carlow native, recently saw this opportunity in the Irish technology market place to provide dedicated managed IT backup solutions and is currently concentrating on the Midlands and Southeast.

Broadband speed may mean nothing to the normal user checking their emails but it is vital when providing for modern secure and efficient backup services. For most companies, broadband is the safest, most effective and most efficient solution for backing up data. However, for the few companies with exceptionally large amounts of data daily, the currently available broadband is often too slow to deal with backups in a reasonable amount of time.

The seriousness of this issue for the Irish economy as a whole was emphasized in a report from Forfas recently (www.forfas.ie). Slower broadband connections in Ireland cost “four to five times more than considerably higher-speed broadband services in countries such as France, Germany and Hungary.”

Awareness of the value of data is also increasing. A survey by MJ Flood Technologies has found that 18% of enterprises have said that a loss of data could lead to the complete business going under (quote from the Irish Independent 8 February 2007). Just imagine, you are doing “all the right things.” Every day, you change your backup tape and even take copies out of the office in case of a fire. Then, just when disaster strikes, you try the tapes and they are useless – the backups have not recorded properly at all!

Other than lobbying for the increased speed of our broadband, Keith Shirley says “my mission is to take the fear out of backing up your valuable work. You don’t need special computer knowledge. The backups are personally managed for our clients. From day to day, the software allows the client to track changes and retrieve previous versions of documents. At any time, the information is available on line so it is instantly retrievable. And, with the successful conclusion of our research, we will be able to help the clients with even the biggest data volumes to concentrate on their business and not have to worry about tasks such as swapping tapes.”

For media related queries, please contact Megan McGrath at pr@shercom.com
For sales and support queries, please contact Keith Shirley at info@shercom.com
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The Seedcorn competition is now in its 6th year and has a cash prize fund of €280,000 which is awarded to the best 9 start up companies on the island. The competition is trying to re-create the investment process so is targeted at companies with the best investment potential. The competition is ideally suited to high tech high growth potential companies.

From the Seedcorn website

Background to the Competition

Seedcorn is the island’s biggest business competition for early stage/high growth companies in any sector on any part of the island. The competition, aimed at companies who have a new equity funding requirement, has a record prize fund of €280,000 and also offers budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to:

• Develop your business idea
• Improve your business plan
• Make your concept investor ready
• Gain exposure to venture capitalists and other equity providers
• Increase the profile of your business

The judges are looking for the same elements as a potential investor including:

• High growth companies
• The optimum risk/reward profile
• A strong management team
• Ability to exit

To date, millions in new equity have been raised by previous finalists of the competition.

Closing Date

The closing date for receipt of business plans is Friday 26th September at 1pm. First you must register for the competition before submitting your business plan. When you register for the competition, you will receive an e-mail from us with a dedicated upload reference which you must click on to upload your business plan to us by the closing date.