3Q Solutions - 3Q in the News - 3Q Signs its First Contract

3Q Solutions Signs its First Software Contract

By Gavin Daly

3Q Solutions, an 18-month old developer of wealth planning solutions, has signed its first customer and raised almost €400,000 in investment.The company, which employs ten people, licensed its software to an Irish financial services company.

It will use the software to maintain and increase revenues from high and medium net worth customers. Brian Hanly, a co-founder and chief operating officer of 3Q, said the company was in discussions with one other Irish organisation and three Scandinavian banks.

"Banks tend to deal well with their mass market and with high net worth individuals, but they overlook people that have net investment assets of €100,000 or €200,000," he said. "We have tried to put the brains in that area into software."

3Q has raised around €700,000 in investment since its foundation in early 2002. It expects to seal the final tranche of investment before the end of the year and will use the money to boost staff numbers to 24 people, focused on software development and sales. Hanly said 3Q had received good feedback on its product and business model and was around three months ahead of its business plan. It is part of the high potential startup unit programme at Enterprise Ireland and has worked closely with the agency.

"Next year will be about implementing our business plan, increasing sales and getting a few non-Irish reference sites," Hanly said. "Then, 2005 should be a big, big year for us.

"Our timing has been good, in that we were able to develop and build the product during the downturn. We didn't have to rush out because of competition. Now things are picking up, there's no doubt about it."

He said the company had raised all of its funding through a business expansion scheme (BES) and had no venture capital backers. "The funding side was the hardest part of it. We wouldn't have been able to grow without the BES funding."

He said it was "absolutely ridiculous" that the government planned to scrap BES funding in the upcoming budget. 3Q's directors are Hanly, co-founder and chief executive Ray Young, Priya Patel, Edward Hobbs, Colin Furniss and Sean Hanly.