Dublin-based technology company Quest Computing has won a key Canadian e-government deal that will open the North American market up for the firm.
Manitoba Arts Council in Winnipeg will deploy Quest’s Oracle and open source-based grants management system called AIMS to streamline the processing and awarding of arts grants.
The company’s managing director Don Kingston told siliconrepublic.com that the deal opens up the North American e-government market for the company and it plans to open a Canada office and forge an alliance with a locally-based systems integrator in the region.
AIMS is a software technology built on the framework of Oracle’s 10g database technology as well as including elements of open source technology.
The system reduces the steps involved in granting government funding from over 200 streams down to four or five workflows.
The deal is the latest in a line of e-government wins for Quest, which has a strong track record in bespoke software development.
The system has been deployed by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to manage the process of awarding grants. It enables more than 60 officers at the Department’s Furbo, Co Galway offices to engage in collaborative working to manage the workflow that goes around the awarding of the grant, measure key performance indicators and analyse the effectiveness of the service they provide the public.
The system is also being used by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology as well as the Sports Council of Wales and the Arts Council of England.
Quest employs 52 people in Dublin, 15 in London and four people in The Netherlands.
Kingston says that the key wins have led to considerable interest elsewhere in the world, particularly amongst Commonwealth countries like Australia.
“We’ve established a number of global partnerships to cater for this interest and we’re also partnering with a number of large systems integrators in the UK, Europe and North America to support future implementations,” he stated.
By John Kennedy
