Minister's Forerword
Introduction
Credits
Acknowledgements
Datacare Software Group
PROJECT OBJECTIVE
DEVELOP E-SEC CORPORATE SECRETARIAL SOFTWARE INFRASTRUCTURE
Datacare Software Group is based in Monaghan and has offices in the UK and Canada. Datacare was the first software provider in Ireland to provide a Windows solution to the Irish company secretarial market, at the same time launching its product in the UK. Datacare’s core business is the provision of products for the corporate compliance market. Its core product is a software solution for the management of corporate legal affairs called Monicord (known as Secretariat in the UK), which has over six hundred clients in Ireland, UK, Holland and Canada.
Business Case for eCommerce Infrastructure Project
Datacare identified the need to develop a company secretarial software solution for SMEs. The target user group would include organisations ranging from single corporation private enterprises to mid-sized service providers, managing records for 100+ clients. While this group demonstrates a growing acceptance of the use of on-line applications, the size, licensing and installation costs of existing applications are disproportionately high for their requirements. This user group is reluctant to pay large up-front license fees and prefers transaction-based fees.
E-Business Solution
Datacare developed e-Sec to meet the corporate secretarial needs of this potential user group. e-Sec is a fully distributed, web hosted, thin client, corporate secretarial software infrastructure. The product will be offered through corporate portals on hosted servers run by Datacare and its partners and may be licensed to third party application service providers.
e-Sec is based on a ‘pay-per-use’ model. The user pays a monthly subscription fee based on the number of transactions, i.e. forms produced or entities serviced. The product is a direct competitor of supplies of ‘forms on disk’, smaller company secretarial software suppliers and ultimately with service providers.
Clients access the system through standard Internet browsers. The primary services offered by e-Sec are the hosting of client corporate records and the production of the necessary corporate legal forms and documents, required for filing in compliance with local corporate legislation.
The benefits to users include the 24 x 7 availability, low granular costs and the elimination of software installation and maintenance requirements. Other useful features include email reminders of approaching deadlines for submission of statutory forms and the opportunity to participate in corporate compliance discussion groups.
e-Sec is expected to revolutionise the maintenance of corporate records for SMEs. Initially implemented through smaller service providers, SMEs will eventually use the e-Sec application themselves, eliminating the high cost of service providers. Based on current pricing, the cost of filing by SMEs themselves will be less than a third of the rate charged by service providers.
It is expected that e-Sec will accelerate the use of electronic interfaces with the Companies Registrars in each jurisdiction. It is currently possible to file electronically in the UK and in Ontario in Canada. It is also possible to electronically incorporate in Ontario and this functionality is expected to be available in the UK within the next year.
Who Will Benefit from this e-Commerce Infrastructure Development?
Datacare plan to implement e-Sec globally, commencing in Ontario, Canada, where the company has formed a joint venture partnership with Cyberbhan Inc to develop a Canadian corporate compliance portal. Cyberbahn currently sells corporate search services on Ontario corporations under a contract with the Ontario ministry of Commercial and Consumer Relations. Only two such contracts exist. Cyberbahn’s contract has now been expanded to include electronic incorporation (e-filing).
Datacare’s e-Sec product will be available in the US and UK from the first quarter of 2001 and will be distributed either through owned, or joint venture owned portals, and channel agreements with other ASPs and portals.
Datacare Software Group Ltd
The Diamond
Monaghan
Co.Monaghan
Tel:
www.data-care.com
jdaly@data-care.com
