Denis Naughten TD has welcomed a new technology business that will help small and medium enterprises (SMEs ) win a greater share of public sector contracts worth €12 billion. He said that the opportunities were huge for local SMEs to win a far greater share of public sector tenders.
Businessman Tony Corrigan launched TenderScout last week in the Merrion Hotel, Dublin, in an event attended by Denis Naughten.
Mr Corrigan, who has some 20 years’ experience in the information technology (IT ) sector, said he took the step after research revealed that only 10 per cent of Irish SMEs were winning Irish Government public tenders. “This presents a massive opportunity for companies to grow their businesses – and significantly. With €12 billion available in contracts from the Irish Government alone, the size of the opportunity is clear.” TenderScout.com is an online platform that helps SMEs win public sector contracts. Mr Corrigan says that, on average, companies which used TenderScout in its pre-launch phase have improved their win rates to eight out of 10 compared with one out of 10 for companies generally.
TenderScout has secured a grant of €15,000 from Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers programme. One of the conditions for acceptance on the New Frontiers programme is that the business has the potential to generate more than €1 million in revenue and 10 jobs within three years.
Mr Corrigan said he was confident that this target would be achieved once SMEs understood the scale of the opportunity open to them by signing up to the service.
