Joe Hogan, CTO, and Niall Norton, CEO of Openet, receive their E&Y award in October 2011 from now-former Irish president Mary McAleese and Frank O'Keeffe of Ernst & Young
Irish software company Openet will be vying to win the global finals of the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year competition in Monte Carlo this week where it will be up against more than 50 country winners of the national award.
Back in October, Dublin-based Openet won the 2011 Ernst & Young Irish Entrepreneur of the Year finals, while it also won in the International Entrepreneur of the Year category.
The company itself was set up in 1999 in a basement office in Dublin, but has since grown to have a global team of more than 830 people.
CTO Joe Hogan and CEO Niall Norton are now in Monte Carlo to compete in the Ernst & Young global finals. The winner will be announced on Saturday, 9 June.
Speaking today, Norton said the Irish win has had a very positive impact on the business.
“Being the winner for Ireland has been incredibly positive for our business, especially the enhanced recognition with customers, with staff, with our families and in the wider Irish business community, where good news is hard to come by these days,” he said.
Up against the likes of LinkedIn and Rovio
Frank O’Keeffe, partner-in-charge of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, spoke about how Openet represents the very best Ireland has to offer on the global stage, especially as 99pc of the company’s revenues come from outside of Ireland.
“Openet will compete with over 50 other country winners for the coveted world title, including LinkedIn, Benetton and Rovio,” he said.
Openet itself provides software to communication and media service providers to enable them to control network traffic, monetise new and existing services and guarantee quality of experience for mobile device users.
IBM R&D alliance in Texas
In early 2011, IBM teamed up with Openet to jointly create a new telecom centre of excellence in Austin, Texas. The aim of the centre was to help mobile operators with their R&D to cope with billing and bandwidth demand driven by growing use of smartphones and tablets.
As for the World Entrepreneur of the Year finals, they will be streamed live from Monte Carlo on Saturday via webcast at 21.45 local time, or 15.45 EDT in the US and 20.45 BST.
