Bernard Walsh - Hot Irishman
This company has gone from being about 40pc to 90pc export-based in five years.
ENTREPRENEURS
David Walsh
Netwatch
In the space of seven years, David Walsh has led Netwatch in Carlow to the point where it has opened a new state-of-the art corporate headquarters and is in a position to create 50 new research and development (R&D) and operations jobs.
Netwatch was the first company in Ireland to combine specialist video-transmission technologies with satellite communications to provide safe, preventative, immediate and cost-effective protection solutions for clients.
The Netwatch system is a next-generation asset-protection solution, which deploys the most advanced protection technologies including GPS tracking, audio visual detection, personal protector equipment and wireless perimeter security cordons to protect individuals and premises.
Walsh set up the company in 2003 with Niall Kelly, current director of technology, with a staff of three and Netwatch currently employs 70 people.
They invested €300,000 in the venture and secured some employment assistance from Carlow Enterprise Board.
“When we set up the company everyone told us it wouldn’t work,” said Walsh, who along with Kelly worked day and night to ensure that it did. Neither director took a salary for 18 months and both spent Christmas Day 2003 in the Netwatch command centre watching their clients’ premises.
Fifty customers after six months
Within the first six months they had over 50 customers and the business began to take off. The initial focus was on providing security for commercial operations but customers who used the system in their businesses began asking Netwatch to provide security for private homes. The company now monitors sites in France and Spain – mostly in holiday homes owned by Irish people. Netwatch also has customers in Britain and the US.
The entrepreneurial spirit of the company has been recognised by the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and the PA Consulting Management Awards amongst others.
Netwatch's new corporate headquarters and command centre
The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen TD, officially opened the new corporate headquarters and state-of-the-art command centre in Carlow on 30 April.
The new structure is located in a former Irish Sugar premises and represents an investment of more than €5m by the company.
This investment includes the establishment of a dedicated R&D centre, which has been supported by Enterprise Ireland. Up to eight employees will focus on the development of new software applications and more intelligent transmission equipment and site hardware to ensure Netwatch remains a technological leader in protection systems.
"Significant investments in R&D are critical if we are to foster innovation in Ireland. Netwatch is a dynamic and energetic company, driven by innovation and commercialisation and it is exactly the kind of company that we want in Ireland as we build our Smart Economy and strive to recover from our current economic difficulties," said the Taoiseach.
A strong statement of intent in Carlow
Walsh said: "This is a very strong statement of intent by us as a company in the Carlow region. Our first innovation was in exploiting an idea – creating a safer and better way of providing security– and in identifying the revolutionary systems which would allow us to bring such a technology to the Irish market.
"The new R&D centre in Carlow will allow us to continue to innovate with new applications and new technologies which will better protect our customers and their properties. This investment will position us for future growth not only in Ireland but in overseas markets and will afford us the opportunity to pursue larger and more complex contracts.
Netwatch is currently in advanced negotiations with the London Olympics to provide protection for critical communications infrastructure at the 2012 Olympic Games.
“We have developed a unique wireless protection product for remote communication masts which is currently being trialed at several locations. Securing contracts such as these is what will ultimately make Ireland’s vision of being an innovation-led economy a reality," said Walsh.
