Colm O’Regan and Colin Whelan founded OmniSys Limited in 2001. They were working together in Dublin during the turn from 20th to 21st Centuries.
Colm being the more senior technically, and Colin, a good sales communicator. They had thoughts for the formation of a new business, but based on a new idea, to offer IT Support services on a month to month basis payable as you go. Not paying a year in advance for service not yet received as all other mainstream IT support companies were offering. In essence, they decided to put their customer service reputation on the line and give new prospects a risk free option in trying an alternative. Obviously this had to be slowly constructed as revenue and cashflow would take time to build. So with a couple of second-hand cars, no office and no staff, they set off out there looking for new business customers who would give the OmniSys Monthly Support Plan a try. It did not take long to win first customers, not hurt by the fact that the Encyclopaedia Britannica training had left Colin with no fear of cold canvassing businesses with a friendly “Hello, can we help you with any computer or networking issues?” On reflection, there is recognition of the favourable time of starting in 2001 as the “Celtic Tiger” was just being born. It was probably a little easier than at any previous time in Ireland, but each new client and success won fuelled the “Is Feidir Línn” OmniSys attitude of the time. Soon new small company vans were obtained for both of the guys and OmniSys had it’s first identity.
In 2003 a new field engineer joined the team, and OmniSys had it’s first employee. Customer numbers grew at a managed pace and then in 2005 Dara Elliott joined the team. By this time having moved into their first shared office in Santry Business Park beside Dublin Airport, owned by friend and client John O’Donoghue Insurance. OmniSys had a wonderful lady helping each day with invoicing and bookkeeping from 10-3pm and there was even an in-house technician and a proper workshop area.
By 2006 the team had grown to 5 staff and 3 branded vehicles. The “Celtic Tiger” was roaring strong but, as known now with hindsight, a change was coming. Following a sudden shocking downturn in sales figures for 3 months in a row, plans to move to a new dedicated OmniSys office were put on hold and an emergency re-structure was embarked upon to ensure OmniSys would be able to fulfil customer support commitments. Many customers had similar issues and it became clear OmniSys had its part to do to in helping customers survive this financial storm. With creative hardware maintenance and support, system life-cycles were stretched out and best value solutions sought to ensure our customers could continue to do the best they could.
