NEW INNOVATION:  Encountering everyday problems and deciding to address them puts some companies ahead of the rest

3V: Spending it the easy way

UP UNTIL RECENTLY, IF YOU went to a bank and said you were going to offer a credit card on paper through your local newsagent, "they'd look at you as if you had two heads", says Kieron Guilfoyle, chief executive of 3V Transaction Services.

Today, that's exactly what the Irish pay as you go Visa voucher company 3V does. Prepaid credit cards may have been around in one form or another, but 3V's was the first virtual credit card and the concept has proved to be a major hit with consumers.

Guilfoyle knew that there was a huge market for people who wanted to shop online but who didn't want to use their credit or debit card for fear of fraud or overspending.

"The key was to create a ubiquitous instrument that used the existing infrastructure that was there," he says.

It also needed international recognition and credibility. So Guilfoyle's company 3V teamed up with Irish point of sale terminal company Alphyra, which has 150,000 terminals across 19 countries, an international credit card company and Permanent TSB to launch the disposable, virtual card 3V, short for virtual visa voucher.

The virtual card works by allowing customers who have registered with the service to pre-purchase credit from thousands of shops in the same way that they currently buy top-up credit for mobile phones. The maximum credit which can be purchased on any one voucher is €350 and the minimum is €20. and they will receive a printed voucher with its own unique Visa number. This number can then be used to purchase items online or over the phone in one or more transactions up to the value of the credit purchased.

The number can be used from anywhere in the world to purchase online, by phone or by mail from any retailer who accepts an ordinary Visa card. "The easiest part is the idea, the hardest is execution," says Guilfoyle. "We trialled it in 10 stores in Dublin and it just took off."

Since the 3V voucher was introduced in 2005, it has been used by 60,000 Irish people. Last October, the company raised €20 million in funding from Atlas Venture and Benchmark Capital Europe to back its expansion into Europe which will also see it create 67 new jobs, bringing the total workforce to 77.

"Basically, we are using existing technology and infrastructure to use a product in a different way," says Guilfoyle.

ALTERNATIVES: Finding the right person

RECRUITMENT DIFFICULTIES experienced by a former marketing manager in Coca Cola Ireland provided the spark for a new business idea. More than five years ago, Aldagh McDonagh, needed to find a temporary replacement for her brand manager, who was going on maternity leave. That search would see the launch of her own company, Alternatives.

Along with her former school and college friend and fellow marketing professional Sandra Lawler, she set up Alternatives, a company that pioneered interim marketing - essentially providing marketing professionals and specialists to companies on an interim basis.

"If you wanted a secretary, receptionist or IT contractor in for a day or couple of months, you could ring an agency. Why couldn't you get a marketer?"

Their idea was to build up a panel of experienced marketing professionals to provide what McDonagh calls "talent on tap" for clients when they need them and for as long as they need them. But the idea was not just to fill temporary gaps, according to McDonagh.

Members of the panel could be used to work on key projects, address key brand or commercial issues, explore new opportunities, provide companies with access to specific skills not available in-house, or even free up senior personnel to work on strategic projects, she says. Seven years on, Alternatives has a panel of more than 450 brand and commercial marketers covering a broad range disciplines, skills and industry sectors, and boasts a client list of blue-chip companies, including Vodafone, AIB, Coca Cola, Diageo, Glanbia and Eircom.

In 2005, the company entered into an exclusive, long-term business collaboration with the UK-based Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) to provide its clients in Ireland with access to over 100 of the institute's marketing training courses.

"Some ideas come from a eureka moment. Our was born of a simple question: why can't it be done?"

SAADIAN TECHNOLOGY: Securing situations

SOME 150,000 PEOPLE ARE released from prison in the UK in any given year. Up to now, keeping track of when prisoners are released - particularly dangerous criminals and known repeat offenders - has been a nightmare for police forces.

Many UK police forces are now using unique technology developed by Irish company Saadian Technologies to deal with the problem. One of its products tracks the release of prisoners and alerts police intelligence units and the arresting officers of their release through text message and e-mail. In the case of an armed robber being released, the local police force and armed robbery unit would both receive e-mails and texts notifying them.

"It's very targeted and can be used to track prolific and repeat offenders," explains Cliodhna McGurk, chief executive of the company and the brains behind the technology.

It is not just police forces that use the Saadian's technology. The company has more than 100 customers in the public and private sectors in the UK and Ireland which use its secure messaging software.

Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, an acute paediatric teaching hospital with 243 beds, employing 1,200 staff, has deployed Saadian's Business2Mobile SMS messaging solution to provide an emergency communication system for the hospital's staff.

The Health and Safety Executive Emergency Planning Office has selected Saadian's Business2Mobile hosted service to provide a critical alert system for staff communications in the event of emergencies.

Around 60 per cent of the company's revenues are now generated in the UK and turnover is expected to exceed €1 million this year.

LOUGH ALLEN FOODS: A taste for business

FIVE YEARS AGO, CHEF STEPHEN Dowd found that chilled fully prepared ready meals were a notable absence on supermarket and deli shelves. "You could get portions, such as lasagnes, on the shelves, but there was nothing there that was really complete. Nobody took initiative to research and develop a complete ready meal," says Dowd.

So, he took the initiative himself. The chef, with 23 years experience both at home and abroad, undertook to research the market and by the end of 2005 he was ready to start his new venture.

"We did test runs in December 2005 and received an excellent response," he says. "Lough Allen Foods was set up in 2006 and we do a range of complete ready meals such as roast stuffed turkey, ham and chicken and stuffing dinners."

The company, which has been identified by Enterprise Ireland as a high potential start-up, has established a state of the art food production facility in the foodhub Drumshambo, Co Leitrim, where it manufactures its range of consumer ready complete meals. The products will be chilled for domestic markets with a shelf life of 12 days.

Trading under the brand Naked Flame, it is targeting the food services and retail sector and is engaged in discussions with two key sub sectors of this market, post primary schools and the health service.

Dowd now employs 10 people and has three delivery vehicles working throughout the west, northwest, the midlands and as far east as the greater Dublin area.