Enterprise Ireland
Annual Report and Accounts 2007
Annual Report and Accounts 2007
Over the past three years Enterprise Ireland has focused strongly on building world-class levels of productivity, competitiveness and management capability in Irish companies. We believe this is essential to driving sustained export performance against vigorous global competition.
Our support in these areas encourages companies to embed innovation, sustainable improvements and strong leadership within their organisations so that they can further develop internationally competitive products and services to grow export sales.
Our Productivity Improvement Fund, created in 2005, was designed to support the drive towards improved productivity and increased international competitiveness, by providing advisory support and financial assistance. It included support for machinery and automation equipment, technology acquisition, management development, workplace innovation and training.
In 2007 the fund approved 157 productivity and competitiveness projects across all sectors, involving Enterprise Ireland support of €30.39 million.
Over the period of the 2005–2007 strategy, 346 productivity improvement projects were approved, exceeding the three-year strategic target of 300. Supported by a total of €67.8 million from Enterprise Ireland, these projects involve company investment of over €191.7 million.
Of the total, 53.2 per cent were in Industrial and Lifesciences Markets, 32.7 per cent were in Food and Retail Consumer Markets, 6.6 per cent were in Software, Services and Emerging Sectors and 295 projects were approved for companies outside Dublin.
The Supply Chain Management initiative addresses productivity opportunities, operational performance, logistics and supply chain efficiencies to help clients to meet changing market requirements and become more globally competitive. Under this initiative Enterprise Ireland has supported over 80 client projects across all sectors including Food, Engineering, Construction and Chemicals.
The eBusiness Management Initiative was devised to address the identified and growing client need for support in improved ICT and eBusiness capabilities, with emphasis on online presence and e-marketing strategies. To date over 40 clients have received support.
During 2007 our eBusiness Unit continued to promote the use of IT among client companies. The unit produced three podcasts covering online marketing, e-security and summaries of an e-marketing event held in Croke Park in October. The series will be added to in 2008.
Over 100 people attended an e-marketing workshop focused on using the internet to market products and services more successfully in international markets. The workshop was specifically targeted at those who work in international sales and marketing.
Enterprise Ireland provides a range of environmental support services to companies in Ireland. We aim to improve the environmental performance of companies to enable them to meet their legal obligations, to comply with EU Directives and to improve their market opportunities through achieving recognition as 'green' suppliers of products and services.
In 2007, 148 environmental assessments and 121 eco-efficiency audits were completed. We provided financial assistance for 11 companies to establish the ISO 14001 environmental management system. A dedicated website www.envirocentre.ie was upgraded during the year and continued to attract a high level of usage with an average of 2,100 visits per month.
Acquiring technologies is a fast and cost-effective way of sourcing products or technologies that can improve productivity and competitiveness. Enterprise Ireland's TechSearch service provides assistance and expertise to clients licensing technologies from international sources. Licensing enables companies to acquire rights to employ proprietary, externally developed technologies. In 2007, the service aided 175 clients and resulted in 40 licence agreements representing an investment of over €3.8 million. These licence agreements are expected to generate sales of €26 million over the next three years.
As part of our commitment to increasing innovation and to help enhance competitiveness in rapidly changing market places, Enterprise Ireland supports client companies in identifying, licensing or acquiring new technologies developed by global corporations. We have established strong business relationships with a number of leading global operators such as Microsoft, IBM and Hewlett Packard and have successfully partnered them with client companies. As a consequence, a number of clients have acquired access to significant technologies and have benefited from high-level technical and marketing support from these global companies.
In 2007, Enterprise Ireland, on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, further extended its Telecoms Standards Scheme to encourage and support companies taking a driving role in setting standards for their sector. Companies involved in international standards and specification development frequently achieve a worldwide technology lead and gain significant competitive advantage. Enterprise Ireland made funding of €1.5 million available under this scheme. As a result, 70 per cent of the companies which received support reached positions of significant influence in world standards and specifications bodies.
