SOME 91 per cent of TerminalFour’s new business in 2011 came from exports, according to the company, with €3.6 million worth of new business being secured in emerging markets alone.

The web-content management software company, which has its headquarters in Dublin, includes Aer Lingus, Specsavers and a number of US and British government authorities and educational institutes on its client list.

“The international market has just been flying along for us,” said company chief executive Piero Tintori. “Three to four years ago, we started to get some customers in the US and our strategy has been to leverage those to create more business.”

TerminalFour’s main Site Manager product is designed to make it easier for organisations to run and update their websites and other online platforms. In recent years, the company has invested in developing the product and has increasingly focused its attentions on international deals, with offices being established in Boston and London.

Mr Tintori said this process had begun simply as a way to increase business but had become a vital part of its growth plans since the beginning of the financial crisis.

“We always had a strategy to expand overseas but, because of the way the market was in Ireland, we had to push it a little bit harder,” he said. “It’s something that I think a lot of Irish companies have had to do.

“If it pushes you out of your comfort area, that can only be a good thing; it does mean a lot of travelling and a lot of conference calls but it’s worth it.”

Mr Tintori said the company was performing particularly well in Canada, where it struck four deals in the past week alone.

He said the key had been to have niche areas of expertise – government and education – which it was able to build on over a period of time.

“It’s hard if you don’t have one client; once you have one, it’s easier to get two or three,” he said. “It can take some time but once you get that one, it gets a lot easier.”