Enterprise Ireland – Best Connected -

Now that the final of MasterChef is over and any hope of the Wallabies winning the Tri-Nations has dissipated, Australians are starting to focus on the upcoming Federal Election, scheduled for August 21^st 2010. The election cycle is short, with a new Government elected every three years and currently the two leading parties, Labor and the Liberal-led coalition, are running neck and neck in the polls.

This is a very important election from an ICT perspective, with the key issue being the future of Australia’s broadband network, upon which the hopes and aspirations of many local and international vendors rely. Irish vendors should take note of the opportunities resulting from this project – the current Federal Government has committed A$43BN to the project, the largest ICT infrastructure project spend in Australian history.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) is a Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network which will bring speeds of up to 100Mbps to 93% of Australian homes and businesses. The project was formally announced in April 2009 by the current Federal Government and is to be built by NBNCo, an organisation set up by the Government itself, as none of the bids by private enterprise were deemed acceptable.

The project has begun to be rolled out in Tasmania and is scheduled to take roughly eight years to complete. The Liberal opposition has argued that the NBN will be too expensive, is currently under-budgeted and has promised to scrap the NBN if elected but has not clearly outlined an alternative plan for infrastructure as of yet.

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One of many interesting talks at last week’s DevDays Mobile/iPhone developers event, was a session entitled “Engagement through Gamification” by Chris McClelland of Ecliptic Labs.

Not a completely new idea, but great to spend some time listening to someone who has put a good deal of thought into it. I’ve read about people using games controllers for education and other non-game applications, but here the focus was on the social interactions in gaming and taking those into the “real” world.

The idea is that people are more likely to participate in a community if they are engaged using some or all of the basic human triggers common in games – the desire for reward, status, achievement, self expression or respect whether it is driven by competitiveness or even by altruism. Chris went on to give examples of social media companies who use these triggers in their products and also to outline some software frameworks that can be used to provide much of the functionality if you don’t want to build your own.

A question to readers of this blog – are there elements of gamification that you could use to engage your customers further? Apart from the obvious areas of social media and elearning, could it apply to enterprise applications? Should you incorporate a leaderboard into your next release?

Reference: Chris recommended a book called Total Engagement on the subject of gamification.

DevDays: Mobile developers from across the island gathered in Belfast and Dublin last week for DevDays 2010 (http://devdays.info). I attended the  Dublin session although the agenda was similar at both events. There were talks on Facebook integration from Tapadoo.com, Connected/Mobile Health solutions, Card Payments in iPhone Apps separate to the AppStore, adding location to your apps from OS3.ie , good/bad product strategy from Des Traynor of Contrast and the importance of good design.

Origina is a leading IT managed services & solutions company providing innovative IT solutions to public & private organisations in various sectors within Ireland, UK, mainland Europe and the USA.

The mission of Origina, is to make ‘IT the Hero’ for their clients through Innovation, Dedication and Teaming.

Products & Services
- Consultancy: A recognised thought leader & trusted advisor, Origina are well placed to provide clients with expert IT advice & guidance in order to achieve optimum results from their IT environment.
- IT Solutions: Origina’s IT solutions help organisations derive greater value from IT. Their technology portfolio is best of breed and is constantly reviewed to ensure they have the right technology solutions for their clients.
- Teaming: Origina Teaming service can take many forms, with examples like their helpdesk support, virtual administrators, managed backups, managed Storage, 24×7x365 technical support, remote support and consolidated hardware maintenance and more.
- Training: Origina IT Training focuses on providing value-added IT training solutions to organisations throughout Ireland, Europe and Internationally. They are a trusted IBM training delivery partner, also delivering in-depth courses across a range of other vendor technologies offering insight and practical experience through an expert-led training approach.

Key Benefits
- Focused on maximising existing technology and skills investments.
- Increased agility within your IT infrastructure.
- Reduced cost of running your IT systems and associated operations.
- World class independent advice.
- Tailored best of breed IT solutions.
- Some of the industry’s best IT professionals within a range of different disciplines including High Availability, Server & Storage Virtualisation, Disaster Recovery, Private Cloud Infrastructures.
- Origina’s innovative approach and industry thought challenging leadership ‘Origina Thinking’ has seen them win numerous high profile awards including the 2010 European IT Excellence Award, ‘SMB Solutions Provider of the Year’.

Clients
Lakeland Dairies Group, European Fund Services (Société Générale Securities), Department of Education, Health Research Board, RSA Insurance, HSE South Eastern, Department of Justice, Equity & Law Reform, Omnipay, Galway University Hospitals (GUH), Cork City Council

Partners
IBM, Microsoft, VMware, Symantec, Compellent, Commvault, Riverbed and Oracle.

Web www.origina.com

Tel +353 (0) 1 2942300

Email info@origina.ie

Address
Unit 2 First Floor, Bracken Court, Bracken Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18.

ThirdForce provides cost effective, motivational e- Learning solutions for schools, training providers and corporate clients. ThirdForce products improve return on investment and bring real cost and time savings through reducing travel.

Products/Services
• e-Learning solutions and services including ECDL courseware and assessment.
• Key skills, maths and ICT products for the UK national curriculum.
• Nationally recognised Care NVQ and assessment solutions.
• Regulatory compliance solutions.

Key Benefits
• Delivered online, over a client’s network or via the El-BoxTM tablet PC platform.
• Reduce carbon footprint.
• Improve staff retention.
• Make learning interesting and fun.
• Rich multimedia learning environment, using the latest technologies and real world applications.

Clients
BP, Whitbread, Care UK, Voyage, Marstons, Tragus, Regents Inns, Learn Direct, Hall & Woodhouse, Malmaison, The Restaurant Group, Costa Coffee, Failte Ireland, The Orders of St. John Care trust.

Partners
RM, Enterprise, UfI, Dell, Toshiba, Microsoft, Enterprise Ireland, BT.

Web www.thirdforce.com

Tel +353 (0)1 289 1989

Address
No. 1 Deansgrange Business Park, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.

Flúirse develops interactive educational software for the primary school curriculum as well as tailored eLearning solutions for the corporate market. This enhances the learning and teaching experience for parents, teachers, children and clients by delivering tailored educational resources.

Products/Services
• eLearning solutions.
• Range of online courses for primary school teachers.
• Business and ICT training division in Tralee.

Key Benefits
• Sales and Marketing.
• Research and Development.
• Intimate knowledge and understanding of Education Sector.
• Graphics and Interface Design.
• Evaluation and Co-operative design methodologies.
• Market understanding.
• Enterprise and Entrepreneurship.
• Website development and authoring.
• Programming.
• Audio and Video Production.
• Localisation.

Clients
Fexco, Pitman Training Group, Foras na Gaeilge (Irish Language Board), An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaíochta, Physical Education Association of Ireland (PEAI).

Web www.fluirse.com

Tel +353 (0)66 712 9828

Address
Monavalley Business Park, Tralee, Co. Kerry.

Digitary provides certificate authority services and security software to higher education institutions, allowing them to issue and authenticate official electronic graduation documents and other official documents online.

Products/Services
• Secure online issuing and authentication of tamper-evident official graduation documents.
• Available for single or multiple higher education institutions and other
organisations that wish to issue secured documents and certificates of achievement.

Key Benefits
• Signing electronic documents gives two key characteristics: legal validity and tamper evidence.
• Increased security and reduced fraud.
• Save money in a previously costly and manual area.
• Increase the level of service offered to students, graduates and employers.

Clients
An Cheim (central procurement and management of systems for 14 Irish Institutes of Technology, all of which use Digitary), Dublin City University, University College Dublin, University of Bradford, University of Kent, University of Limerick.

Partners
Tribal Education (70% of UK institutions as their customers).

Web www.digitary.net

Tel +353 (0)1 700 7071

Address
Invent Building, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.

Learnosity is a specialist e-Assessment and mobile learning solutions provider. Specialist capabilities include delivery of special needs examinations, and an innovative phone based language assessment and learning application.

Products/Services
• Learnosity Voice is a mobile learning platform which enables language students and teachers to interact on a one to one level, using any telephone.
• Learnosity’s OnScreen allows secure online testing across all subject areas. This award-winning platform is the only system available which has been developed specifically for special needs students.

Key Benefits
• Facilitates every requirement of students with special needs.
• Proven platform has delivered more than 6 million tests, at rates of up to 110,000 tests in one day.
• Enables large scale oral language examinations which previously were extremely difficult to administer.

Clients
New South Wales Board of Studies Sydney Australia, the Learning Federation Melbourne, Australia, National Council for Curriculum and Assesssment (NCCA) Dublin Ireland.

Web www.learnosity.com

Tel +353 (0)85 711 1222

Address
St. Johns, Beamore Road, Drogheda, Co. Louth.

Intuition provides knowledge and learning services to the financial, pharmaceutical / life sciences and government sectors. Combining an intimate knowledge of these sectors with in-depth educational expertise, Intuition provides a full spectrum of products, services and technologies to support clients’ learning requirements.

Products/Services
• Healthcare courses: Infection control, decontamination.
• Generic Content: Health and safety training, security training.
• Learning management systems and hosting services.
• Consultancy, blended learning design, instructor-led training.
• Bespoke e-learning content.

Key Benefits
• End-to-end learning solutions: consultancy and programme design, development, web hosting and implementation services.
• Quality Accredited: ISO 9001:2000, UK TickIT.
• Public Sector Procurement Channels: A selection of government frameworks.
• Communicating policy effectively, standardising best practice and implementing regulatory standards.

Clients
Department of Health England, NHS, Ministry of Defence, Transport for
London, Ufi Learndirect, NHS Education Scotland, HM Treasury.

Partners
Microsoft Certified Partner, Research In Motion (Blackberry).

Standards & Certifications
Quality Management System ISO 9001:2000 certified, TickIT certified.

Additional Languages
English, French (including Canadian), Italian, German, Spanish (including Latin American), Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin and Cantonese, Japanese, Korean.

Contact Name / Title
Séamus Coogan, Marketing Manager

Email
scoogan@intuition.com

Web www.intuition.com

Tel +353 (0)1 605 4300

Address
IFSC House, Custom House Quay, Dublin 1.

The Nvolve Response Blended Learning Management System is a new training technology that leverages classroom, online and mobile technologies to train staff faster, better and more cost-effectively.

Products/Services
The Nvolve Response Blended Learning Management System is a new training technology that leverages classroom, online and mobile  technologies to train staff faster, better and more costeffectively. It enables organisations to manage and deliver their training at a fraction of the time and cost of the traditional paper-based classroom or first-generation learning management systems.

Key Benefits
Makes the delivery, management and reporting of as easy as it can be and also at the same time significantly reducing the overall cost to the organisation. As a hosted managed service, it can be delivered without significant setup costs.

Clients
KPMG, Lifestyle Sports, Smurfit Kappa, Dublin Port.

Web www.nvolve.net

Tel +353 (0) 74 911 6000

Address
Business Development Centre, Letterkenny IT, Port Road, Letterkenny,
Co. Donegal.