Waveform Solutions Ltd Management Buy-out
The Sunday Times 22nd Feb 2009

"When Alan Carroll joined ADC Barcodes Systems nine years ago, little did he think he would end up owning the company one day.  Last year, however, he and Philip Moore bought out the founder of the firm.  It is a very different business from the one he joined as a barcode machine salesman, as reflected in its changed name, Waveform Solutions....

...Although it continues to sell hand-held computers, Waveform's focus now is on selling software that can help companies to be more efficient, in the form of inventory control and tracking applications, for example.

Clients include Dunnes, IBM, Brown Thomas and Musgrave, though Carroll is keen to add clients in any sector.  "There are a lot of businesses out there looking for ways to make themselves leaner and cut down on paper and even people,” he said. "Companies that got fat during the boom need to trim back now."...

...At Waveform, Carroll was on the road most of the time meeting customers. Some of the would ask if we could sell them software to do things such as monitor their stock levels," said Carroll. "I realised this could be a lucrative area and so we set up a software 'solutions' division."

Caroll found he was good at this aspect of the business and so the ADC boss David McCabe made him business development manager working alongside Moore. "We were tasked with building the mobile solutions division from scratch, the result is Waveform Solutions Ltd," he said.  It became a separate entity in 2005.