ENTREPRENEUR Chic McSherry, founder of Glasgow-based iPort Software Inter-national, has opened an office in the tourist resort of Cabo San Lucas in Baja California in Mexico, after spotting a business opportunity while holidaying in the area.
And the Scottish information technology veteran is projecting more than $1 million (£660,000) of annual revenues from his company's fledgling operation in Mexico, based on "competitor analysis" and initial sales.
Mr McSherry owns 50% of iPort Software International. The other 50% is owned by Coralinn, the investment vehicle of Caledonian Alloys co-founder Hugh Stewart.
iPort Software International, which cites NHS Scotland, West Coast Trains and grocery chain Spar as among its clients in the UK, had already opened an office in Houston in Texas, which serves the oil and gas sector.
Revealing how he had identified the latest business opportunity while holidaying on the Baja peninsula, Mr McSherry said: "I started going there about 10 years ago and was struck by the dynamism of the local economy and the business opportunities. Yet the lack of IT infrastructure and business experience was really holding things back.
"We already had an office in Houston, Texas, and an ethos of going wherever opportunity took us, so it just seemed to me a great fit for us."
iPort Software International said its new clients in Mexico included conglomerate Grupo Questro, real estate specialist BajaSmart, and marina and resort group Puerto Los Cabos. It added that it had also signed up hotels including Los Milagros and The Hotelito, and yacht charter company Pisces, in Cabo San Lucas, as customers.
The Scottish firm said it had also developed an interactive online tourist information resource for Cabo San Lucas.
Mr McSherry's move into the Mexican market-place follows his firm's launch of the latest version of its "iPort Business Platform", which it says enables businesses to use the web in a more integrated way to generate traffic and sales.
This business platform includes content management services, customer relationship management, and "app" and mobile device support.
iPort Software said it was already attracting interest from other resort areas in Mexico, adding that it planned to roll out the same business model in Puerto Vallarta this year and in Cancun in 2014.
Mr McSherry, who previously ran Glasgow-based IT company Prosys, founded iPort Software in 2004. This business was one of two entities into which the Prosys operation was split, a spokesman for Mr McSherry noted. The spokesman added that the other entity to emerge from Prosys, Syscare, had been sold to computer group Trinity in 2006.
Mr McSherry had been with Prosys since 1987.
Asked about the turnover and profitability of iPort Software International, Mr McSherry replied: "We are currently in the investment phase of our development and we're happy that our core business is performing as well as can be expected in the current climate. At this stage, we will break even, which meets our projections and is in line with our strategic goals."
The business has five people in the UK, with three between the US and Canada, and four in Mexico.
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