Irish Nostra aims to plug gap in UK hosted services space

Dublin-based VAR to open UK Office

O’Loughlin: the next obvious market is the UK

Bullish Irish VAR Nostra Systems is plotting a UK assault after spotting a gap in the market around hosted Microsoft services.

The Dublin-based firm aims to open a local office in the Heathrow area by the end of the year, with plans to recruit 10 to 15 staff within the next 12 months.

Nostra managing director Kevin O’Loughlin said: “We have grown rapidly over the last two-and-a-half years and the next obvious market is the UK.”

O’Loughlin claimed UK VARs had been slow to fulfil UK firms’ hosted services requirements.

“We already have customers in the UK that buy hosted Exchange and SharePoint. They have found it hard to locate, because not many firms do it,” he said.

Ireland-based workflow analysis vendor OfficeMetrics has also expanded into the UK and Nostra will be one of its key allies.

Through its new partner programme, OfficeMetrics is offering Referral partners 15 per cent margin and Certified and Solutions partners like Nostra margins of 30 to 55 per cent.

OfficeMetrics managing director Jon Mulligan said: “Nostra is our main partner in Ireland. It uses our technology to quickly identify technology gaps.”