A YORK firm which has designed revolutionary communications software is on the verge of a multi-million pound breakthrough.

The Morrice Partnership Ltd, based at the IT Centre in York Science Park, has invented NETp.a., a system which taps the brains and talents of every employee in a business, constantly updating their knowledge for research purposes into a common pool.

It will be launched at special trial at the end of this month by mega management consultants PricewaterhouseCooper, and could trigger sales all over Britain, and to multinational companies all over the world, to whom presentations have already been made.

Richard Morrice, who founded his communications company 20 years ago, expects that sales of the software could reach £2 million by next year, increasing to £5 million by 2007. He has taken on six staff and expects this to rise to ten by next year.

He said: "A system which gives access to all information to all people in a business all the time in a highly manageable way will be worth its weight in saved time and increased revenue."

The effectiveness of the software was recognised by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, which through Creation Network contributed £50,000 towards research costs.

The Morrice Partnership was also helped by KMA Interactive Media, the York-based software innovators, whose unusual approach to communications in the entertainment industry was the spark for the three-year development process.

Mr Morrice said: "We cannot reveal exactly who at this stage is interested in exploiting the new software, but I can tell you that one of the largest multinational grocery retailers plus sectors within the NHS have already conducted initial appraisals of the system."

An individual working on a project is seamlessly linked with all his or her colleagues who have relevant knowledge in that area, and is automatically placed in direct contact with the researcher.

He said: "For example, you could link all the managers within a company like Kelloggs worldwide to allow them to share information and work in partnership. Any one of them could benefit from short cuts and knowhow to the possible tune of millions of pounds worth of savings."

Updated: 11:30 Friday, June 03, 2005