Making connections

INTERVIEW/Brendan Casey, Idiro Technologies:WHEN IS a customer who makes €80 worth of mobile phone calls a month potentially more important to that mobile service provider than a customer who makes €100 worth of calls?

The answer is not immediately obvious, but it is simple: the €80 customer is more important when that €80 worth of calls is spread across a wider range of people than the €100 customer's are - exposing their products to a wider audience.

Because nowadays mobile phone operators are not just about selling phone time, they're about marketing as well, says Brendan Casey (34), chief technology officer (CTO) with Idiro Technologies.

"Traditionally, customers are targeted for marketing based on the amount they spend," he explains.

"So if you spend €100 a month and I spend €80, you'll be targeted more than me, because you're a higher-value customer - or so it seems.

"But our premise is different. I'd suggest that if you make your €100 worth of calls to just a handful of people, close family perhaps, and I'm the captain of the local football team and going to university at the same time - I'm more connected, my €80 gives more marketing reach.

"So if the mobile service provider wants to market the latest Blackberry or sell marketing space for some other service, I'm more important in terms of viral marketing because I have more influence through my circle of friends and contacts."

And in these tough economic times, when every company wants to add value to its products, having additional marketing reach is a crucial source of potential income.

Idiro - from the Irish word "idir" meaning "between", thus the idea of connectivity - was set up in 2003. Its flagship software package, Idiro Customer Intelligence, analyses the activities of a service provider's or host' customer base, whether they're mobile telecoms, internet service providers (ISPs) or social networking sites.

"Companies have always used operational information for marketing purposes,"says Casey. "They've wanted to know about things like churn, retention, acquisition, or cross-sell or up-sell campaigns.

"What our software does is add an extra dimension. It goes further in analysing interaction on a network."

Despite its innovative approach, Idiro Technologies has had its ups and downs. In 2005, for instance, they seemed to have made a breakthrough when the Siemens Accelerator Fund, essentially a venture capital vehicle, went so far as to invest in the company - only to sell the entire fund to new British owners who promptly decided their interest lay with established companies and not with early-stage businesses.

"Looking back, I suppose it was all part of the roller-coaster ride," muses Casey, formerly a senior consultant with Oracle and a founder of Curach Technologies. "We had decided they were a good match and they'd started to introduce us to mobile operators around Europe.

"But in the end our existing shareholders had to buy back the entire Siemens share."

However, in 2006, Idiro started to look west in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland and opened an office in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Now they're looking east as well. Casey has just returned from a Government trade mission to Turkey, attracted by the size of the market and by the major players already operating there and spreading into the Middle East.

After the disappointment of the Siemens accelerator fund investment, Idiro's turnover in 2007 was about €500,000, though on the basis of new US and European contacts, Casey says that should double this year and again in 2009 - as clients see the revenue-generating possibilities of their software.

As to how the Siemens fund experience will affect how they finance future expansion, he says venture capital investment in the US looks most attractive.

"The key is to find the right VC investor with the best connections for us. Yes, they'll work us hard but that's part of playing that game."

ON THE RECORD

Name:Brendan Casey

Company:Idiro Technologies

www.idiro.com

Job:Chief technology officer

Age:34

Background:Degree in computer science and Masters in international business from TCD. Worked as a senior consultant with Oracle and was later a co-founder of Curach Technologies. Idiro recently won two prizes at the UK Data Strategy Awards for a project carried out for O2 - the prestigious overall Grand Prix and the award for Best Use of Data in Technology, Communications and Web-based Services.

Inspired by: The founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Larry Ellison, who continues to re-invent Oracle; Richard Branson, because of the diversity of his interests; and, at home, Michael O'Leary.

Challenges:Developing new business leads in Turkey and the United States, and driving a doubling of turnover this year and again in 2009 despite a slowing global economy.