Saving time in a working world
Company founders Pat King and Brendan Griffin say this cloud-based solution is the most advanced permit–to-work system ever developed and has significant potential globally.
It is being sold to a range of pharmaceutical and medical device companies in Ireland and also to the food and beverage industry. OneLook has already started to build up customers in both the US and the UK.
Supported by Enterprise Ireland, which identified it as a high potential start up in 2012, OneLook is preparing to launch SafePermit at the largest north American health and safety expo being held in Las Vegas in June. The company’s founders see vast opportunities in the US market and expect to triple sales this year.
OneLook Systems has been in existence since Jan 2008. Mr King, a business systems analyst, and Mr Griffin, a software developer, had observed a gap in the market for an electronic permit–to-work system in the pharmaceutical sector.
“There was an issue with how long it took to get people working on sites — the paper process being used involving form filling and time. We estimate that the electronic system we developed saves an average of half an hour per job. Some companies have hundreds of jobs a week so the savings can be considerable,’’ reveals Mr Griffin, operations director at OneLook.
In 2008, both men quit their jobs with a Cork pharmaceutical company and approached the South Cork Enterprise Board and signed up for the Enterprise Start Programme.
Later in the year, they went on to take part in the Enterprise Ireland supported incubation programme, Genesis. “By the time we finished this in 2009 we already had our first customer, Johnson and Johnson and Abbott signed up shortly after this,’’ says Mr King, the company’s managing director
Although the company got off to a good start, the recession began to impact its plans for growth. OneLook had started out in the boom but, by 2009, companies were reluctant to spend. “Everyone we showed our product to loved and wanted it but they said, maybe next year,” says Mr King.
In 2011, OneLook approached Enterprise Ireland asking for assistance with R&D with a view to making the product more affordable. Given the impact of recession on Ireland the founders then cast their eyes on the US, home to most of the world’s pharmaceutical giants.
“We found that the needs in the US were just the same as everywhere else. We also found out that if we wanted to grow we needed to make our product available in the cloud and to sell on a software as a service basis,’’ says Mr King.
OneLook redeveloped its offering and relaunched it at the RDS in February last year.
“Since then the pace has picked up and we now have 15 to 20 new customers,’’ says Mr Griffin adding that their customers include EMC, Amgen, and GSK, as well as Diageo which signed up in 2011.
During 2012, the company started selling through resellers in the UK and also in the US.
“We already have customers in Silicon Valley and in Chicago where we are selling to a large multinational with 15,000 employees,’’ says Mr King.
Based at the Fota Point in Carrigtwohill since 2012, OneLook now employs a staff of 10. Since starting out to offer a solution to the pharmaceutical industry it has now widened its customer base.
“Approximately 65% of sales are to clients in pharma and medical devices area but we are now selling to the food and beverage industry, high tech manufacturing and public utilities,” says Mr Griffin. Funding secured late last year from Enterprise Ireland and a private investor, is now being used to grow sales in the US market. The company has a sales office in Silicon Valley and plans to develop a network of resellers in the US.
Exports now account for 40% of sales, but OneLook expects this figure to grow to 70% by the end of this year.
“During 2013, we plan to take on three or four additional people in sales and software development. Sales have already grown significantly this year and we see the potential to triple turnover,” says Mr King.
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