Happy birthday Shireburn
One of the oldest information technology companies in Malta turns 25 tomorrow. Shireburn Software was set up in 1983 as the first private IT training company in Malta, running computer awareness courses and then training on the WordStar word processor...
One of the oldest information technology companies in Malta turns 25 tomorrow. Shireburn Software was set up in 1983 as the first private IT training company in Malta, running computer awareness courses and then training on the WordStar word processor and VisCalc Spreadsheet software, precursors of Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
Two years later it started the provision of IT consulting and eventually software solution development, which is still its core business today.
"However, there are a number of things which have not changed," insists John de Giorgio, managing director and founder of Shireburn. "We have continued to maintain an extremely high retention level of our clients and staff. The loyalty of our clients has been exceptional, which is something rare in this industry."
The company's internationalisation thrust which started 10 years ago has also paid dividends. Today Shireburn has customers in 40 countries and has 36 companies worldwide selling and supporting its own software from the US to New Zealand. Its Integra for Notes product family has established Shireburn as the world leader in the field of Lotus Notes to Microsoft Office integration, with the list of customers including the US military, Hertz, Gartner, and IBM.
"While Shireburn is well known, especially internationally for our Integra for Notes products, I believe that locally it is our financial manager, inventory and payroll solutions that give us the greater visibility," added Mr de Giorgio. "It has also assisted in exposing Malta as an ICT destination. People are always surprised when they find we are based in Malta."
In the ICT field things change at a very past pace, and 25 years look like a very long tome compared to other spheres of life. How have things changed in Malta over these years?
"The industry has tended to consolidate and become more professional and capable," explained Mr de Giorgio. "On the software side of the locally owned companies, there has also been a shift towards importation of third party products rather than the development of own products as well as the provision of outsourced services and people placement. Shireburn has gone completely against this trend believing that we need to create our own intellectual property (IP) to create software products which we can then resell both locally and overseas. We believe this is a more scalable model both for our company but also for the Maltese ICT industry."
Asked about the impact of SmartCity Malta on his company, he said it is all about how you react and realign to the new realities that will make the difference.
Plans for a more distant future are even difficult to draft. Will the company still exist to celebrate its 50th anniversary?
"Our continuous development and incredible customer and staff loyalty, means, that as long as we continue to deliver the level of service and quality, timely offerings that we are known for, our future is looking good."
Indeed Shireburn is putting the final touches to some interesting projects to be announced in the coming months, including of course updates to the Integra product and a number of web application development projects, together with a major new module to handle inventory ordering over handhelds and PDAs.
However, Mr de Giorgio makes it quite clear that people, not technology, are to credit for the success of the company.
"Shireburn would not be where it is today were it not for a number of people. The consistent support of our clients is much appreciated and acknowledged. In addition Shireburn is a people business and I wish to thank all the team at Shireburn, present and past, but particularly Franco Galea, our operations director, without whom Shireburn would certainly not be what it is today. I also wish to acknowledge the patience of my family who witnessed long hours of my time building the business."
i-Tech also spoke to one of Shireburn's clients, which confirmed the reasons behind software companies' standing in the local ICT industry.
"Shireburn has always strived to improve these products. In fact I am very pleased that Shireburn takes on board a lot of the suggestions that we put forward," said Reno Zammit from Simon J. Camilleri Holdings, which makes use of several financial, payroll and HR management solutions from Shireburn.
He praised the company for resolving problems by connecting to the systems online without the need of sending people over, which proves to be very cost-effective.
"Over the past two years we also used Shireburn for IT maintenance support. Even in this field, Shireburn has excellent staff who do their best to resolve problems remotely."
http://www.shireburn.com
Two years later it started the provision of IT consulting and eventually software solution development, which is still its core business today.
"However, there are a number of things which have not changed," insists John de Giorgio, managing director and founder of Shireburn. "We have continued to maintain an extremely high retention level of our clients and staff. The loyalty of our clients has been exceptional, which is something rare in this industry."
The company's internationalisation thrust which started 10 years ago has also paid dividends. Today Shireburn has customers in 40 countries and has 36 companies worldwide selling and supporting its own software from the US to New Zealand. Its Integra for Notes product family has established Shireburn as the world leader in the field of Lotus Notes to Microsoft Office integration, with the list of customers including the US military, Hertz, Gartner, and IBM.
"While Shireburn is well known, especially internationally for our Integra for Notes products, I believe that locally it is our financial manager, inventory and payroll solutions that give us the greater visibility," added Mr de Giorgio. "It has also assisted in exposing Malta as an ICT destination. People are always surprised when they find we are based in Malta."
In the ICT field things change at a very past pace, and 25 years look like a very long tome compared to other spheres of life. How have things changed in Malta over these years?
"The industry has tended to consolidate and become more professional and capable," explained Mr de Giorgio. "On the software side of the locally owned companies, there has also been a shift towards importation of third party products rather than the development of own products as well as the provision of outsourced services and people placement. Shireburn has gone completely against this trend believing that we need to create our own intellectual property (IP) to create software products which we can then resell both locally and overseas. We believe this is a more scalable model both for our company but also for the Maltese ICT industry."
Asked about the impact of SmartCity Malta on his company, he said it is all about how you react and realign to the new realities that will make the difference.
Plans for a more distant future are even difficult to draft. Will the company still exist to celebrate its 50th anniversary?
"Our continuous development and incredible customer and staff loyalty, means, that as long as we continue to deliver the level of service and quality, timely offerings that we are known for, our future is looking good."
Indeed Shireburn is putting the final touches to some interesting projects to be announced in the coming months, including of course updates to the Integra product and a number of web application development projects, together with a major new module to handle inventory ordering over handhelds and PDAs.
However, Mr de Giorgio makes it quite clear that people, not technology, are to credit for the success of the company.
"Shireburn would not be where it is today were it not for a number of people. The consistent support of our clients is much appreciated and acknowledged. In addition Shireburn is a people business and I wish to thank all the team at Shireburn, present and past, but particularly Franco Galea, our operations director, without whom Shireburn would certainly not be what it is today. I also wish to acknowledge the patience of my family who witnessed long hours of my time building the business."
i-Tech also spoke to one of Shireburn's clients, which confirmed the reasons behind software companies' standing in the local ICT industry.
"Shireburn has always strived to improve these products. In fact I am very pleased that Shireburn takes on board a lot of the suggestions that we put forward," said Reno Zammit from Simon J. Camilleri Holdings, which makes use of several financial, payroll and HR management solutions from Shireburn.
He praised the company for resolving problems by connecting to the systems online without the need of sending people over, which proves to be very cost-effective.
"Over the past two years we also used Shireburn for IT maintenance support. Even in this field, Shireburn has excellent staff who do their best to resolve problems remotely."
http://www.shireburn.com