Donagh Kiernan is an acknowledged market leader in technology sales and marketing blog. He has been known to meet challenges and learn from it and eagerly anticipate more challenges that the future will bring. He holds the belief that one must always strive to be the leader in whatever business a person decides to be in.
Early Achievements
Donagh Kiernan established Vistech software in 1994 where it functioned as a sub-contractor for software development services to the software industry. This Cork-based company became one of the more progressive participants in Ireland’s technology boom. Vistech was consistently featured in Delaitte and Touche, Ireland’s Technology FAST 50 from 2000 to 2002. This is largely due to the company’s timely response to market shifts when it focused on the development and delivery of content management products and services.
The company’s flagship product Suite Webcore is credited as the key to its dynamic growth. This particular product made possible the swift deployment of web solutions. Expansion was happening at a very fast rate where turnover and employees are doubled every year. People behind the prestigious Technology Fast 50 Progressive have acknowledged their chosen winners as the perfect exemplification of the phenomenal growth and diversity that is found in the technology sector of the present Ireland.
Vistech software entered discussions with several software development companies for the purpose of pushing the Webcore technology into the international market. The company has used its Webcore toolset on development projects for end-user organizations within Ireland as well as elsewhere. It maintained a product development group separate from the service team to look into other product ambition.
Webcore is a set of tools based on XML and J2EE which simplified the development and management of web applications and publishing of content in multiple formats such as XML, WML, and SMS. Kiernan called it the development platform where its components sit on top of standard applications server environment. The on-line edition of the Sunday Business Post is one of the company’s project references where Webcore was integrated with the newspaper’s legacy publishing system. This enabled content to flow directly from editorial production to the website.
Kiernan believes that Ireland is well positioned to become the hub of the e-commerce world to provide a gateway between the US and Europe. Irish companies are intent on overcoming existing barriers, thus their continuous search for a solution that will provide assistance in sustaining their time in the market. It was a very promising time but Vistech was eventually closed in 2003 after taking a particularly hard hit due to the downturn in the worldwide technology.
Kiernan has since sold and delivered high-caliber IT systems to many well-known organizations, international or otherwise. The most notable names include the likes of Irish Life and Permanent, Heineken Ireland, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and Motorola. He was able to fit together business and technology due to his thorough understanding of all types of business and a fundamental grasp on relevant technology. He was always been up to the challenge of the changing environment of emerging business and has relied on innovations to produce business benefits with the use of technology.
Recent Developments
Donagh Kiernan formed Maidsfield in 2003 out of his strong passion and drive for Irish companies to achieve international status. Maidsfield is a business development consulting company that focuses on driving sales growth. It draws on Kiernan’s expertise in defining, selling and delivering outstanding technology solutions. The long years he spent of generating tangible business advantage through the application of relevant and effective technology is highlighted in his blog.
The founder of Maidsfield is a technology professional with a solid focus on business and sales. He graduated from Cork Institute of Technology in 1989 with a degree in Computer Applications. Prior to his founding of Vistech, he worked with PS Squared and CompuSense with the development of Engineering and Desktop Publishing Products as his main duty while working with customers worldwide.
Maidsfield plays an important part in the development of the National Software Center in Mahon, Cork. Its facility houses more than fifty companies including small start-ups and large established organizations. Its reputation for IT excellence in the Cork region has been clearly established as it was confirmed as the communications hub of the Cork Metro Area Network.
Kiernan is an active steering committee member of IT@Cork which is the regional industry organization for suppliers and buyers of information technology. It is a non-profit organization that provides forum for businesses that have a key dependency on IT to facilitate sharing of best practices and networking as well. It likewise supports the promotion of the region to external investors while working with other regional stakeholders for the promotion of IT related opportunities.
A caption from Donagh Kiernan’s blog reads: “Challenges met, lessons learnt and tomorrow’s cliff hangers – things I know and things that just feel right”. This line speaks much of what to expect from his blog. It aims to bring a company to business success through faster growth by means of more sales, higher margins and greater return on investment. He uses the principle of the Maidsfield Business Development which advocates the practical approach in focusing on sales results.
Kiernan believes that every aspect of the organization needs to be geared toward sales. Challenges arise in securing new business or delivering successfully and consistently. Maidsfield Business Development focuses on productization and sales to answer this challenge. This would involve the clear definition of a company’s business product or service offering and pricing structure. It also involves defining the product market or business requirements, marketing collateral, sales approval, presentations, case studies and materials. The focus on the strengths of the organization is expected to win more ideal clients. However, it is not solely about delivering recommendations and documentation. It is about achieving results by actually doing what needs to be done.
The development program is action oriented and results focused. It uses practical solutions while focusing on the strengths for greater effectiveness. It brings a broad network of expertise which the readers can take advantage of through its comprehensive blog.
