Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year: International Finalists

Four nominees in the international category of the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, in association with The Irish Times, Enterprise Ireland, InterTrade Ireland and Newstalk, are profiled today

FRANK and ADRIENNE DOLPHIN

Rigney Dolphin

FRANK AND ADRIENNE Dolphin established Rigney Dolphin in 1990, and in the intervening 20 years, the company has grown to be one of Ireland’s leading indigenous business process outsource partners, providing solutions to domestic and international clients.

While the firm had a strong focus on the telecommunication sector, in recent years it has expanded into the healthcare market – with a particular focus on the US – and specialises in the provision of innovative and value-added contact centre solutions to a number of blue-chip organisations and State agencies.

In the health sector, the company provides nurse-on-call triage and patient management services, and has engaged in a number of collaborative projects to develop technology for alarm monitoring services, knowledge management services, diagnostic flow systems, and quality management software.

As a business process outsourcer, Rigney Dolphin offers clients an end-to-end solution: from recruitment and training to customer service delivery and support, assuming direct responsibility for the level of service delivered to customers on behalf of their clients.

With 22 years of experience, the Dolphins and their experienced team of management and industry professionals continue to provide clients with unique access to knowledge and best practice in the provision of contact centre solutions. This affords clients the opportunity to increase their cost effectiveness and achieve any necessary system and quality improvements in the process.

The company has 600 direct employees but numbers vary significantly based on contracts and the insourcing of some clients’ staff from time to time. Services are provided by Rigney Dolphin contact centres in Waterford and Derry, as well as from a development office in Cleveland, Ohio, and on its various client sites. The company achieved turnover in excess of €34 million in 2011.

Services:

Rigney Dolphin’s comprehensive and diverse portfolio of service solutions includes customer management services, CRM programmes and tele-health services, operating as a virtual extension of the client’s business, and mirroring the culture and values in customer interactions.

Customers:

Clients of Rigney Dolphin include Airtricity; Vodafone; 3; BMW; Hyundai; Postfone; Gift Voucher Shop; National Consumer Agency; and

the Environmental Protection Agency. Those within the health sector include the HSE; The Cleveland Clinic in the US; and the Casala Project which delivers assistance and quality care in the home through the use of technology.

Describe your progression from start-up to current status?

“The business was originally set up as a management consultancy, with an emphasis on change management and organisational psychology. This developed into recruitment, which in

turn evolved in to the provision of contract staff and outsourcing. Our Derry office enables us to compete for all-Ireland business and provides additional access to the UK market, and in recent times, our collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic is opening opportunities within the US.”

Are there any interesting or unusual circumstances surrounding the inception of the company or its evolution?

“In 1990, not many companies recognised the need for the services of a psychologist, particularly one with a background in health and education. Our involvement in the areas of training, market research and recruitment simply came about as a way of keeping business flowing, so it’s ironic that our skills in consultancy and healthcare have given us an opportunity in the American market 20 years later.”

EDMOND HARTY

Dairymaster

DR EDMOND HARTY is the technical director of Kerry-based Dairymaster, a leader in the development and manufacture of dairy farm equipment.

A mechanical engineer by profession, Harty joined the family business in 1998, while studying for a PhD in UCD where he focused on the area of milking performance. This focus on in-house RD, manufacturing and the application of advancements in engineering technology has remained core to the business’s international success, and has enabled the company to be at the cutting edge of product innovation while retaining jobs locally.

Dairymaster’s innovative product range encompasses five key areas: milking equipment; automated feeding systems; hydraulic manure scrapers; cow fertility monitors; and milk cooling tanks.

By milking each cow an average of one minute faster than the competition, Dairymaster’s state-of-the-art equipment delivers 5 per cent more yield in scientific trials. In turn, this superior milk-out, natural milking and a focus on automation allows the dairy farmer to make smarter management decisions.

The range of automated feeding systems identifies each animal via a chip in the cow’s ear tag and its Smart Feeder system has been developed to provide custom-feeding to cows during the dry period. Connection to a cloud computing system allows remote monitoring of the farm which ensures the correct allocation of energy and minerals within the animal’s feed, resulting in fewer health issues and improved milk yields.

Dairymaster’s hydraulic manure scrapers are recognised as market leaders and provide significant labour and cost-saving efficiencies to farmers, while its recently developed MooMonitor has revolutionised the highly problematic and costly area of herd fertility.

This pioneering nanotechnology monitors animal behaviour on a 24-hour basis and allows those challenged cows to be identified at the earliest possible stage. A complementary smartphone app has also been developed which allows the system to be viewed remotely.

The addition of the SwiftCool milk-cooling tank to its product portfolio has provided the dairy industry with further opportunities to improve milk production performance and can even advise the farmer when milk has been collected from his farm.

Headquartered in Causeway, Co Kerry, the company also has operations in the UK and the US, and employs 220 people internationally. More than 70 per cent of production is exported to customers in over 40 countries worldwide.

Products:

Dairymaster is regarded as the world leader in the development and manufacture of labour-saving, automated devices for the global dairy industry.

Customers:

Wholesale and retail customers in more than 40 countries including Ireland, UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and Iran.

What role does CSR play in your business strategy?

“We are involved in a number of projects that range from facilitating interaction with schools and colleges, and donating equipment to Dublin Zoo, to supplying product to Third World countries. We also take cognisance of our carbon footprint when designing Dairymaster equipment and ensure that it is energy efficient.”

What is the best business advice you ever received?

“If you have a problem, tackle it head-on and deal with it. Sort it out as quickly as possible as it will not go away by itself.”

Our Derry office enables us to compete for all-Ireland business and provides additional access to the UK

JOHN BOHAN

Apex Fund Services Group

JOHN BOHAN is the chief operating officer of Apex Fund Services Group, an international fund administration company with its Irish offices in Cork and Dublin.

The group was established in 2003 with the aim of providing fund administration services to onshore and offshore clients. In the nine years since its inception it has become one of the world’s largest independently-owned fund administration companies with approximately $22 billion assets under administration and more than 280 employees employed in 24 offices across the globe.

Through its provision of services to more than 400 investment managers for whom it administers a wide diversity of fund strategies internationally, revenue in the six months to the end of March 2012 are up 20 per cent on the corresponding period in 2011, continuing what has been an aggressive growth curve since its inception.

Apex prides itself on its international footprint and ability to deploy a team of highly-experienced professionals to service the needs of local clients anywhere in the world. This in turn allows the asset manager to choose when and where a business should be serviced rather than using the traditional and less efficient model of engaging multiple, third-party administrators across a variety of regions.

This understanding and knowledge of local markets dictates the group’s ongoing innovations in new product and service development and this enables it to develop bespoke fund accounting and valuation solutions to meet the specific and evolving needs of its worldwide clients.

In April 2011, Apex Group secured a $30 million capital commitment from FTV Capital in return for a minority equity stake, and Bohan believes that its global network and reputation within the asset management sector makes FTV an ideal partner for the Irish firm.

Services:

While Apex’s core business lies within the provision of fund administration solutions, the group launched an investment management arm in November 2008 to provide services to both offshore, unregulated and onshore, regulated funds. To date, this division has $125 million in assets under management, with platforms in Bermuda, Cayman and Malta.

Apex also launched a Singapore-based advisory arm in February 2008, a financial statement outsourcing company in Mumbai in March 2011, and a middle office outsourcing division in September of that year, all of which are profitable.

Customers:

With its international customer base, Apex is unique in its ability to reach globally, service locally and provide cross-jurisdictional solutions to all of its clients. In turn, clients benefit significantly from Apex’s regional expertise and global presence that enables flexible and custom-made solutions.

Has your Irishness contributed to your success?

“I believe that Irish people in business have an expertise and relentlessness to push forward which is a unique combination. Being able to converse with a diverse range of people and cultures, and make people feel at ease, are all traits of being Irish. You use every skill you have in growing and winning new business and these traits have certainly served me well.

What is your biggest business achievement?

“Ensuring Apex’s success through the initial waves of global recession in 2008/2009 by leveraging off of every avenue, contact and communication medium to generate new business and seeing that come to fruition was, emotionally, very rewarding. Those two years for me were incredibly challenging from a business and personal perspective.”

GARY DUFFY

Excelsys Technologies

GARY DUFFY is chief executive of Cork-based Excelsys Technologies, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-power density, high-efficiency electronic power supplies for mission-critical operations within a variety of specialist markets that include industrial, medical, lighting, communications and military.

The company serves original equipment manufacturers globally from its head office in Cork. With sales offices in the US and China, and a global network of distributors and sales representatives, Excelsys has established itself as the brand of choice for customers seeking reliable and cost-efficient modular power supplies.

Established in Swords, Co Dublin, in 2000, while the company’s innovative technology was highly-regarded, it struggled to exploit the global market opportunities at its disposal. In 2006, the current chief executive increased his stake in the business, relocated it to Cork, appointed a new management team and began to grow the company’s engineering capability and sales channels.

In the six years since, revenues have trebled to almost €8 million and assembly of the company’s products is now outsourced to best-in-class manufacturing facilities in China.

Today, the company has sales across 30 countries and employs 27 highly-skilled technologists who are mostly graduates at PhD, masters and honours graduate level in engineering design, product development, applications engineering, product marketing and sales management, operations management and customer service.

Services:

Excelsys Technologies’ power supplies are contained within applications across a wide variety of industries including medical (clinical diagnostics; medical lasers; imaging and dialysis equipment; theatre robotics); industrial (lasers; wafer fabrication; optical inspection; printing; machine tools); communications (base stations; wireless telephony; bulk power systems); lighting (street lighting; architectural lighting; signage – the most well-known in Ireland being the display screens in Croke Park); and high-reliability and military: (radar systems; test and measurement; data communications; mobile land systems).

Customers:

Customers in the medical, industrial, military, communications and lighting sectors include Siemens Medical; GE Healthcare; Gambro; Trumpf; Karl Zeiss; Philips Medical; Roche; Cooper Lighting; Permlight; Alcatel Lucent; Applied Materials; and Samsung.

Describe your progression from start-up to current status?

“After running the European business for a US multinational for many years, I subsequently established a boutique consultancy and angel investment company and spent eight years with start-ups and growth companies – some were good, some not so good but one of these companies was Excelsys Technologies.”

Are there any interesting or unusual circumstances surrounding the inception of the company or its evolution?

“The original owners asked me to help them to sell the business but, feeling that it was just too small, I put together a growth plan and invested in it 12 years ago. By 2006, the business was struggling, but I recognised the value of the technology. I increased my stake, moved from the position of non-executive chairman to CEO, relocated the business and two employees to Cork, built a new team and the rest, as they say, is history.”