Cian Prendergast started small. His company Ortus, which provides IT outsourcing services to various sectors, came to life in Cian’s garage in Abbeyleix, County Laois in 2007. Now, working for Ekco he is the CEO for MSP (managed service providers) business in Ireland. Ekco MSP founded by Dublin-based business partners Eoin Blacklock and Jonathan Crowe are now one of Europe’s fastest growing, security-first managed cloud providers. It manages all IT responsibilities, including data storage, security, and remote access, acting as the clients’ IT department.

They have just opened their new premises in Portlaoise, County Laois after the acquisition of Ortus. The new premises will act as their central meeting point, providing a larger and more modern workspace for it’s growing team. With 60 people working in the new premises, Cian gives me a tour of the newly renovated office space, describing it as a “massive hub with a systematic flow for goods and configuration of computers.”

Ekco MSP What do they do?

“So if you are a firm of accountants, a finance company, a solicitors office, factories or manufacturers, even health care, they basically outsource the responsibility of all their IT to us. We take all of their data, store it in the cloud and share it back to them. We’re their IT department in a nutshell.”

During the Covid Pandemic, Cian explains the rapid growth that came from the shift to cloud solutions and remote work. “When Covid hit, companies needed remote access, they were having a nightmare. They couldn’t operate. So, basically, we couldn’t hire fast enough.” At that time, the number of employees in Ortus grew from 19 to 40 within a year due to remote working and cloud solutions that became essential during the pandemic.

From Old to New – Parochial House to Ekco MSP

The newly renovated premises, which is being rented from Graham Developments, has historical significance and has been described as ‘one of the highlights of Portlaoise’s architectural heritage.’ Built in the 1800s, it is a listed building, with various names and uses over the years, including ‘Parochial House’, ‘Jacobs townhouse’ and ‘Portleix House’.

This new space allows them to scale up their work so they can do things quicker, and according to Cian, they can now breathe; “Before, we were too close together and it was too cluttered.” The interior design goes from old, to ultra modern, incorporating elements of nostalgia and history into the office space with the aim of “trying to have little relics of history everywhere you look.” The tiles on the floor are the original, as are the front gates, which have been meticulously repainted. Scattered through the building are large photos of mentors like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, original Commodore 64s and an original Arcade Game. At the rear of the premises there is a Conference Centre. Cian admits that is a bar, designed by himself, complete with a DJ box, a bar and a slide! “If I had my way, it would be a slide going from the top floor down. But I suppose that would end badly.”

Automated System

Cian recounts starting off in a tiny room where they had to do all the automation. In the new building, at one end, the computers are loaded in and sorted into various other rooms and then they are sent out another door. The company can now handle ten times more work than before, and the office layout is designed to scale up efficiently. “So basically, computers come in, it used to take us a day to configure each one. Now it just runs through this automated kind of system. We still have to manually go through things, but it’s way faster and easier. So you can do 10 times more than we were able to do.”

Cultural and Work Environment

“I hated the notion of the red team, the blue team, and the purple team.”

Speaking about the company’s culture of employee recognition, instead of formal team names, he has chosen the name Fire, Ice and Oz, inspired by Game of Thrones. He stresses the importance of using unique team names. “When a client is ringing, they’re always going to talk to the same bunch of people.”

As another solution, they created a ‘proactive team’. Their job is to look at all the sites and do whatever they can to stop anything from breaking in the future. Companies are guided by the team on how they can check things themselves, even something simple, like checking if their back-up is turned on. These easy measures can halve the amount of calls coming in. In the canteen space, two of his colleagues Brian Long and Ryan Ging are talking about ‘Employee of the Month’. Ryan, who began working with Cian when he was a child, talks about the importance of their monthly meeting;

“Everyone votes for Employee of the Month on a Teams Call which is held throughout the country, and they tell us the reason why they vote. It’s good craic. We also get to read out positive comments from customers. That is an important reminder of the good work we do, because people often concentrate on the negative.“

Cian believes ‘Employee of the Month’ is healthy competition, but ultimately, (in true Game of Thrones fashion); he says; “It is kind of a name and shame thing. There is a proper gamer chair, themed on Game of Thrones, if you win, you get to use the chair. There is also a ‘Fxxxing Friday voucher’, so staff can hand it in at 3pm and go home. The overall winner gets half a day annual leave.”

Breakout Rooms

The work environment is designed to be stress-free, with breakout rooms and a supportive team to help employees manage their workload. There are specific break-out rooms scattered throughout the building, places to sit and relax or spacious well-lit rooms with billiard tables. Cian emphasizes the importance of creating a great work environment where employees work better. The company has a strong culture, and he is particularly proud of their high employee engagement score (ENPS) which is now at 93%, indicating a high level of employee satisfaction and engagement. He believes, the competitive nature of the work is managed through healthy competition.

“You sometimes find yourself staring at screens for hours so a more friendly environment is essential as we are dealing with stressed clients. Most times when someone rings, there’s usually a problem and they can be very stressed. They’re not irate because of us, but because they’re frustrated with their computer. The worst call you could get is a data breach. They could lose their business. So any one of the staff here taking those calls are in the firing line and our job is to get that person to a calm place where you can help them fix the problem. On top of that, the next phone call that comes in, could be a client who is just as frustrated as the previous person. So it can be a stressful job.”

Inspired by his mother

Cian grew up in a household where computers were still very much a novelty. His mother taught children with special needs, and there were two children in her care with cerebral palsy who were non-verbal, and she was determined to prove they were highly intelligent. 

“She had these two boys, both in wheelchairs and she was convinced one of them, who was non-verbal, was highly intelligent. She wouldn’t give up on him, even when no-one was listening to her. Eventually, she found a specialist and they managed to scrape enough money together for a computer. He was able to use a finger device with the computer to communicate. Through this device, he could communicate. He had a very high IQ, even though he was trapped-in. Because of my mother’s work, we always had a computer in our house. It’s funny, I never thought it would become my career.”

Cian was recently honoured with the award from Laois Chamber Alliance as ‘Laois Businessperson of the year 2025.’ One to add to his growing collection.