Under the Radar:Back in September 1998, the signing of an inter-governmental agreement by Bill Clinton and Bertie Ahern using smart cards and security codes instead of pens and paper represented a major PR coup for then high-flying Baltimore Technologies.
It also turned out to be a nerve-wracking few hours for Jon Mulligan, the Baltimore employee who was pulling the technology strings on the day - and not because of concerns about the technology. Earlier in the day, Mulligan had stuffed his security pass into his pocket and forgotten about it - not the smartest thing in a building packed with gun-toting secret service agents protecting the world's most powerful man.
As he followed the US president and the Taoiseach out to meet the world's media for the signing, he came face to face with a secret service agent who hadn't seen him before. "I had no security credentials. I was manhandled off to the side. It was all quite scary.
"Eventually an official from the White House said we need this guy over here. So I wasn't shot, thank God! But it was all very embarrassing because I was expecting my moment of glory on TV behind the president, but on the TV footage you can just see this guy being pushed out to the side."
These days, Mulligan has no dealings with the secret service, but life is no less exciting. After the spectacular demise of Baltimore, he set up his own company with ex-Baltimore colleague Damian O'Brien.
Its flagship product JournalLive was launched in the past few weeks and, in the coming months, they're planning a major fundraising round to finance international expansion.
JournalLive is an online monitoring software service which records information about a user's computer activity. This information is encrypted and sent to servers operated by the JournalLive team.
The collected information is used to generate secure online reports which describe various aspects of a user's computer activity over time.
Inappropriate computer usage such as playing games, continuous web surfing for personal use or watching movies online can be quickly spotted.
It sounds a bit like Big Brother out of George Orwell's 1984 and, while bosses might welcome it as a valuable tool in keeping tabs on workers' productivity, it's the kind of thing that might send shudders down the spines of more paranoid employees.
"You are recording people's activity and they are probably not going to like that," agrees Mulligan. "But compare that to the tools that are already being used to monitor them which they don't actually know about, and the fact that these are closed and secret systems, that all the information gathered is used by the IT department.
Somebody in IT has full access to the contents of your e-mail, full contents of every webpage you go to, knows exactly what software you have installed.
"We are getting away from the secret monitoring to an open and transparent system where the employee is involved in the process. It is a little bit scary, but a lot better than the alternative that's there."
Mulligan says it shouldn't be viewed as negative by staff and that it can actually be turned to their advantage. "If you are working at the weekend, it means you can do that with the confidence it is going to be recognised. The next time you're going in for a review, you can print out your stats and you make sure you get the wage, or whatever package is going, to compensate you for putting in the extra effort."
It also makes teleworking a possibility by removing the issue of distrust that many managers have about letting staff work from home.
"It makes teleworking an open and transparent process. Through a series of simple, graphical web-based reports, managers can easily ensure remote workers and contractors are punctual, hard working and performing to agreed goals. Now, what manager can say no to that?"
Mulligan says that Openplain is more than just a one-man show and is quick to highlight the input from technical director Damian O'Brien, who was former product architect and team leader for Baltimore's flagship product UniCERT.
Both men rode the rollercoaster that was Baltimore from small and humble beginnings to stock market darling, before its eventual crash and burn.
"The technology was very good," says Mulligan. "The problem on business side was probably an acquisition too far and it didn't have the management experience to be a FTSE 100 company. I guess it was victim of its own success. It needed publicity to sell the product, and to become an internationally accepted supplier of these services, it needed to get big quick. But it got too big, too quick and it was unsustainable."
With Openplain planning to raise around €750,000 through the Business Expansion Scheme to fund consolidation in Ireland and expansion into the UK and then the US, that's good knowledge to have.
