The move by Telecom Eireann to invest £10 million (€12.7 million) in a relatively unheard of Irish technology company, Trinity Commerce, came as something of a surprise within the industry.

Trinity Commerce, a subsidiary of the better known Trinity Technology Group, has been in operation for two years providing electronic commerce services to commercial clients. By September its revenues will have increased from £1 million to £5 million and the Telecom investment values Trinity Commerce at around £20 million.

So what prompted Telecom to take a 51 per cent stake in a little known e-commerce firm? According to Mr Bill Donoghue, the newly-appointed managing director of Trinity Commerce and former managing director of Trinity Technology Group, Telecom Eireann needed to find a partner that could offer e-commerce and Internet integration services.

"We wanted someone on board as concerned as us that the business would work, rather than sitting back and saying `isn't this a good investment'. Telecom Eireann was an ideal investor because it knows the Internet very well and has made a lot of smart investments in Internet related companies, including Indigo and Nua."

Mr Donoghue set about seeking outside investment for Trinity Commerce last Christmas and, early on, he decided against the venture capital route, choosing instead to take a longer term view. In the last couple of weeks Trinity Commerce has been on something of a spree, appointing some heavy hitters from the business and technology industries to its management team, opening new offices in London, and laying the groundwork for a US presence. Such moves bear the hallmarks of a company on an aggressive growth path with ambitions for a stock market listing within two to three years. Mr Donoghue says he is not "ruling out" such a strategy.

The Telecom majority shareholding means it will consolidate Trinity Commerce's revenues and net margins into its own annual accounts. Mr Donoghue is confident the new arrangement will not shift the decision-making process into the hands of Telecom. Trinity Commerce will be equally represented at board level and only one Telecom representative will feature on the board.

The primary Trinity Commerce shareholders are Mr Jonathon Mills and Mr Robert Booth - founders of Trinity Technology Group - and Mr Norman Crowley, founder of the Solutions Group which was "absorbed" by Trinity Technology and marked the forerunner to Trinity Commerce.

The remaining shareholders are Mr Donoghue, Mr Pat Crawford, Mr Brian Bardin, and Mr Eamonn Mulvihill - all Trinity Commerce employees. Some of the more notable recent appointments to the Trinity Commerce board include Mr Brian Dunnion, former managing director of Saatchi & Saatchi Ireland. He has been appointed marketing director, and Mr Luke Conroy, general manager of Sun Microsystems Ireland, is to join the company as operations director with responsibility for product and services delivery.

Mr Donoghue cites a strong management team as the most important ingredient for success: "I'm 34, and could be altruistic and hire a lot of other young people around me, but we have big ambitions and I wanted to put an experienced management team in place that the business can grow into."

Despite his relative youth, Mr Donoghue brings a good deal of management experience to Trinity Commerce, albeit from an unrelated quarter. Prior to his appointment as managing director of Trinity Technology last year, he worked within the Quinnsworth/ Tesco group for 16 years. He joined the company after leaving school at 17 and quickly rose through the ranks.

"I don't think there was any business as tough back then. I was given a huge amount of experience in a range of disciplines and got a lot of breaks. At 21 I opened the Merrion Centre in Blackrock - very few organisations would give you that kind of responsibility that quickly."

By 1990 Mr Donoghue was running Quinnsworth in Artane, the group's largest branch, and felt a bit "burned out" by the trade. He was appointed to head up the company's information technology division as the company needed to devise a strategy to maximise growth in electronic technology opportunities.

There he formed a relationship with Trinity Technology Group and was approached by Mr Mills and Mr Booth two years ago to take a position in the company. "Initially Jonathon and Robert weren't that clear about the role they wanted me to take. Then when they came back last year with the offer of managing director it presented a real opportunity. You have to take your hat off to two entrepreneurs who let go the reins and hand over their business, but I also would have had a number of reservations about so much responsibility."

Mr Donoghue is now charged with transforming a rapid Irish start-up into an international Internet application and services company for Fortune 500 companies. In the last 12 months the workforce has grown to 53 from seven, and Mr Donoghue expects it to expand by more than 100 people in the coming year.

It will be mainly comprised of software developers and since Trinity Commerce is a dedicated partner of Sun Microsystems, it is committed to the Java platform for developing Internet applications. The British and US markets will be the major targets for e-commerce applications and services, as Mr Donoghue concludes they remain underdeveloped despite the hype surrounding the subject.

However, Mr Donoghue believes Trinity Commerce needs to develop a core product range which will vault the company forward within the e-commerce industry. It has already accumulated substantial intellectual property but a single enterprise application product that can be installed in any corporate organisation will throw open the e-commerce market.

"There are no real enterprise application products on the market yet. There are no big players like Oracle, with an e-commerce product to beat all. The race is now on to devise this product," Mr Donoghue says.

Name: Mr Bill DonoghueAge: 34Marital Status: SingleBackground: Grew up on Malahide Road in Dublin with two brothers and one sister. Educated at St David's Artane where he was a clarinet player with Artane Boys' Band. Spent 16 years working for the Quinnsworth group, picking up a BA Management from the Irish Management Institute along the way. Lives in Churchtown.Hobbies: Gym - four days a week, travel, swimming, flying aircraftReason he's in the news: Has just been appointed managing director of Trinity Commerce, the subsidiary of Trinity Technology Group, in which Telecom Eireann recently took a 51 per cent shareholding on foot of a£10 million investment.