Blueface, Ireland’s leading cloud telephony company today 10th January announced a €1m investment in Research & Development to enhance their next generation IP telephony and services platform and drive export activity.  The investment, which will create 12 new jobs, is being part-funded by Enterprise Ireland’s R&D Fund.

This R&D initiative involves the design and development of the next generation of Blueface’s IP Telephony platform and will serve both direct and managed service customers in Ireland and the UK. The project will enhance the Blueface proposition and provide customers with a range of innovative voice features, applications and services.

Since it was founded in 2004, Blueface has built a strategy of delivering cutting edge, innovative telephony solutions and achieving cost advantages for customers of all sizes.

Blueface has a strong history of R&D since its inception and has built an excellent track record of supplying innovative services and features to meet the communications needs of businesses and carriers alike.   The ongoing investment in R&D ensures that Blueface remains at the cutting edge of the IP telephony domain.

Alan Foy, CEO, Blueface commented, “Our new R&D programme will assist us to enhance our product portfolio, create sustainable jobs and to continue to generate and develop innovative telephony solutions for our customer base in Ireland and the UK.  Enterprise Ireland’s support for this initiative will directly help us to achieve those aims, underpinning our business growth both here and abroad.”

Congratulating the company, Minister Bruton said: “Initiatives such as this one by Blueface are exactly what is required if we are to achieve the levels of growth and employment that is needed to rebuild the economy and get jobs growing again.  I congratulate the company and all those involved in an undertaking that will progress the company to the cutting edge of their sector.  Enterprise Ireland’s R&D Fund provides support to Irish companies and it is my intention to continue to encourage the development of indigenous Irish firms through Innovation investment. In this way we can build up a portfolio of internationally successful and competitive Irish business that will contribute to the future of the economy“.

Enterprise Ireland classifies Blueface as a “scaling client” meaning it is has particular potential for rapid and steady growth to quickly achieve international scale.

Greg Treston, Head of Scaling with Enterprise Ireland said: “This strategic investment by Blueface will enhance their offering and help them boost their export sales.  Enterprise Ireland is delighted to help finance this ambitious and forward-thinking initiative.”

Enterprise Ireland, Futurecurve and the development of our Value proposition

9.00am on another soggy Wednesday morning Ken Cahill and I wait in the reception of Enterprise Ireland. We were there for an update meeting and workshop with Helen Blake, Cindy Barnes from Futurecurve and Grainne Ryan our Enterprise Ireland DA

The team have been helping us develop Blueface’s Value Proposition. It is imperative that we understand our customers’ needs and identify the augmented benefits that come from using Blueface, before we engage in any significant marketing campaigns. The purpose of the workshop is to generate a greater focus on our Target market from an internal perspective; we have been working with Helen and Cindy to uncover the elements that lead to Blueface’s success. We attended a group workshop in October which provided us with a series of tools to help us identify the benefits our customers are most attracted to, the main features which seem to generate the greatest level of satisfaction are the low cost of calls, flexibility and scalability of the service as well as the consolidation of office technology into one phone or one device, these are all recognized as expected benefits from our business customers’ perspective.

The augmented benefits that come from this are improved time management, an increase in cash flow as telephony costs drop, ability to work anywhere and the most exciting benefit being the ability of any company to have ‘virtual international offices’ in the UK, US etc. This provides smaller emerging businesses with an opportunity to test the export market without the need for heavy international investment.

At the core of our business is the promotion of communication. Obviously it’s in our interest to promote ourselves in line with this, the success of Blueface depends heavily on businesses in Ireland and the UK empowering themselves by taking control of their own communications model, for far too long the SME and residential markets have fed into the telecommunication ‘cash cow’ for the sole reason of increasing resale value. The incumbent provider continues to stifle the Irish market by charging ‘money for old rope’. The IP communications platform is a far more exciting proposition, bringing all the standard features of a telephony system into the 21^st Century.

Alan