Partner Article

Technology awakened from its slumber

SOFTWARE made in the region, which looked destined for the scrapheap following a year of major technical setbacks, is now primed for global success after a North East innovator came to the rescue of its creators.

North East firm bluejourney was conceived in January 2009 to ultimately market its EMINUS product, which allows businesses to send marketing messages to its customers via Bluetooth technology.

However, after spending nine months in the hands of its former software development partners, the company was left with a poorly developed realisation of a groundbreaking idea beset by major technical faults.

After many months in limbo, the company’s luck then changed when its directors met Peter Fullarton, the man behind Sunderland-based software firm Heridian.

The innovator – who is best known in the industry for creating a system that allows patients in developing parts of the world access medical treatment remotely – set about rebuilding the software.

The result, which was revealed to the market yesterday, is a commercially viable product that has already attracted the attention of a number of international firms.

The company now plans a national sales drive through a team of 20 freelance salespeople, which could initially be worth somewhere in the region of £1.5m a year. It also plans to build accountancy and CRM functions into the technology in the coming months.

Meanwhile the firm has outlined the Far East, as well as the US, Australia and Mexico, as potential overseas markets and the possibility of integrating the software with world-renowned packages is currently being investigated.

Speaking at the firm’s headquarters at the North East business and Innovation Centre (BIC) in Sunderland, director Brian McCollum said: “In just five weeks Peter and Heridian have managed to give us a robust and fully-functioning version of our product. The previous developers took over nine months and still came up with faulty goods.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .