Snapping a healthy diagnosis for the future

DESPITE the current economic turmoil, Ireland’s fastest growing technology company in 2008, Lincor Solutions in Cork, is making plans to keep growing in 2009 and beyond.

Providing technological solutions for hospitals, Lincor won the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award in 2008 having achievedan aggregate growth rate of 3,134% over five years.

While it would be very difficult to maintain this rate at present, the company, which exports to 14 countries worldwide, has already won some new contracts this year and has several others in the pipeline.

Success to date has been achieved through the sale of MEDIVista — a touchscreen computer used at patients’ bedsides in hospitals by doctors and nurses to access electronic records and X-rays and to manage patients’ medication as well as to provide entertainment including TV, games and internet for patients.

Lincor chief executive Richard Cooke says the company was early to the market with this technology solution in 2003 and that the potential for future sales is huge.

Selling through a network of channel and technology partners in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the US, Lincor has supplied its solution to 12,000 beds in 50 hospitals. “Our target market is acute hospitals in OECD countries which have 2.5 million beds which means there is still a lot of market,’’ observes Mr Cooke.

The only difficulty in developing sales since Lincor was set up, has been in getting hospitals to accept the new technology. Mr Cooke says that in the beginning hospitals bought Lincor’s solution to provide patient entertainment and get a revenue stream from this but now more are buying it to improve patient safety and efficiency in recording patient data.

The difficulty in having the technology accepted means Mr Cooke welcomes the entry of Siemens, a household brand name, into the market. “It gives credibility to this type of solution and we are confident we can win the business since we have a very strong product,” he observes.

Operating from a unit at Cork Technology Park on the Model Farm Road, Lincor now employs a staff of 25 and since 2008 it has had an office in Toronto. Over 95% of its e6 million turnover in 2008 came from exports. The company’s largest market is France with 25% of sales while Canada with 15% is the second largest. Other markets include Spain, Benelux, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

During 2008 the company signed up its first customer in the US and also won contracts to supply an 825-bed hospital in Malta and a 350-bed facility in Canada. In order to fund product development and expand exports Lincor raised e1.8m in BES funding in 2008, starting with e1.5m at the beginning of the year and raising a further e300,000 at the end. Although it was suggested last year that the company planned to float on the stock market Mr Cooke says this is not going to happen. He says that Lincor is a profitable company and that he hasalways seen the customer as the best source of funding.

Given the tough market conditions at present he says it’s difficult to assess what sort of growth Lincor can expect this year but thinks that it possible that over the next five years the company can increase its turnover by a factor of four or five.

One of the advantages Lincor has in the current climate is that it is supplying a range of diverse markets. “The impact of the recession in countries such as France and Canada has not been as bad as it has here,” observes Mr Cooke.

Since the beginning of this year, Lincor won a contract to supply an 800-bed hospital in Utrecht and one for a smaller hospital in Malaga. Projects in the pipeline include one for a hospital in Australia and one for a large hospital in France. Mr Cooke says that although Lincor is still winning contracts the decision process now takes longer and that a few contracts have been lost because the hospitals didn’t get the funding.

One of Lincor’s advantages in the current climate is that as well as selling technology solutions to hospitals it also licences the software which means it generates ongoing revenue from this. “We are now developing new software applications which we can sell to our existing customers,” he saysexplaining that Lincor has added a software application which allows patients to order meals electronically.

Meanwhile, the company will be placing its main focus for 2009 on developing sales in Europe but will also be hoping to win new contracts in Saudi Arabia, Canada and Australia.