VERSION 1, the IT consultancy that recently announced the creation of 90 jobs at its Dublin headquarters, will begin moving into the British market in January as it starts the hunt for a suitable acquisition target.
The company will look to purchase an IT services company in Britain whose clients are large businesses, but which does not currently provide managed services, according to managing director Justin Keatinge.
Mr Keatinge said Version 1 would then be able to provide managed services, whereby it runs customers’ IT systems remotely, from its own operations centre in Dublin.
It is also planning to establish a centre of excellence in Belfast dedicated to Oracle technologies. Version 1 has a high level of partnership with both Oracle and Microsoft.
Revenues at Version 1 will grow about 40 per cent this year to €25 million, with about 15 per cent of growth coming from the 2010 acquisition of Cork-based PM Centric, the IT division of the PM Group. The company, which Mr Keatinge co-founded with ESB colleague John Mullen in 1996, made a pre-tax profit of just over €1 million in 2010.
Version 1’s clients are typically large businesses and State agencies such as 02, Airtricity, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Health and Safety Authority and Irish Life.
Last month the company announced plans to create 90 jobs over the next two years which will bring employment close to 400 at its offices in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. “We were hiring one new member of staff every 12 hours in the first half of the year but that has slowed down now,” said Mr Keatinge.
The company has had to hire overseas, particularly in eastern Europe, to get staff with the skills he needed. Mr Keatinge expressed disappointment that the recent budget did not include measures to fast-track visas for workers with skills that are in short supply, something the technology sector has long been lobbying for.
Mr Keatinge is also critical of the universities which he says are “letting the industry down” by not producing enough computer science graduates. “We would hire more graduates if they were coming through the system,” he said, adding that 20 years ago he graduated as one of 70 from the University of Limerick, but there are just 11 final-year students in computer systems at UL this year.
