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Vero aims for record e5m turnover(Sunday Business Post Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Technology firm Vero Solutions has doubled its staff numbers since January and is on course to record turnover of e5 million this year, up from e1.49 million in 2006. The company specialises in software development and onsite engineering placement for the telecommunications industry. Barry O'Brien, managing director of Vero Solutions, said the increase in revenues was driven by a number of new deals. In the last three months, the company has signed contracts with a number of telecommunications companies, including Mobile Aware, Tango Telecom and O2 Ireland. It has also extended existing deals with a number of other companies including Arantech, France Telecom and Vodafone Ireland. O'Brien said deals were typically structured on a recurring revenue basis, with an average deal value of six-figures, although some larger deals were for seven-figure sums. Vero was set up in late 2003 by Stan Danilov. The company employs 105 staff across its headquarters in Blackrock, Co Dublin, and its offices in Russia and Serbia. O'Brien said 55 of its staff were based in Dublin, 40 in Russia and the remaining ten in Serbia. He said the company's staff numbers had doubled since the start of the year and the continued growth in the business meant that Vero currently has 29 open vacancies. O'Brien said that opening a Russian office was facilitated by the local knowledge that Danilov - a Russian - brought to the company. The company added the Serbian office last year. O'Brien joined the company early last year, and has 15 years' experience in the mobile telecoms industry in Ireland and abroad. Prior to him joining, Vero employed five people. When he came on board, the company began to look at other areas to grow revenues, including the provision of managed outsourcing services. "Services seemed like the best model whereby we could bring in revenue quickly," said O'Brien. "We started selling professional services in March 2006 and we've had a lot of success." The company's outsourcing of software projects involves research, design, development, tests, installation and support. "Our model is to use Irish-based lead engineers and project managers, while doing a lot of the back-end development in Russia," said O'Brien. To date, Vero has not taken on any funding. O'Brien said it had not been necessary as yet, due to the company's organic growth. In its most recently filed accounts, Vero reported profits of e151,000, an almost six-fold increase on its 2005 profit figure of e26,000. He said the company had not really thought about venture capital funding, partially due to a reluctance to relinquish any equity stake to a third party. O'Brien predicted that profits would rise to about e500,000 this year. He said that next year a turnover of e8.5 million was likely for the company, with profits of about e750,000. He said the company was down to the last two, alongside Accenture, in the negotiations for a large deal. He said the four-year deal "would be well into the seven figures", with a decision expected by January at the latest. Copyright 2007 Post Publications Ltd, Source: The Financial Times Limited |