A total strategic turnaround has been completed since and flotation is being mulled once more. But it wouldn't be 2000-style.

Going public used to be a form of exit, " said Norkom chief executive Paul Kerley.

With the way markets are going, people see it as a source of development funding."

Back in the heady days of 2000, companies achieved valuations and raised sums that would be inconceivable now. Then loss-making Riverdeep, which since came off the market, raised $117m in March 2000. Parthus, whose valuation soared to over $1bn after flotation, later merged with Ceva. Datalex, the last Irish software company to get away in 2000, only recently turned its first profit as a public company.

For Kerley, the big disappointment at the time was not that the IPO was pulled.

?The disappointment was that the world crumbled in front of us, " he said. ?Dotcom companies evaporated and incumbents didn't have to defend themselves any more, and they were our two key markets."

A shift in focus came after a long, hard think. Norkom is now focused exclusively on financial crime, and exclusively on the financial services sector. Meanwhile, it has diversified geographically. In 2000, 60% of its business was in Ireland, but that figure is now only 3%. In 2004, it made its first acquisition, buying Belgian Data4s.

There was obviously a capital markets meltdown and we were caught in a tornado, but we also had to ask why it was so easy for people to stop doing business, " Kerley said. We decided the switching costs were too low, and to compete properly with the innovators coming out of the US we needed to specialise. And we needed to look at the types of customers who will invest in an upturn or a downturn."

Norkom has been profitable for four years and grew by close to 50% last year. Kerley says the company doesn't have any funding requirement, and that flotation is one of several options being considered.

The only reason we would look at raising funding is for M&A, " he said. ?Norkom intends to remain independent. We have done a lot of work."

These days, funding either of losses or acquisitions is the usual reason for flotation among Irish tech companies, and the AIM is the usual choice of market. A more glamorous Nasdaq debut would require market capitalisation of $150m-$200m, but that bar doesn't daunt Paul Hands, chief executive of Cork-based IPO hopeful Qumas.

You run a company to a particular exit point, and in our case we are running the company to an IPO in 2008, " Hands said. ?As every month goes by, the tech sector is getting more exuberant."

Valuations are getting stronger every month, he said.

?Pre-dotcom, people were getting valuations of 10 to 30 times turnover. A year ago, it was two, three or four times turnover. Now it is back to five to ten times. That's the kind of traction you need to get into the IPO business, and the appetite will grow over the next 18 months."

Qumas turned over just under $17m last year, and is targeting $28m this year and $45m next year. ?We did just under 5m in our first quarter and we are bang on target, " Hands said.

The company raised $20m in venture capital money last year, half of which went towards buying out early investors, at a post-money valuation of about $60m.

?Nine months later, I would say that valuation is above $100m, " Hands said.

One stalwart that saw possible flotation on its horizon in the tech heyday was financial services software company Fineos. Chief executive Michael Kelly said he still hasn't ruled anything out.

But the interesting thing is that many of those companies that floated are standing still. It's not just about raising money, it's about having a strong strategy for growth, which will deliver."

The main event" these days, Kelly said, is mergers and acquisitions, as venture capitalists seek exits. And he reckons the Irish software industry could do with more consolidation. ?There are around 700 software companies in Ireland, and 95% of them turn over less than 1m."

At the end of 2001, Fineos raised 10m from ABN Amro.

Since the downturn, it has had three years of growth.

?We're back to where we were in 2001, " Kelly said. ?We don't carry losses on our balance sheet, which is something in the tech sector."

Like Norkom, the company is now more geographically diversified, after expansion in North America, Australia and New Zealand. It is back to peak staffing, with 250 employees. It turned over more than 20m last year, up from 18.5m in 2004.

Now we want to work out how to reach 40m, " Kelly said. ?The big issue is to make sure we keep growing at 20% per annum. The companies that survived the downturn have been those that stayed focused and had enough cash to get through the bad years."

Despite the frothy flotations of the late 1990s and into 2000, Ireland is still very light on multinationals.

Fineos, Norkom and Qumas, along with CR2, gaming company Havok, Benchmark Capital backed Openet and heavy-hitter Curam, are among 13 software companies on Enterprise Ireland's hit list of 41 companies being supported for ?scaling".

To qualify, companies need to turn over at least 5m and commit to doubling their business every three to five years, translating into 15%25% compound growth. The goal is to push companies past the 20m turnover mark, and upward to 50m or more.

Getting to 20m doesn't mean you're sustainable by any means, " said EI's Des Doyle.

The scaling group showed 30% growth last year . . . double the growth rate of the broad software sector, which was the country's fastest-growing sector.

We have about 2,500 active indigenous clients and a tiny proportion of those every grow to any kind of scale, " Doyle said. ?You will find that fewer than 100 companies have even grown to 20m, and we're including in that the likes of Glanbia and Kerrygold."

Ireland's lack of an equivalent of a German 'mittelstand' of companies is being disguised by the property boom, he said. Nobody is arguing that that is going to prevail at the current rate."

Doyle does not expect a flood of flotations from among the scaling group. ?I don't see people queuing up to do it, because they don't have the need. Profitable companies have the capacity to do a lot with bank finance or private equity."

On the state of the wider software nation, Kerley is upbeat. Studies pitching the indigenous sector against multinationals are not comparing like with like, he said.

My guess is that if we can make the same progress the multinationals did in the past 20 years we'll have a pretty good sector."