Iona Technologies' developer conference in San Francisco this week was more akin to a coming-of-age party than a geek-fest as the company prepares to make the transition from a medium-sized to a large enterprise.

Aiding the company is an army of worker-bees, singing "Come on, Come on, Let's Get Together", Iona's new advertising campaign to convey its mission of making software work together.

At the conference on Monday, Iona previewed its new marketing campaign, announced the acquisition of British Java software vendor, EJBHome, cut a licensing deal with Sun Microsystems and launched a slew of new products.

As a result its share price jumped $6 (€5.3) to $50, giving the darling of the Irish high-tech industry a Nasdaq market capitalisation of more than $1 billion for the first time.

Iona, now the world leader in object middleware with more than 30 per cent of the market, provides software that acts as a sort of traffic cop between different types of computer systems.

Its core technology, an Object Request Broker and transaction management software, competes directly with products offered by IBM, Imprise, BEA, and Oracle.

While the company has out-performed even the most optimistic expectations in its eight-year history, it now has the daunting task of breaking into division one and achieving IBM and Oracle-type brand recognition.

"You never get fired for buying technology from the big guy," said Iona's marketing director Mr Noel Toolan, the former Bord Failte executive who is the brains behind the new advertising campaign. "So our job is to break through the barrier and establish Iona as a force in the market."

Iona has three problems. It must make its enormously complex middleware easier to use, it must make it easier to understand, and it must build up its sales and support organisation to compete with the blue-chip software companies.

The software vendor's acquisition of EJBHome and the development of a new software tool called OrbixStudio will make the product easier to use. Its new advertising campaign will go some way to making its business easier to understand. The company is also continuing to build up its worldwide sales and support organisation.

"When we went public early in 1997 we were basically a tele-sales operation," said Iona's chairman and chief executive, Dr Chris Horn. "We did very well selling sub-$250K contacts. But now we also have to sell directly to the chief executive and chief technical officers."

"This is a really difficult sell," said Ms Anne Thomas, analyst with the Patricia Seybold Group, in Boston.

"It's not just a question of Iona convincing the market that its products are good, but also [a] matter of instilling confidence in Object Request Brokers."

Object technology has long been the golden fleece of the computer industry. The theory is that a true object-orientated system enables the re-use of software components that can be quickly and easily snapped together like lego.

In practice, for the past 20 years it has been anything but quick and easy to use. It is only in the last six or seven years that companies have been depending on it to carry out missioncritical tasks.

Iona has done a reasonable job of evangelising the technology and has scooped a number of prestigious contracts with companies such as Boeing Aerospace, Hong Kong Telecom and Spanish telecommunications vendor Telefonica.

However, there is still a long way to go. In the past Object Request Broker systems have had a reputation of being slow, difficult to administer and quick to break down.

Dr Conor Doherty, a consultant for the European Space Agency, believes technology has undergone a significant improvement in the past couple of years.

He is currently evaluating Iona for use in a satellite-based natural disaster management system that could save thousands of lives if there were a flashflood, earthquake or tornado.

"The object is to take satellite images of a disaster like an earthquake and within hours collate all the relevant information such as locations of gas mains and nuclear plants," he said. "This information can then be used by governments to make informed decisions."

The space agency is looking to Iona to provide the connectivity between the satellites and the utilities such as gas and power authorities.

Dr Doherty is also looking at Iona's competitors such as Imprise to evaluate the best technology at the best price.

Iona has done well bidding against these competitors in the past. There is still room for improvement, according to Mr Tim Hanlon, chief architect for Netperceptions in Minneapolis, Minnesota, an Internet personalisation company that uses Iona's products under the covers.

"Iona is struggling to manage its growth," he said. "Their products need to be clearer and their support better if they want to beat off competition from IBM and Oracle."

Dr Horn says he is acutely aware of the support issue and that the company is rapidly building the infrastructure to cope with the demands of rapid growth.

Notwithstanding Iona's growing pains, the question now is how can it bring this nifty new technology into mainstream enterprise computing?

"Certainly, they're in a better position than most of their competitors at the moment," said Mr John Rymer, president of Upstream Consulting, in Emeryville, California.

IBM has only dipped its toe in the water. Hewlett-Packard got out of the game. Sun dumped its object request broker for Java and Imprise is going through yet another reorganisation.

However Oracle, BEA and IBM will be formidable competitors, according to Mr Rymer.

They have the advantage of being US-based and have armies of bluesuited technical sales personnel who are as comfortable with the CEOs on the golf course as they are with geeks in the computer labs.

Still, Iona has more than $65 million in its war chest, has been profitable for eight consecutive quarters and reported a net income of $13.4 million in 1998.

"We have a very unique attitude to the software business," said Iona's cofounder and chief technical officer, Mr Annrai O'Toole. "We believe in making a profit, a foreign concept to many companies in Silicon Valley."

Now the 600-employee company is planning to use its war chest and profit to merge or take over a company that will help it grow its business.

"More and more of my time these days is spent on mergers and acquisitions work," said Dr Horn. "We have looked dozens of companies and have been careful not to choose the wrong partner."

And looking for a partner is perhaps as good a sign as any that Iona has indeed come of age.