I moved to Cork when I left school in 1976 and worked in the construction industry while I studied accounting through the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants. Instead of qualifying as an accountant I switched to property sales with a company that built one-off houses in Munster. They needed a sales person as their sales guy had left. I took on that role until I joined the computer division of Bryan S Ryan (BSR) in 1981.
This company distributed Olivetti minicomputers in Ireland, but much of its business involved older accounting machines with magnetic cards. Many of its customers were accountancy firms or credit unions. Mike McGrail, followed by Hilary Wardrop, ran the computer division when I worked there.
Things were very traditional then. We had a ‘typing pool’ where the sales people went in order to get quotes done. The only time that we used computers was when we gave demonstrations.
Bryan S Ryan provided my first experience in computer sales, but I left after less than a year. I joined with Peter Murphy and Dave Barry – both worked in other divisions in BSR – and set up Amabar Business Systems. I was the ‘computer guy’ among the co-founders.
Amabar was a general business equipment reseller, based in Cork and supplying photocopiers and typewriters as well as computers.
I felt that the days of the minicomputer were numbered. I had read about Sord Computers, which had set up a microcomputer distribution unit in Santry, Dublin. Takayoshi Shiina had founded the company in 1970 when he was just 26 years old. I met him in Dublin in November 1981 – only to discover that the owners of BSR were in the building also. They were looking for the Sord agency in Ireland that same night!
I got a dealership for Sord. It had just launched the Sord M23 – a dual floppy disk-based machine which ran its own programming language, Personal Information Processing System (PIPS), as well as CP/M. PIPS allowed inexperienced users to do their own programming. It was like the forerunner of a spreadsheet-database combination. I also worked with Liam Hester of ABC Software in Dundrum to develop a range of accounting software for the Sord systems.
Amabar sold Sord’s machines to businesses across Ireland. Its products included the Sord M68, which the company released in 1983. This was a dual processor system featuring two buses (16-bit and 8-bit) and two CPUs (a Zilog Z80 and a Motorola MC68000).
I saw the IBM PC for the first time when I visited the 1983 IBETA Business Equipment Show in the RDS. I remember the climate at that time as really ambitious. Users were starting to grasp the idea that these technologies were available for them. They would come up to you, describe a process they were running manually, and expect you to provide an automated solution. They asked for simple stuff at the start – invoicing, credit control and stock control – but a lot of the software didn’t exist. The industry was not shy in stating that it could ‘write it’.
The trade knew it was onto something. Computer resellers were setting up in their own right instead of being part of an ‘office equipment’ company. Programmers were key. Colleges were adjusting their programmes to provide some of the skills, but a lot of the programmers who were active at that time were self taught.
My vision was to grow a business based on computing technology, so I parted ways with my Amabar colleagues in 1985. I set up PFH Computers with a small office and showrooms in Courthouse Chambers in Washington Street. Catherine O’Keeffe, who started as a programmer at Amabar, moved into PFH with me. She is still working at the company in 2018.
We focused on general accounting systems, accounts preparation software for accountants and word processing for solicitors. Most of the deals were with small and medium size firms and most of the revenues came from Cork-based customers.
We won a large deal, however, to provide machines for AnCO‘s training centre. The agency and its successor FÁS became an important source of skills for PFH. We brought in technical guys and trained them in repair and maintenance. Eric Daly, Brian Crean, Der Cremen, Damien White, Brian Finnegan, Gerry Brazil, Shane Doyle and Aidan O’Sullivan all went on to senior technical positions in PFH or to roles in companies such as Jurys, Dell and Cisco.
No challenge was too great for us. Somewhere along the journey – I think in 1985 – a customer in the builders providers business had a need to optimise the cutting of timber sheets – how to get the most cuts of various sizes out of each sheet. I brought the problem to a young programmer – Shemas Eivers – who was doing ‘nixers’ at the time. He willingly took on the job. Many weeks later myself and Shemas looked at each other in frustration as we tried to demonstrate the Sord M68 to the customer. While it chugged and spluttered, trying to come up with the optimal cuts, the customer was able to work out the answer in his head. So much for the dual processing power of the M68!
I maintained the relationship with Sord. It was a good brand, but not mainstream because its systems lacked MS-DOS and SuperCalc. We were the only resellers in Cork with a product like PIPS and we also had a reliable set of accounting software. We used these differences to our advantage and also played with Sharp and NEC as alternatives to Sord. Again, though, those vendors were outside the mainstream.
To crack the larger accounts I knew we needed the strength of a brand, such as IBM or Compaq, with a standard operating system. Users were now expecting that they would not become locked in to any one vendor. Standards also mean more sales – maybe less margin but volume is what counts. We started applying for accreditation by the big vendors in 1987. It was a torturous process.
By 1988 PFH had about eight employees and our turnover was around €500,000. I was very competitive and never mixed with any of my competitors – I just wanted to win every deal This was a bit immature really, but to me business was war! I suppose everyone was trying to establish credibility and references were very important. We forget sometimes now how much we actually trade on our names.
Training services enabled us to access the local corporate accounts. In about 1989 we were accredited by Lotus as a Lotus 1-2-3 Training Centre and by MicroPro for WordPerfect courses. That gave us real credibility with corporates. And a major landmark followed in 1990 when PFH obtained an IBM dealership.
IBM made me work hard to get into the ‘club’. When we did get in, we refused to cooperate with some dubious price fixing practices that other local dealers suggested. We were definitely the mavericks among the resellers. We took keener margins on hardware but always charged for our services – customers tended to like that.
A key hire at the time of getting the IBM dealership was Peter O’Connor, who had worked in sales with Business Automation. He brought in knowledge of corporate customers and how to deal with them. Peter went on to become SolarWinds’ vice president for EMEA sales.
For the next decade we stuck with IBM, HP and Compaq and then Dell – good brands with strong warranty and maintenance programmes. In contrast we had horrendous experiences with Amstrad and AST – their quality control was weak and their after-sales service was non-existent. As for software, we just went mainstream. Buying niche and unproven doesn’t work. Why swim against the tide ?
I have been dedicated to PFH and to growing the business every waking moment since 1985. In the early years I was the chief strategist and chief salesman. In the 1990s I slowly released my front-of-house role and began hiring really smart people.
While we enjoyed indigenous growth in Cork with some limited success in Dublin, we began to realise that the quickest way to achieve real scale was through acquisitions. In 2006 I approached a good friend of mine – Gerry Gray, MD and major shareholder in CK Business Systems, which was based in Galway and Dublin. Both companies had a turnover of roughly €18 million. PFH was strong in pharma, hospitality and SMEs. CK’s strengths were in health and finance. What had been planned as a merger of equals changed when Gerry suffered a stroke during the negotiations. After some months it became apparent that Gerry no longer wished to participate and PFH bought CK. We became a €36 million business overnight. In 2010 we went on to buy the networking and telco arm of Siemens in Ireland and storage specialist Redstone Technology.
It has been a great success story. Over 300 people work in PFH today and we are projecting revenues of €100 million by 2020.
Last edit: October 2018
© Paul Hourican 2018