Case Study - Chief Operations Officer

Name: Eamon Hughes

Job: Chief Operations Officer (www.utrack.com)

I was one of the first graduates out of the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown (ITB). I did my Degree (Honours Bachelor of Science in Computing) there and I did my Masters in Trinity. ITB has excellent facilities and is very industry-orientated rather than just academic. That’s standing to me now that I’ve set up my own company.

I’ve come full circle in that I’m actually back here again. My business, set up by myself and another former graduate, is based in the Learning and Innovation Centre in ITB. Primarily, we’re a software company. We do a lot of contract work but we have our own product, which is for coach operators and chauffeur operators– a web-based package with GPS tracking for fleet management. It generates invoices, has a shared diary- it basically runs the whole company.

There’s a lot more to running a business than having a good product. I’d say 20 per cent of my time is spent doing development in my area of expertise and the rest of the time is the actual running of the company. I have a business partner so it’s 50-50. He’s more of a technical guy. He’s here programming while I’m out meeting clients and doing the paperwork and learning about everything that goes with it.

The College gave me a good work ethic. There were a lot of assignments: monthly, weekly, you were under pressure to deliver. It sets you up for business and dealing with the pressures of day-to-day tasks.