Enterprise Ireland – Best Connected -

This case study is based on the correlation and analysis of 138 contract award notices that the HSE have posted on eTenders in the years 2008 and 2009. In total this study covers contracts with a declared combined total of around 640Million Euro for 2008 & 2009 for 89 contracts which declared their total value.

The HSE is Ireland’s largest procuring organisation which spends in the region of 4Billion Euro per annum on various goods, services and works. However less than 10% of this expenditure appears on eTenders due to various below threshold spends and recurring contracts etc.

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Irish payment processor Omnipay hits the news recently with a major award won at the European Card Acquiring Forum in Berlin. It was given to Omnipay due to their commitment to delivering “the most innovative services to acquirers”

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You may have noticed that this year’s Oscars had a distinctly Irish flavour (Irish Times Story) . Of course behind the headlines is a lot of hard work by a lot of people, some of which operate under the banner of AnimationIreland.com .

In 2007 at the industry’s request, Enterprise Ireland helped put together a group to represent the animation sector in Ireland.  It was agreed a CEO Forum of leading Irish Animation companies (see the list of companies on the website) would collaborate to present a unified sector identity and address key objectives and challenges that face the industry.

The focus of the Forum is to

• International positioning Ireland as a leading centre for Animation – quality , skills, new technologies & identify and exploit opportunities by investigating new market opportunities with support through EI mechanisms.
• Develop scale among sector players
• Network and share experiences in a structured manner
• Support development to compete effectively in global markets and encourage development of an agenda involving Irish cos and third levels towards supporting skill needs of industry

How well did the group do? Judge for yourself by the results.

It is one month to the day (at the time of writing) since  the Forum on Public Procurement.  The public sector buying community was very well represented with officials attending on behalf of (1) the RPA, (2) Bus Eireann, (3) The defense Forces, (4) Department of Social Protection/& Family Affaris, (5) Bord Gais Eireann, (6) Various Higher Education Institutions and (7) The HSE  amongst many others.

It offered a stark reminder that the future of Ireland’s economic recovery is more and more inextricably linked to the increasingly professional and open nature of public procurement both in Ireland and in the European Union.

Some Quick Points to Bear in Mind: EU

• Over 150,000 Contracts were advertised on an EU wide basis in 2009.
• On Average there were only 5 applicants per contract. In anyone’s language those odds are attractive as regards securing business.
• Legislation is in place to allow contracting authorities to favour new, emerging or clean technologies in the issuing of their contracts such as through the use of full life cycle costing for example to take into account overall energy costs through the entire life of the product. This reflects the emerging emphasis on green procurement.

Some Quick Points to Bear in Mind:  Irish Procurement

• Ireland has disproportionately favoured suppliers domiciled outside the country by awarding a massive 17.7% of Public Procurement contracts to them which is an incredible statistic given that the EU average is 1.5%.
• In 2008 there were an average of 5 applications per contract award notice on eTenders for the HSE (Ireland’s largest procuring agency) across their entire product portfolio. 
• Life cycle costing accounted for the third highest of  average criteria in 2008 with 17% of overall criteria and 20% in 2009 for judging the award of contracts on eTenders. This is only beaten by various measures of product quality and use of initial measures of price.

*Figures relating to HSE procurement patterns taken from EI study of Contract award notices on eTenders.

With the downturn continuing to grip the nation, more and more Irish SME’s are turning to the public procurement market to source new business opportunities both in Ireland and abroad.

Are you involved in the buying process or a potential supplier to the public sector? To find out how our dedicated public procurement team can help you please email this address:

value4money@enterprise-ireland.com

In case you were wondering what is happening over on one of Enterprise Ireland’s other Blog Channels (EI Americas Blog), they have very good coverage of the CTIA Las Vegas event that ran last week.

A full list of the Enterprise Ireland clients that attended CTIA is here.

Ireland’s first Competence Centres for industry-led R&D were announced on 10th March by the Tanaiste Mary Coughlan T.D in Dublin.  There will be 9 centres in total, 5 centres are already up and running. Click on each link to watch a 3 minute video in which industry personnel and researchers involved explain what each centre will be working on over the next 5 years:
Competence Centre for Bioenergy & Biorefining, based in NUI Galway, co-hosted by UL and UCD
Competence Centre for Applied Nanotechnology, based in Tyndall UCC, co-hosted by TCD CRANN
The Competence Centre for Composite Materials, based in UL and co-hosted by UCD
Competence Centre for IT Innovation, based in NUI Maynooth
Competence Centre for Microelectronics, based in Tyndall, UCC and co-hosted by UL
Work is ongoing to create the following Competence Centres;
Manufacturing Productivity
This centre will address the key challenges in developing Ireland as an environment for high value added manufacturing. Some of the companies involved are Pfizer, Intel, Bombardier and Seagate.
Energy Efficiency
Using new multi-disciplinary approaches, this centre will focus on making manufacturing in Ireland more competitive, cleaner and greener. Companies involved include Xerox, Analog Devices, SEI and Intel.
E-learning
The aim of the Competence Centre in E-learning is to create a world-class environment to combine learning and innovation for the benefit of Irish industry.
Financial Services
This centre will create a research environment where the challenges facing the financial services industry can be efficiently met positioning Ireland as an innovation leader in this global sector.
For more information visit www.competencecentres.ie

Just under half of Enterprise Ireland’s software clients use Microsoft technology in some shape or form. Working with Microsoft is a key part of the strategy for these clients, hence the ongoing engagement with Microsoft that we in the Software Division have been working on.

Paul Solski travelled from the US to meet and talk with over 50 Enterprise Ireland clients. He covered working with Microsoft, working with Partners and gaining success in the US Market.  I’m not able to do justice to the full breadth and depth of Paul’s talk (4 years experience with Microsoft designing the partner programme, 25 Years experience in partnering and IT overall, all  condensed into 2-and-a-half hour session), but here are a fraction of the points made;

• Ireland’s economy is the  size of the US state of Nevada; It is  possible to be very successful addressing only part of the US (and you may get more mind-share with regional US partners).
• There is a big difference between having a  partner and having a successful partner; Key success factor is the partner recognising that you are strategic  i.e. dedicating a resource to selling your product. You have a three months ’sweet spot’ to get joint sales plan in place and self-made sales before the relationship starts to sour.
• If you get it right, there is a very strong business case for both sides of the partnership; Increased reach, increased sales to existing customers, increased execution capability. Of course, it’s not easy to get right.
• Recruiting and engaging partners is a process similar to a direct sales cycle; Prospect, Recruit, Activate and Grow. Allow a significant amount of time (between 1 and 3 months) to successfully carry out each step. For prospecting the IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners) is a good first step.
• Key words to engage with Microsoft; Market Share, Revenue, Satisifaction and Adoption. These are key to the compensation package of people at Microsoft.
• Microsoft people have a mixture of  Revenue targets and commitments (specific promises, targets agreed with manager) – ask them (how you can help!). High degree of internal competition.

The next step is for individual clients to work one to one with Paul to follow through into the US Market.  If you missed the session get in touch, as  Enterprise Ireland will continue to work with clients in this area to create more exports, and export led jobs.

I got back last week from ITB – the largest Travel Fair in the world. I dropped in to the main Phocuswright session and heard some of the key notes from Javier Perez-Tenessa, CEO eDreams and the new CEO of Lonely Planet, Matthew Goldberg.

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We are pleased to announce the completion of the Life Sciences Stream of Best Connected. There are almost exactly 200 companies in this guide which are broken up into 7 cohorts of companies which are aligned by sub sector.

The format of the profiles for each company differs slightly from the Public Sector Software and Financial Software Streams in that their Standards and Certificates are given specific mention and their company contact details are included for direct linkages.

An IT for Health stream complete with sub sectors will also appear in the coming weeks.

If you would like to speak to an Enterprise Ireland member of staff relating to a specific company then please, Click Here and enter the companies name.

We have recently completed a programme around Managed IT Services for a bunch of our clients (EI) and we gathered some useful insights in to the whole area of delivering remotely managed IT Services. Late last year we identified the need for a greater focus on this area and felt there was a sufficient context around which to build something, in particular:

• Growing need from their customer base to reduce implementation costs and maintenance costs
• Growing acceptance of new service delivery models (such as SaaS and cloud computing).
• Reliable and ubiquitous broadband access, successful take-up of software delivery models and significant investment in next generation IT architecture is accelerating enterprise adoption of the IT as a service paradigm

As the SaaS model matures, fewer enterprises require the middleware – the onus of providing vital application integration is shifting to service providers  – Applications, processors, databases are becoming utilities and charged dynamically.

Our research identified that Financial services, public sector and manufacturing have heaviest spend in IT services and already 18% – 25% of companies using some form of managed IT service, with a further 37% – 48% either planning such a move or considering (source Datamonitor)

Early in the programme we had a discussion with each of the clients, most of whom had a strong desire to “get on” the cloud. Here is some of the thoughts that came back:

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pTools (Enterprise Ireland Client Profile) travelled on the joint EI – Microsoft connections visit to the US West Coast late last year. A key part of the work Enterprise Ireland does with Irish Companies is how to sell through partner channels, so it’s good to see an Irish Software Company notching up another success.

From Adam Maguire of the Irish Times;

IRISH COMPANY pTools has adapted its software to enable Lincolnshire Police to communicate with the local community via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

The police force, which serves a population of more than 640,000, worked with the firm to add social media functionality as part of an effort to reach locals in new ways.

Lincolnshire Police already uses pTools-designed content management software (CMS) for its website and intranet, but this change allows it to automatically broadcast notices across a range of platforms. The force uses the technology to warn people of scams or local crimes, update them on traffic, or request information.

“The community aspect of the internet has grown so much in importance that a public service, like policing, should engage online,” said Lee Annett, customer relationship and business development manager at pTools.

“Content is at the heart of the social networking experience, so enabling pTools software to distribute content through social media has been a priority for us.”

Mr Annett said the company worked closely with the IT and communications staff from the force and adapted the software around their needs. Social media functionality is now a standard part of the firm’s CMS package.

The firm also provides software to the Department of An Taoiseach, the HSE and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The Enterprise Ireland eBusiness Unit’s use of the Twitter micro-blogging platform got a recent thumbs-up from the good folk at ENN (see “Web Pick”), so I thought I’d provide a bit more detail on what we’ve been up to that might warrant such praise.

The eBusiness Unit host and maintain an online discussion forum / mailing-list dedicated to all things Web-related. The purpose of the forum is to provide a friendly and practical space where participants can feel comfortable asking questions and raising issues that are important to them, regardless of their level of knowledge of eBusiness. The forum has been existence for a number of years, and has quite an active community, discussing (often heatedly!) topics ranging from recommendations for Content Management Systems, to domain registration issues, and that old reliable, Search Engine Optimisation.

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The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment last year published their 10 step guide to Innovative Public Procurement. This guide outlines key stages in the development and implementation of a successful public procurement contract.

Enterprise Ireland’s New Public Procurement Mandate is specifically mentioned at point four where buyers are called on to “find out what the market can provide”.  Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment 10 Step Guide

Using Enterprise Ireland’s extensive knowledge of Ireland’s indigenous SME’s a public sector procurer can seek market engagement at an early stage in the procurement process so as to allow the emergence of new and innovative solutions to meet new public sector needs.

Click Here for the full guide to innovative procurement

Are you involved in the buying process for a public sector organiation? Find out how Enterprise Ireland’s dedicated Public Procurement Team can help you by replying to this post.

If you’re a software company, cracking the US Market is hard. One option is to work with a partner, but finding a partner is the easy part. Understanding the partner, and making it successful for both parties takes a lot of time and effort. Microsoft is the partner of choice for many software companies, which is why Enterprise Ireland has been running joint events with Microsoft to enhance the partnering experience.

The latest, and one of the most important joint Microsoft – EI events, is Paul Solski’s visit to Ireland. It will be useful for existing Microsoft Partners and companies partnering with other vendors both in the US and other key export markets. There will be a public event ‘Succeeding in the US Market – Best Practices for Software Companies’, 23rd March 2010 at Enterprise Ireland, Eastpoint , Dublin.

Paul Solski is the Managing Director of The OpenBorders Group in North America. Together with The OpenBorders Group executive partners in Germany and the UK, he build Microsoft’s Open Borders Program which helps Microsoft ISVs expand internationally, four years ago. Paul worked at Microsoft in the roles of ISV Strategy Director and Dynamics ISV Sales Director from 2004 to 2008. Paul has over 25 year experience in international business development having worked in prior roles at HP, Intel, Compaq, Digital and SCO distribution in Australia, Asia and USA. He holds an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of NSW in Sydney, Australia.

If you are interested in attending this event, please contact Irene[dot]Sadleir[at]Enterprise-Ireland[dot]com .

Full Agenda

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The Supply National SME Engagement Programme is sponsored by the National low value contract portal of the UK supply2.gov.uk. It forms part of a national strategy to increase SME engagement with the Public sector market worth around £175bn annually.

According to BiP Solutions nearly three quarters of all UK operating SMEs never or rarely tender for the 3,000 publicly tendered contracts available in the UK each month. – BiP Solutions

These workshops, designed to increase SME engagement with the UK public sector are delivered in each of the regions highlighted in the picture below and deal extensively with the following themes;
(1) Creating a Competitive Advantage
(2) Winning Business Through London 2012
(3) Understanding Pre-Qualification Questionnaires
(4) Effective Tender Writing
(5) Meet the Buyer (Details TBC)

These workshops are delivered by BiP Solutions on behalf of Supply2Gov and are charged at a flat rate of £75 each. 

Some of my colleagues in Enterprise Ireland were debating the other day an ongoing SaaS issue – whether it is an all or nothing business model or can you run your old on-premise business hand-in-hand with your new SaaS business, i.e. a ‘Hybrid Model’.   Salesforce.com and other SaaS zealots go for the purity of SaaS only and see the hybrid model as a bastardisation that will ruin both businesses.   The issue I think is more fundamental than alternative ways of applying technology, it is about leveraging your company’s strategic strengths through the key generic strategies of cost leadership or differentiation.

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In February, Enterprise Ireland organised 2 workshops for clients planning to export into the North American market. These workshops were held for clients from all sectors from Life Sciences and Clean Tech to Software and Services companies.

On the day, clients heard real-life case studies of technology companies who are doing business in the North American markets and both the pitfalls and successes for companies were highlighted. The First Flight programme highlights to start-up companies how Enterprise Ireland can assist in their markets of interest through the following routes:

• Validation of Market opportunities through desk-based research and in-market itinerary development
• Assisting with market positioning in advance of market entry
• Conducting competitor analysis studies
• Proactively delivering market intelligence on key areas of opportunity
• Identifying and assessing distribution channels
• Providing customized in-market itineraries
• Providing access to external market expertise
• Undertaking post market visit assessment and follow up

Enterprise Ireland is subscribed to a large number of databases and research houses that provide key up-to-date information on the majority of market sectors. If the information is not available through these sources, Enterprise Ireland can prepare an individualized report on a particular market sector. Enterprise Ireland can work with companies to identify target customers and identify and assess distribution channels. This type of work is carried out on a one-to-one basis and is specific for each company.

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From September 9th – 14th 2010 Amsterdam RAI will host the IBC Conference & Exhibition. See www.ibc.org for exhibitors and the conference program.

IBC is committed to staging the world’s best event for professionals involved in CONTENT CREATION, MANAGEMENT and DELIVERY.

IBC2009 attracted 45,000+ visitors and 1,300+ exhibitors from more than 130 countries.

If clients are planning to attend, they should get in touch with Jan Jaap Dijkman (janjaap.dijkman<at>Enterprise-Ireland.com) or Patrick Torrekens (patrick.torrekens<at>Enterprise-Ireland.com)
at Enterprise Ireland.