When Ken Moulton was asked to organise a hockey team 18 months ago, he saw a need for an integrated system to contact team members. He harnessed the business opportunity and, with Niall McEvoy, a friend of 25 years, launched Teamer.net in September.

Moulton had worked for Intel since 1992, and McEvoy with Enterprise Ireland, helping SMEs achieve their growth plans. Both felt an IT system for team organisation would be a successful business.

‘‘Niall was unable to find the fatal flaw in the concept or business model, and he would pride himself in finding the flaws,” said Moulton.

He said that while they had a different outlook on many matters, they had a high degree of mutual respect and, as a result, important issues got a thorough airing before a decision was made.

Teamer.net is an online team management platform integrating web 2.0-based technology with e-mail and SMS text services to provide a closed loop communication solution to get a team to show up in the right place at the right time.

The company website, www.teamer.net, includes a demonstration on how it works. The service is free, with all revenue in the Irish operation coming from commercial marketing arrangements with large brands.

Also recently launched in Australia, the company derives revenue there through the SMS element, which is charged to users. The company has received marketing campaign approval from the US mobile operators network and hopes to go live there before the end of the year.

‘‘Funding a business startup can be a fraught and difficult experience for entrepreneurs but, with my experience working in a business advisory role, I had a little bit of a head start in that regard,” said McEvoy.

The business partners received Business Expansion Scheme (BES) approval from the Revenue Commissioners, allowing them to prepare a business investment prospectus.

Enterprise Ireland then became involved and is an equity participant in Teamer.net. Since September, the company has had 20,000 users sign up. In Ireland, some sites offer forums and blogs for teams, but none provides the range of services that Teamer.net offers in all types of sport.

‘‘We hope we will be better than any others in this space by remaining as close as possible to customers and focusing intently on their needs,” said Moulton.