Feb/Mar '10
Noticeboard
Perfect your pitch with messaging and value propostition workshop
Enterprise Ireland is hosting one-day interactive workshops in Dublin this spring to help participants develop a clear and credible value proposition relevant to their customers. The day will be followed up by a one-to-one session with the workshop facilitators, Futurecurve, to stress-test the resulting customer value proposition (see www.futurecurve.com).
Two separate workshops take place on March 3 and April 12. For further information, contact Angela Byrne, Tel: +353 21 4800248, email angela.byrne@enterprise-ireland.com
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Get ready to target North America
This February, Enterprise Ireland is hosting workshop events, introducing clients to the First Flight programme and other relevant supports. The events will have specific relevance to companies focused on exporting to the United States and Canada.
Essentially, the First Flight programme is aimed at helping participants to understand what could hold their business back from achieving profitable export sales; formulate and action a plan to target key risk areas; benefit from the expertise of experienced exporters, and avail of other relevant Enterprise Ireland supports.
The February workshops aim to provide participants with a brief overview of some key factors to consider when exporting to North America as well as informing them of the benefits of First Flight and how to get involved.
A workshop for life science and clean tech companies will take place on Februaury 17, followed by a workshop for software and service companies on February 18. The Plaza at East Point will be the venue for both. Contact: Claire Minogue, Tel: +353 1 7272958, Email: claire.minogue@enterprise-ireland.com
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SMEs more confident about prosepcts in 2010
Senior executives in Irish SMEs are more confident about their prospects in 2010 than they were about facing into last year, according to the annual O2 business survey.
The number who are more confident about the year ahead has more than doubled from 12 per cent in 2009 to 26 per cent this year.
“The study finds that while companies continue to face serious challenges in terms of sales, cash flow and competition, there appears to be the start of a recovery in confidence levels,” commented Alan Brown, Business Sales Director - Telefónica O2 Ireland.
He said that this uptake in confidence may be, in part, due to the fact that the majority (57 per cent) believe that the global recession has bottomed out. However, just 23 per cent say the Irish recession has bottomed out, while 62 per cent believe worse is yet to come.
On the jobs front, the outlook appears neutral, with 17 per cent expecting to increase recruitment, similar to the number (15 per cent) that predict a decline in headcount. The majority (67 per cent) expect to maintain employment at the same level.
A third (34 per cent) of Irish SMEs expect revenues to rise in 2010, up from a quarter (24 per cent) last year. Some 42 per cent expect revenues to remain the same, while a quarter (24 per cent) predict a decline in sales. Last year, over a third (36 per cent) expected revenues to fall.
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UK to invest £1 billion in super-fast broadband
The UK is to invest £1 billion in upgrading digital infrastructure to bring super-fast broadband to 90 per cent of Britain and Northern Ireland. The objective of the Next Generation Fund is to provide the UK with a “world class” communications network to bolster innovation and services in digital content.
“Already the market is delivering superfast internet speeds of 50Mbps to half the country, but we cannot be certain that it will reach the communities that are not currently served, which is why we are putting in an extra £1 billion to support the market,” commented Minister Peter Mandelson, launching a consultation on how funds should be spent. Areas with little or no broadband provision are likely to benefit most from the investment, he said.
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Limerick software company raises over €160k using only LinkedIn
Limerick company Goshido, which develops project management software, has completed a private fundraising round using only the social networking website LinkedIn.
According to executive chairman Frank Hannigan, the company is selling off 10 slots to investors at €25,000 each – each equivalent to a 2 per cent stake in the company.
Seven hundred e-mails were sent to potential investors through LinkedIn in January, generating 200 replies by phone, e-mail and Twitter. The company raised €162,500 in just eight days.
Until now, Goshido had been self-funded. The company aims to fill a gap between simple web-based task-sharing tools and more complex, and expensive, enterprise workflow software. Over the next six months, the software will be available as part of a closed beta-testing programme. Initially, Goshido is mostly aimed at games development and media production teams.
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New arbitration law set to improve international dispute resolutions
It is expected that the Arbitration Bill, published by the Department of Justice in 2008, will be passed by the Oireachtas this February.
The bill is intended to repeal the three previous Acts covering this subject and replace them with a single consolidating Act governing not only domestic but also international arbitrations. It will be the most significant change to the legislation governing arbitration since the introduction of the 1954 Act.
Crucially, it will apply the UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration to all arbitrations that take place within the State. The most significant impact for Irish businesses trading internationally is that an arbitration order made by the Irish courts can now be enforced internationally, as UNCITRAL has already been adopted by over 50 countries.
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Irish Firm to offer faster market intelligence data to global organisations
Polecat, a market intelligence provider based in Dublin and in the UK, has signed an exclusive, worldwide licence for advanced software algorithms developed by UCD researchers to enhance its strategic market intelligence platform.
Polecat’s MeaningMine platform analyses statistical and linguistic trends in publically available digital and broadcast media by mining 300,000 articles and 4 million blog posts daily. Using its current platform, Polecat can provide clients with insight into emerging trends, influencer networks, competitive analysis and dominant discussions, empowering senior organisational strategists to keep up-to-date with relevant market intelligence data.
Polecat’s MeaningMine platform is part of a new market category of advanced software analytics which, according to Forrester, will fuel year-on-year growth in the business intelligence software market to an estimated $14 billion worldwide by 2014. According to IDC, the advanced software analytics market represents approximately 20 per cent of the overall business intelligence tools market and grew by 12 per cent in 2008.
The technology licensed by Polecat arises from a research programme funded by Science Foundation Ireland at UCD’s School of Computer Science and Informatics.
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Looking for more PR?
Dublin company Bvisible Communications has a launched a free, downloadable e-book that should help Irish companies get a steer on PR. The e-book features interviews with some leading Irish journalists and provides insight into how best to get a story picked up, major faux pas to avoid and examples of how to make your media pitch stand out. See http://bvisible.ie/ebook/
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Companies share information at first Vietnam Ireland Business Forum
At the request of the Vietnamese Government, Irish Aid is funding a programme in Vietnam, entitled the Irish Development Experience Sharing (IDEAS) programme, which will involve various Irish institutions sharing their economic development expertise with Vietnamese counterparts.
The programme comprises three parts; capacity building at central government level (the Central Bank and ESRI etc, coaching counterparts in Vietnam), education (Irish Aid is sponsoring a number of MBA students at Smurfit School) and private sector capacity building.
Enterprise Ireland has been invited to manage the third part of the programme, and the activities involved are designed to bring Irish companies into the Vietnam market through partnerships with Vietnamese companies.
Partnering with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Vietnam Software Association, EI Malaysia has set up the Vietnam Ireland Business Forum (VIBF).
The first session of the VIBF was held in Hanoi towards the end of last year. An interesting result from the event was the large amount of sharing of information and networking among the Irish companies. For example, Sentry Wireless effected an introduction for SIMChronise to VMS/Mobiphone, and Seestream provided contacts in FPT in Ho Chi Minh City, facilitating an important meeting for Digisoft.tv. In return, Digisoft.tv introduced Seestream to the Digisoft.tv partner in Singapore, to see if they can work together in that market. Digisoft.tv is also looking at the possibility of adding the Seestream Video product to their offering and discussions on this will continue in Ireland.
The VIBF is to be continued on an annual basis. While in the first year, it is concentrating on the ICT sectors, in the future other industry sectors will be included. See www.vibf.net.vn/en
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Irish Video technologies pitch to the Japanese market
“While you are sleeping, you can download your favourite QVGA high quality videos and music from more than 50,000 sources for later enjoyment,” explained Yoshiaki Maeda of NTT DoCoMo, the keynote speaker at Enterprise Ireland’s ‘Fusion of Digital Media and Telecommunications’ held late last year.
In light of the coming transformation to full digital broadcasting systems throughout Japan in 2011, new services and businesses are expected to be generated arising from the convergence of telecommunications, broadcasting and content beyond existing barriers. With a fully equipped broadband infrastructure, user demand for high quality Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) is also on the rise.
Happily, the challenges faced by Japanese content and service providers present opportunities for Irish IT solution companies.
NTT DoCoMo is the largest wireless telecommunications service provider in Japan with an estimated market share of 52 per cent in 2008. As NTT DoCoMo moves towards Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile technology, it is producing a number of key services to integrate the mobile phone further into their users’ lives.
A mobile television service, Bee TV allows NTT subscribers to watch content specifically designed for the small screen. Channels include music, animation, entertainment, comedy, drama and movies among others. At the moment more than 13 million people are downloading video content per month, while downloaded content by subscribers per file has doubled when compared with last year.
Mr. Maeda’s introduction to the current state of play in Japan set the stage for five Irish IT companies; Firecomms, Digisoft.tv, Movidius, Redmere and Shenick. These companies have developed cutting edge technologies and unique services ranging from network connectivity to user terminals and TVs. Already actively doing business with European and US providers, operators and manufacturers, it is envisaged that these companies could also help local companies to provide a variety of services in the Japanese market.
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Galway company's iPhone app generates sales and PR in international markets
Galway company eMedia has developed the Pocket Heart – an iPhone application, enabling users to drill down and see the visuals and workings of the human heart. The device has been piloted with 16 to 18 years olds – in transition, fifth and sixth year. It is also aimed at pre-med students entering medicine in the US, some of whom are coming from a humanities rather than a science background.
eMedia’s third receptive audience are cardiology diagnosis patients whose consultants want to explain what’s happening to them. Currently, this is done using wall-charts, but there is keen interest in using a digital tool to explain procedures to patients in the under-sixties age category.
Finally, eMedia’s Mark Campbell says the Pocket Heart has found fans as a gadget among the general public. So far, it has featured on about eight review sites and sold in 18 countries. (See www.pocketanatomy.com)
“The pocket heart is a massive shift in what we do,” he says, adding that it is part of a move to transition the business from a small to a mid-sized company
“We now have sales in 18 countries, which has made us aware of markets outside Ireland. A year ago, we wouldn’t have believed we would be here.”
While the application hasn’t made the company a mint, sales have covered development costs, and the application has generated enormous PR. As an example, when we spoke, Campbell was heading to a meeting with cardiologist members of Croi, a charity to which it is donating a percentage of profits from the Pocket Heart. “It is creating nice synergies and profile,” he says.
The company is now looking to expand with a suite of iPhone applications, as well as online versions for people who don’t have an iPhone. Ultimately, the aim is to create a ‘Google Earth maps’-type searchable and navigable map of the human body, allowing users to select a location and drill down past skin, bones and muscle, layer by layer. The project is vast and complex, Campbell concedes. But as a company already providing 3-D medical animation to healthcare, medical technology companies and universities, eMedia is well positioned.
A second arm of development would include building quizzes into the application and creating an e-learning tool. In the meantime, the company is planning to develop a 2-D version of the human body. This will have a reasonable amount of content and be applicable to secondary schools and first year university students.
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Creganna grows its global position with the new acquistion
Creganna, the Galway medical device and lifescience specialist, has acquired
California-headquartered Avalon Medical Services, which trades as Tactx Medical.
The move positions Creganna-Tactx Medical within the top ten global providers of technologies and services to minimally invasive medical device companies, according to Creganna’s CEO Helen Ryan.
With locations in California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Singapore and Ireland, the new entity will have a presence in many of the key medical device clusters globally, enabling stronger partnerships with customers.
Combined, the two companies will offer a complete range of technologies and services for minimally invasive delivery and access devices, with a specialist competency in the design and manufacturing of high end therapeutic catheters.
Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking acted as agent and funding bank on the deal, while Barclays Bank Ireland and HSBC Corporate Banking Ireland provided the finance for the transaction.
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Kentz eners into global agreement with ExxonMobil
Engineering and construction company Kentz has entered into a five-year Global Framework Continuing Engineering Service Agreement with ExxonMobil Global Services Company. The agreement provides a framework for the provision of engineering, design and technical support services to ExxonMobil projects around the world.
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Daft launches in Poland
Daft Media Group, the company behind the Irish property website Daft.ie, is expanding into the Polish online property market with the launch of Daft.pl. The website launches with approximately 60,000 properties, covering every major city and town in Poland. The company hopes that Daft.pl will benefit from the positive brand recognition of Daft.ie amongst the hundreds of thousands of Polish people who came to work and live in Ireland during the last 10 years.
The Daft.pl website has been fully localised into Polish. The Polish market is approximately ten times larger than the Irish market, with a population of 38 million, and while internet penetration in Poland is slightly behind Ireland at just 52 per cent, the market for online advertising is growing at a faster rate.
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Production by Dublin media company launches on kids' BBC
This January, ‘Garth & Bev’ an animated series from Kavaleer Productions, based in the Dublin Digital Hub, launched on the BBC's CBeebies.
The series is a co-production between Kavaleer Productions, and Copernicus Studios, a Canadian animation company.
Gath and Bev is aimed at four to seven year olds and follows the adventures of Garth and his sister Bev, who lived a long time ago. With a little magical help from their druid grandfather Lir, they can travel anywhere in time to satisfy their curiosity about the world and everything in it. The series already enjoyed huge success when it debuted on RTE in November 2009 and secured a 33 per cent share of the viewing audience.
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Lucel secures investment and enters strategic alliance with US partner
Cork-based company Luxcel Biosciences, a specialist producer of luminescence based gas and pH sensors and related tests, has announced a major strategic partnership with MOCON Inc., a global leader in gas-sensing technologies and package testing/shelf life instrumentation for the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and other industries.
Under the agreement, MOCON will invest €2.5m in Luxcel and support the company’s business development plans and expansion into new global markets. This includes a new R&D investment programme, which is also being supported by Enterprise Ireland.
Luxcel is currently selling its sensors and tests to research and development teams within the major pharmaceutical companies and is set to launch new products for the food safety and packaging industries in 2010.
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Killarney-based Monex to provide treasury management software to Hertz Europe
Hertz, the world’s largest general use car rental brand, has entered an agreement with Monex, the Killarney-based global leader in multi-currency and card processing, to roll out its multi-currency treasury management software systems to Hertz corporate countries in Europe.
Monex will now add 1.5 billion to its annual throughput on behalf of global clients. Over 46 million individual credit card transactions are facilitated through the Killarney office for clients that include Ryanair, Ritz Carlton Hotels and the Dublin Airport Authority.
Monex has established itself as one indigenous Irish company that has bucked the current economic trends. Last year, it announced a licensing agreement with ICICI Bank, India’s second largest bank, to provide its currency conversion software. ICICI processes over €700 million in credit card transactions per annum. That deal culminated a very successful 24-month expansion programme across the Asian market which resulted in a number of significant client wins, including AirAsia, Bank of Asia, Bangkok Airways, Bank of China, Shangri-La Hotels and the Thai Military Bank. It now has 40 per cent of the multi-currency credit card processing business across the continent.
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Limerick company secures major international deal with Monsanto
Stokes Bio has signed a major licensing and R&D collaboration with Monsanto, one of the world’s leading agriculture companies. The Limerick company specialises in the development and application of microfluidic technology to enhance life science research and molecular diagnostics.
The deal with Monsanto is expected to help accelerate the pace of new advancement in plant breeding, as new systems will allow companies and scientists to massively increase the quantity and speed of data processed in the course of genetic analysis of biological samples.
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Terminalfour atracts €1.6m in new funding
Terminalfour, a web content management company, has secured €1.6m of equity funding. The Dublin company currently has over 200 customers throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe and is now positioned to expand beyond its European base and capitalise on growing sales opportunities in North America.
It has already developed a partner network and won a number of reference university clients in the US and Canada. The equity funding will now accelerate its growth strategy and will be used to finance the development of its partner network, sales force and research and development. The company also plans to increase its employee numbers from thirty-five to fifty including sales, pre-sales and customer service jobs in its Irish headquarters.
The investment was led by the Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, managed by NCB Ventures, with investment also provided by the AIB Seed Capital Fund, managed by the Dublin Business Innovation Centre, and with grant aid from Enterprise Ireland.
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Aspera to invest €1.4m targeting the UK
Aspera Solutions, an Irish enterprise software implementation company, is to invest €1.4 million over a three -year period as it seeks to become the UK’s market leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) service provider in the mid-tier manufacturing and distribution segment.
The investment is being financed by AIB loan finance and retained earnings. Aspera aims to grow its annual UK turnover to €1 million in 2010.
The first phase of the investment has just concluded with the acquisition of AlphaGen’s manufacturing sector customer base of 35 ERP customers which generates a €500,000 annual revenue stream.
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West Cork stoves to feature in latest Harry Potter Film
Three antique stoves from Ovne Stoves are to feature in the next and very last Harry Potter film ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Based between Rosscarbery and Leap in West Cork, Ovne specialises in fully restored antique and retro stoves. The film is due out in November.
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