Ronan Skehill and Ian Rice
PinPoints is an innovative web service that describes a business’s location and any content relevant to that location, without end customers having to download or install apps.
In 2007, University of Limerick (UL) PhD graduates Ian Rice and Ronan Skehill received support from Enterprise Ireland to develop and commercialise their mobile location-based service research.
Together, over a 10-year period, they had helped to build UL’s Wireless Access Research Centre into an internationally recognised centre.
They left the university to spin out their research and established Cauwill Technologies in 2009 as a provider of mobile enterprise services. Later the same year, the company won the InterTradeIreland Best Emerging Company competition.
“Cauwill’s product PinPoints solves the global problem of describing a location and any content relevant to that location. It’s a web service for any business that has a need to describe a location or destination for its customers,” Skehill explains.
“An end customer may access the PinPoint via social networks, email or SMS. The PinPoint makes the best use of the technology available, detecting and integrating with whatever mapping software is available, whether that is mobile or desktop.
“The really clever thing about PinPoints is that we deliver a rich mobile app experience without the need for end customers downloading or installing apps. Currently, PinPoints works on over 40,000 different handsets. In 2010, the technology was promoted by the Nokia Ovi stand at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.”
Winning the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition in 2009, along with sales, provided Cauwill with working capital. It was successful in receiving CSF funding in 2010, which Skehill says allowed it to bring in experienced people from the directory enquiry industry and open an office in the UK.
While the PinPoints technology has broad appeal, Cauwill is to deploy it one vertical at a time with the directory enquiry sector the main focus for 2011/2012.
“Having deployed a solution with 11890 in Ireland and with Finland’s Eniro 0100 100 directory enquiry service, Cauwill looks to roll out several more solutions across Europe in the next 12 months,” says Skehill.
