EngNet

Michael, an electrical engineer, first thought of starting their company EngNet when, while working in his homeland, South Africa, he became frustrated in his attempts at finding engineering products, services and suppliers.

So he thought: Why not a dedicated engineering industry searching tool - a portal by engineers for engineers?

Mindful of the high-tech genius he could tap into in York, the couple made the move to the city all the way from Johannesburg and set up their powerful directory/search engine/ buyers' guide service to help engineers, technicians and tradesmen to find information and communicate more effectively with suppliers in the industry.

Today the website operated from their home in Rainsborough Way, Clifton Moor, is one of the top three engineering directories in the UK and one of the top ten in the world.

It receives more than 80,000 referrals a month from major search engines, 1.5 million page impressions (pages viewed) per month, more than 250,000 monthly visitors plus 6,000 listed companies, and counting, on its database. Now the Cooneys are pitching to make EngNet victor in the Evening Press Best Use of New Technology category - and at the same time they are gunning for the e-commerce Business of the Year title.

With the precision expected of an engineer, Michael was determined to achieve near-perfection in the operation of his website as a thorough and accurate database. He said: "At EngNet's developmental stage, the goal was to create a service that would harness the power and interactivity of information technology.

"After two years of development our intrinsic service evolved. We designed a working prototype, ensured the system was up and running in a basic form, actively sought customer feedback and improved the site through five re-designs to attain a stage where it became a truly easy-to-use website."

Updated: 11:20 Monday, August 23, 2004