System Dynamics, Ireland's largest and oldest IT services company, has become a member of the Oracle Partner Network, the only Irish firm to achieve such a status. John Collinsreports.
System Dynamics, which was founded in 1968, has been seen as an IBM house and, according to its website, is one of IBM's top 10 software partners in Europe.
According to managing director Tony McGuire, formalising the relationship with the database and applications giant is the culmination of a process that begin with the acquisition of Software Resources Ltd (SRL) for €1 million in summer 2006.
"We have always done some Oracle work," said Mr McGuire. "But the acquisition of SRL was as a result of us coming to the conclusion that we wanted to get into the Oracle enterprise resource planning (ERP) space".
He said System Dynamics, which employs 180 staff, had made a significant investment in training for its consultants. The firm will use Oracle's business accelerators, which standardise processes for different industries, enabling complex ERP systems to be implemented quicker and at lower cost.
"A lot of businesses have standard processes: there is best practice for purchasing in government, manufacturing or whatever," said Mr McGuire. "Here it is, out of the box, now - that is the difference."
He said Oracle was making a big push into the Irish market so there were advantages to both firms in a formal partnership.
System Dynamics had turnover of €15.6 million in 2006, yielding a pretax profit of €371,729. Mr McGuire says revenues will rise to €21.5 million, all of which have been generated through organic growth.
Since Mr McGuire and ex-IBM executive Conor McWade acquired the firm in 1996, they have overseen a number of acquisitions. Mr McGuire says the firm is constantly on the look-out for suitable targets and has considered a number of regional IT services companies in the UK.
"The decision to be made is whether we develop our market position here or expand into another geography," says Mr McGuire.
"It will more than likely be the UK if we do make the decision."
