One of Ireland's quiet success stories, The Now Factory is facing down the recession with sales to 40 mobile network operators, writes Ian Campbell

THE EXPLOSION in mobile data traffic has helped one Irish company buck the recession and double its revenue every year since it started in 2007.

Selling hardware and software applications to network operators such as Vodafone, The Now Factory makes tools to monitor subscriber traffic and identify trends to cash in on at a time when voice revenues are falling.

Last year the company took orders worth €7.5 million and its products are now used in 40 networks across four continents. Through its unique footprint, the firm has a first-hand view of data traffic which, it says, is doubling every three to four months in most of its sites, driven by smartphones - the iPhone in particular - and mobile broadband services.

One of Ireland's quiet success stories, The Now Factory was set up by chief executive Tom Morrisroe, a serial entrepreneur who likes to ply his trade below the radar, targeting niche customers with tightly focused products.

These were skills that he honed with Arantech, a company he co-founded and which was sold last year for a sum rumoured to be about €70 million. Though still a shareholder, Morrisroe had moved on to new pastures.

With The Now Factory he wants to build a company of scale under his own terms, run by a management team with little shareholder interference. While he is not ruling out investment in the future, he prefers to retain control and grow the business the way he wants.

"We're in this for the long haul. If you bring in venture capital, there is an expectation of a return in three to five years, which means a trade sell," he says. "The company has a management team that likes to make its own decisions and dictate the direction of the business."

While Morrisroe applauds the work of Enterprise Ireland and start-up schemes, his focus is all about closing deals. "If you asked a business if they'd rather get €300,000 from funding or from a customer it's a no-brainer. You can have state aid and VCs [ venture capitalists] giving you money but the most important thing is talking to clients and understanding what they want."

The Roscommon man shuns the limelight but has a steely determination that has brought him success. He studied engineering at the University of Limerick but knew from school that he wanted to start his own business. Money, he says, isn't the driver.

"I like being able to create something and I like working with customers, coming up with ideas to meet their needs."

Developing products for the mobile market began with Arantech and has continued to flourish with The Now Factory, making hardware for monitoring networks and applications for digging down into traffic analysis. The hardware boxes are assembled in Sandyford and Morrisroe claims they can collect and analyse data from IP networks faster than anything else on the market.

This type of business intelligence is increasingly important to mobile operators in an age where information is king, he says. "We give them data that empowers them in a world dominated by Google and Apple. They have to raise their game to make sure they provide relevant content or they'll just go back to providing 'the pipe', the pipe that Google makes money out of."

Headquartered in Dublin, the company employs about 100 people, including a software development team based in St Petersburg, Russia. There are no plans for geographical expansion despite the company's global customer base. "Opening offices in other countries can be a little bit of a vanity," he opines.

Although the company is recession-free in terms of growth, it is feeling the effects when it comes to recruitment. Morrisroe is looking for sales, engineering and product people. Finding them is proving to be the company's biggest challenge. "The best people are nervous about leaving the jobs they have in the current climate," he says.

With no public relations and minimal marketing, The Now Factory is low key compared to some Irish tech start-ups. Morrisroe does, however, have one thing in common with many of his fellow entrepreneurs: a simmering frustration about the lack of willingness among large Irish enterprises and the Government to buy from Irish technology companies.

"We have enjoyed a great relationship with Vodafone Ireland, but other blue-chip Irish companies would be happier to deal with a foreign start-up than an Irish one," he says. "And the public sector only buys from large established players. In other countries they are more willing to go with new ideas from indigenous companies."

He is concerned that this culture will have a negative impact on Ireland Inc. "Start-ups can't foster new ideas on their own. There needs to be a buy-in from people in the public service or large enterprises. You see it in other countries, so why not here?"

"Most

blue-chip

Irish firms are happier to deal with a foreign start-up than an Irish one