Regionally focused, the Rubicon centre is attuned to transitions in the local economy and ready to help move people into emerging new opportunities.  When Motorola closed its doors in Cork with the loss of over 400 staff, the Rubicon Centre got in there to assist before the knowledge was scattered and secured eight projects from the closure.

One of the projects was software development and project management company, AspiraCon Ltd,  who participated in the 2007 Genesis Enterprise Programme.  With participation, AspiraCon Ltd. were offered the option of taking up residence at the Centre.   Managing Director PatLucey explains that this offered them a number of benefits.  First, they needed to project a professional image - the Rubicon Centre decidedly met this criterion and provided the company an image that would normally be well outside the financial grasp of a fledgling company.   Second, Aspiracon was looking for scalability for rapid expansion. Having begun with six, the company went on to hire 15 employees. This growth was accommodated by the centre with its flexible leasing policy in line with the needs of growing companies.

Third, because it is specifically aimed at incubating new businesses. Lucey felt that the Rubicon Centre was extremely important to them as a start-up company and particularly critical for networking opportunities with peers.  In fact, AspiraCon Ltd. Have secured a number of contracts to deliver project management and development integration services to other incubating new businesses located at the Rubicon Centre, and have also utilized the services of other Rubicon businesses.

Background

AspiraCon was founded in May 2007 by Pat Lucey and Colum Horgan.  Since its inception, the company has grown significantly, developing software applications, integrated software tools and delivering Project management services to help organizations manage complex projects.

The story of AspiraCon shows how intervention and support can bring success after a plant closure. In May 2007, Motorola closed its doors in Cork with the loss of 400 highly skilled engineering and R&D professional jobs.  The closure sent shockwaves throughout the country because of the caliber of jobs being lost.   When the company closure was eminent, local management met with a number of State agencies to help find jobs for the outgoing workers.  In conjunction with Enterprise Ireland, Paul Healy of the Rubicon Centre,  offered a fast track Enterprise Start Programme over a six day period for all those interested in starting their own business. Lucey felt that this programme was excellent and came just at the right time for him.  As well as practical information on employment law, company formation and sales and marketing, Lucey says , “That specific course was attended by eleven people from Motorola  of whom nine went on to start-up their own business.  The course gave us the confidence to go forward with our business idea”. Indeed, before the program finished, Lucey had secured a software development deal and had rehired four former Motorola software engineers.

Lucey and Horgan had the opportunity to further refine their ideas on the Genesis Enterprise Programme in 2007. This rapid incubation programme is run in the Rubicon Centre and provides support and management skills development to entrepreneurs heading knowledge-based start-ups. Their participation resulted in two core software products and confirmation of High Potential Start Up status by Enterprise Ireland.

The Company

AspiraCon Ltd. develops enterprise software and delivers Project Management services which dramatically cut the cost to organizations in managing their projects. The company is staffed by ex-Motorola employees and headed by Managing Director, Pat Lucey and Operations Director, Colum Horgan. Lucey and Horgan both headed major business units at Motorola and were responsible for the delivery of projects by almost 800 engineers across nine countries including India, Malaysia and China. This extensive experience helped them develop the project management expertise which drives the company.  The company has two core software products and also provides specialized project management staff to oversee complex technical projects as well as bespoke software development services. 

The company has been able to finance its R&D and growth through service and software development but is looking at various capitalization options going forward and plans to add additional products and services for deployment over the next year.

Market Background

The importance of Project Management is long been recognised in most industries as crucial to the both the success of the project at hand, but also to the success of the organisations themselves.  There are a number of software applications on the market that allows for individual project managers to successfully track the scope, time, cost and quality of their own project. However, there are often, projects that are so large or complex that they require several projects, each with a project managers. Because of the interdependencies of these projects, integration is key. Many projects now require multi-site teams, separated by thousands of miles.  We see this particularly in the IT sector with many software development components outsourced to places like India or China.   AspiraCon’s target market is those organizations that have complex projects to deliver, or multiple projects running in parallel – those companies who have five or more project managers working simultaneously.  This is the area where AspiraCon saw a gap in the marketplace. “It has long been a source of frustration to me that it can be so difficult to get a reliable, easy-to-use, integrated and cost-effective toolset to manage a project. You can get bits and pieces that address some aspects, or you can pay millions for a system that requires a small army to maintain” says Lucey, “ AspiraCon had the vision to develop an integrated project and quality management infrastructure that we can offer out of a box or can easily tailor to work with existing business solutions”.

Products

AspiraCon’s flagship Product, Project Collaborator, is unique in automatically building project schedules and in presenting real-time views of multiple projects. The software makes it easier to manage large, complex or simultaneously running projects while reducing the customer’s need to rely on more expensive products or consultants.  PROJECT COLLABORATOR provides a dashboard view that gives real-time visibility into the status of each project.  Using a simple set of  Red-Amber-Green rules that are configured by the user, the system gives an immediate view of project status and is drillable in real time, so that any elements of the project that represent a risk to success can be accessed and analyzed through the PROJECT COLLABORATOR system.