Electronic Business Solutions, a Dublin-based business-to-business software company specialising in eprocurement, has opened a European print portal and is raising some £2 million (€2.54 million) to fund its development.
The portal at www.eprintpaper.com is targeted at large organisations such as banks, insurance and software companies, supermarkets, Government and semi-state organisations.
It offers them an Internet-based print management service by utilising a business-to-business software product called ServiceServer, which was developed by the company.
The software is capable of managing online quoting, electronic ordering and handling orders from 200 different buying points, enabling companies to streamline the print ordering and reordering processes. Accountant and former partner of BDO Simpson Xavier, Mr Patrick McSwiney, has been appointed chairman of the 18-month-old company and will organise the second round of funding. Briefing documents are currently being sent to interested parties and presentations are due to commence on September 1st.
This round of funding will be used to fund the portal's development, initially into the British and Irish markets, according to Mr Peter Dodds, chief executive and founder of the firm.
"We are currently talking to a lot of print managers and large financial and semi-state institutions about how we can bring economies of scale to their printing needs," said Mr Dodds. "Part of the funding will be spent on marketing and to establish a bridgehead in the British print market. We estimate the annual spend on publishing among large British companies at £10 billion."
The print portal is already up and running and the company is in negotiations with several large financial institutions about doing trials with the system. The system costs an initial £5,000 registration fee and thereafter an annual rental of £2,000.
Electronic Business Solutions raised some £250,000 in first-round funding from investors including the Davy Technology Fund and BDO Simpson Xavier's BES scheme.
The company has already established an e-procurement system called Easybuy and is currently developing other web portals in several areas, including healthcare.
