Orbital hits the jackpot

Orbital Software has won a ?500,000 investment from Novell, with another ?3m from 3i, Scottish Equity partnership, and NatWest IT Fund.
The Edinburgh-based company writes Java applications for specialised search programs.
Kevin Dorren, CEO of Orbital said: "We will use this money primarily to increase our sales and marketing, especially in the US, but also to tailor our products for specific markets - like call centres."
Dorren claimed Orbital has few of the problems associated with recruitment and keeping hold of staff suffered by Silicon Valley companies, as Silicon Glen has spawned a lot of IT graduates, many of whom want to stay in Scotland.
Orbital's software tracks and builds profiles of network users, enabling companies to make better use of their personnel. The information it gathers can be used to quickly find the people needed to solve a particular problem or retrieve information, according to the company.