What is being done and who benefits?

• The government through FAS and the third level sector has invested significant resources in retraining Ireland’s workforce to be orientated toward the knowledge economy.
• FAS has also rolled out a programme (WPP1) which seeks to provide a portal by which graduates can source work placements in areas such as the software.
• Participants can be eligible to retain their job seekers benefits for the duration of their engagement on the programme.
• Most importantly skilled graduates get to receive valuable work experience, retain their income (if eligible), work gets done and Ireland can retain and provide opportunities for our skilled young graduates.
• After completion of the programme the participants are more competitive in the jobs market and can have acquired a whole host of new skills.

FAS Work Placement Programme 1:

Caters for organisations in the Public, Private, Community and Voluntary sector who wish to provide a 9 month work placement to graduates seeking experience in roles which put their skills to use.

A Point to Remember:

• To get the best out of having a placement in your workplace try to challenge your graduate to put into use the skills they have learned in college to enable them to really add value to your organisation.

For job seekers details of current vacancies (139 in Dublin alone as of today) can be found by clicking here.

For employers details of how to have a position from your company added to the programme can be found by clicking here.

If you haven’t heard of iGAP, now is the time to acquaint yourself! Internet Growth Acceleration Programme is a management training and so-called ‘incubation’ strategy that is specifically designed to assist high potential internet companies in the early stages of their business, and to enable them to position themselves tactically in the marketplace. You might ask yourself what makes iGap so different from all the others out there? The answer is that iGAP, which is a multi-module programme running over six months, hones in on the precise needs of internet businesses, thereby ramping up their chances of success.

Here are a few questions for you, just in case you’re not sure of the where, how and why features of iGAP. In 2009, the business-led initiative Internet Growth Alliance aligned itself with Enterprise Ireland to develop iGAP, the debut run of which (from October 2009-April 2010) was vastly oversubscribed. The fundamental topics covered in the six monthly modules include how to accelerate strategic growth in business, marketing and sales; the great aspect about it is that through effective workshops, quality facilitators and implementation coaches, marketplace positioning, confidence and credibility is ingrained into the participants.

The feedback from the inaugural module run has been impressive, to say the least, to the point that iGAP2 is ready and raring to go, with the anticipation that there will be a high demand for limited places. Enterprise Ireland is now accepting applications for iGAP 2 – any interested online businesses can apply via the website at http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/igap, but only up to 6th September. The programme will commence in October 2010.

One promising solution to both these aspects is, variously, known as Connected Health, telemedicine or e-health. In brief, CH involves the deployment of sensor and communication technologies to the individual, the home and other locations in order to earlier detect risk, onset or worsening of disease and thereby reduce the severity of that disease and reduce the burden of acute care in the hospital.  Currently, CH solutions are being rolled out for those chronic conditions with the largest catchment of patients and the highest burden of cost such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.

At a recent conference in Belfast I attended, The European Connected Health Leadership Summit 2010, it was clear that Ireland has a strong presence in Connected Health. Irish firms span the whole gamut of Connected Health from companies like Shimmer developing sensor platforms, to Biancamed providing CH devices, to McElwaine Stewart delivering CH solutions to the community. A fuller overview of the all-island activities in this area can be found here. Furthermore, profiles of EI clients operating in the space can be seen here on the Best Connected site.

On listening to the presentations in Belfast, it struck me that locally and internationally, CH companies face similar barriers to adoption of their products and services. These include:

• Promising pilot studies that die after funding dries up
• Clinician conservatism
• Providing convincing evidence of return on investment
• Wrong kind of or no incentivisation for purchasers
• Procurement difficulties with new technologies
• Lack of standards/interoperability

In a later post, I’ll outline some of the emerging thought on how best to overcome these barriers. I’ll also cover the supports available to CH companies to innovate new products.

I have spent the last eight years as a venture capital and angel investor in technology companies.  Prior to that, I was a technology entrepreneur for ten years.  In those 18 years working in and with start-up companies I have become convinced that many entrepreneurs fail simply because they don’t have a clear vision of what their business really is…who their customers are; what their proposition for those customers is; how they are going to reach those customers; how they will make money from those customers.  In a nutshell, they don’t have a clear strategy.

Getting to that clarity is essential for every business.  That clarity enables you to prioritise tasks amidst the chaos of a start-up. It enables you to focus the team on what’s important. It enables you to articulate a clear and, hopefully, compelling investment opportunity to potential funders of the business.

iGAP is a programme that is designed specifically to help early-stage internet companies to develop that clarity and to give them tools to help them to execute on the strategy they have defined.  Many such management training and incubation programmes exist but iGAP is different because it focuses specifically on the needs of internet businesses.  Over a period of seven months, six modules led by international lean start-up and customer development experts such as Sean Ellis and Oren Michels address issues such as monetisation strategies, internet customer acquisition, business development using APIs, etc.

The need for a programme like iGAP was first recognised by the members of the Internet Growth Alliance (IGA), led by Colm Lyon of Realex Payments.  The expertise of our international facilitators is supplemented by input from Colm, Irish success stories such as Ray Nolan of HostelWorld, Breon Corcoran of PaddyPower and others too numerous to mention here.

Finally, as Programme Lead my role is to bring those diverse inputs together into a cohesive programme that will take participants on a journey that will greatly increase their chances of success.  I believe the programme is a great opportunity for emerging internet businesses but don’t take my word for it, ask participants on iGAP 1 what they thought.

Enterprise Ireland are now accepting applications for iGAP 2 – any interested online businesses can apply via the website at www.enterprise-ireland.com/igap. The programme will commence in October 2010.

This year though it’s turned into a two-day event, showing the increase in popularity for this type of event in Open Source. It’s great to see these events being promoted and sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, as it encouraging to see Open Source becoming more main stream.

Organised by Laura Czajkowski and a team of enthusiastic volunteers, this event has provided an excellent platform for the Open Source community to meet, share ideas and collaborate on projects. With attendance of 150 people at each of the previous OSSBarcamps, this is a boutique (un)conference that allows professionals and interested amateurs alike to learn more about, and contribute to the growing popularity of Open Source technology.

Being an unconference, the aim is to allow participants to set the agenda of the day. A timetable will be published on the OSSBarcamp website and attendees are encouraged to enter their own topics that they will talk about. Topics vary at the barcamp which is the great thing about them, they cater for all levels and cover a multitude of topics on distributions of choice, which programming language you find best, what has been developed in the open source world recently. This year, OSSBarcamp will be hosting sessions, lightning talks and Birds of a Feather Sessions as well as a programming competition showcasing the “many ways to skin a cat”! More info below…

Talks:

Ranging from in-depth technical tutorials to project updates right on to introductory aspects of Open Source, the broad elements of the Open Source Community will be on display. As well as the usual 45 minute talks, the afternoon will see a series of lightning talks which are brief 15 minute introductions/tutorials designed to give people a taste of a particular project. Often these talks generate questions which can be discussed in more detail at the all important afters drinks!

A new addition to OSSBarcamp is the live show recording from the Ubuntu UK Podcast team, who are coming over to take part in the weekend. There will be round table discussions amongst individuals who work together on specific projects. These hour long sessions allow people who normally communicate online to meet and to discuss a topic pertinent to the project they are involved with. Often these sessions will be “State of the Nation” discussions or will tackle a particular issue relating to the project in open source.

Events:

Programming Competition – To showcase the “many ways to skin a cat” that exist in technology, OSSBarcamp is holding a programming competition where participants will be set a challenge to build a particular application. The participants will all possess their own programming skillsets such as php, ruby, python, perl etc and will be asked to complete the challenge during the day. Marks will then be awarded for speed development, quality and usability.

Running from 10:00 to 17:00 on both days, OSSBarcamp has a tradition like most open source events of running an after party for participants to digest the days activities and discuss the topics raised, all lubricated by a few beverages and grub. This year the party will be held in the Lansdowne Hotel bar from 6:30pm onwards. Come in and join us, chat and catch up on the days events or making plans for the Sunday fun.

For more information about OSS Bar Camp see the website and also sign up on our registration site or email Laura Czajkowski.

We all have LinkedIn networks – but a lot of people still don’t get it and see it solely as a means for making connections (or adding ‘friends’ – a grown-ups Facebook). There are still relatively few people that really use it to it to add value to their client engagement.

Take for example the recently added “Follow company” feature. Most of our clients have a corporate LinkedIn profile and you can now follow the company with a single click. By following a client company you will be automatically be notified of updates to their profile, recent joiners and recent leavers.

Depending on your relationship with the company you may or may not know who has left recently or joined recently. Many of us do not know. Imagine the impact on a client’s perception about how much you care about their business if the next conversation that you have with them starts with;

“I see that you’ve recently hired a Sales Executive for the Middle East – Did you know that EI has an office in that region that is very well connected with Senior people in the Financial Services Sector. Is there a specific opportunity for you in that region. We should hook you up with our office”

LinkedIn is a powerful tool but we need to always ask the question as to what it is doing to improve our client relationships and you might not always be able to add the value highlighted in the example above.

However given how easy it is to set up – we should use it to follow our client companies if for no other reason to show that we care enough about what they do to become a “follower” of their company.

Instigated by Stewart Curry (Design Director at X Communications), the Web Events in Ireland Google Calendar is a list of upcoming conferences, workshops and seminars focussed on the web development and design space.

Stewart has kindly added me as an admin on the calendar, so if there’s an upcoming event in this space that you’d like to add please let get in touch.

The Web, Enterprise Ireland and the Enterprise Ireland website have all come a long way in the last 12 years. Today, after many months of work, the newest version of  the Enterprise Ireland Corporate website was released. Most of the changes on the new site have been driven by feedback from clients, what clients are looking for, and to help clients connect with people in Enterprise Ireland.

Key features of the new site are:

• Improved search and contact details (top right);
• Links into networks of EI People (bottom right);
• A people finder to put you in touch with people in Enterprise Ireland;
• Starting links that cover 90% of client needs ; Start a business, Grow a business via exports, Commercialise research, Invest in emerging companies, Buy from Ireland – mid left;
• Funding and other non-financial supports;
• Calendar to track EI Events;
• Much greater use of video for key messages (e.g. the Video wall prominent on the home page);
• A focus on providing quality, relevant content.

With the previous website, I (as a DA) often found myself emailing links to clients who couldn’t easily find the information they needed – With the redesign this information is a lot easier to find. I expect the conversation to move quickly from ‘What can Enterprise Ireland do?’ to the specifics of how we can help clients win more exports, and create export led jobs.

Special mention of pTools, providers of the content management system behind the site. Of course the real value in the updates to the website is what you, the user, thinks – please leave your comments below!

The co-sponsors include EI, IDA and Tourism Ireland, and we’re hoping to take advantage of the presence of an impressive Indian CIO cluster (over 100), by which we can make connections and introductions across various conferences. The good thing here is that there is nothing formal organised – it’s really little more than the Indian CTO casually networking with you as a basis for future contact.

While most of the meeting slots are full, would any other EI clients be interested in participating in this? Via your DA, let me know of your interest and previous actions/success in the Indian market,  and I will then aim to get the Indian CTOs to agree to meet. The days best for such convivial meetings would have to be August 16th and 17th, and if I’m contacted in plenty of time, I can confirm up to four days before the start of the conference. It could be a good opportunity to grab a hold of, as well as a way of meeting new people, so why not?

You may have been reading recently that the contract for helicopter Search and Rescue services was recently signed by the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey for a value of up to €500m over the period 2012-2022.

The bid manager behind that success,  named Denis Thornton was entrusted by CHC to manage a contract bid that involved an incredibly complex set of requirements to deliver a successful bid. 

Utilising his procuring experience as a former UK Ministry of Defense Procurement official, technical knowledge of procurement requirements and experience managing one of the largest contracts signed this year Denis has developed a bid development methodologies and a software system known as the Evince system©.

He is now passing along some of this knowledge for free! He has created a series of 20 short videos and an eBook offering concise pointers and advice on public procurement in topics such as the following;
(1) Risk Management Plan development.
(2) General Do’s and Dont’s.
(3) Executive Summary Development Advice.
To access this information plus a free interactive webinar on the topic of the ‘5 Most Dangerous Trends Facing Irish Companies In The Public Procurement Market Today’ just follow the link below and go through the free sign up process.

Click Here

We are always keen to hear feedback on the services and ideas we highlight through best connected. Please spare a moment to reply to this post when you have had a quick look at the site and let us know what your impressions are.

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.

While there has been plenty of controversy and confusion over the NBN, along with plenty of technical arguments over the best way to roll out the network, most ICT commentators argue that high-speed broadband is critical to Australia’s business future and that the issue needs to be resolved quickly. So where are the opportunities? Most commentators highlight three key areas in which exciting new applications will emerge: health, education and entertainment.

There are other significant ICT issues at stake in this election – the future of Australia’s e-health records system and a A$2.4BN school laptop project for instance – but the most fundamental issue to resolve in this election will be the future of Australia’s national broadband network.

Who better to talk you through it than Robert Kaplan, inventor of the Balanced Scorecard and Activity Based Costing and the world’s leading expert on cost and performance management?

StaffBalance, in association with Bord Gais,  invites Professor Robert Kaplan to Dublin on 19^th October 2010. Professor Kaplan is the inventor of the Balanced Business Scorecard and Time-Driven Activity Based Costing, to address Senior Executives in Ireland. Professor Kaplan will share his methods, insights and case studies on the subject of rebuilding a business in a post-recession environment.

There has been a significant slowdown in the progress of Irish companies due to economic recession, lack of capital, restructuring (for cost realignment) and retrenchment (awaiting economic improvement). While the Irish economy has begun to show tentative signs of improvement: the PMI rose above 50, we have become more cost-competitive and there is an increase in the level of exports. It may even be that economic Armageddon has been avoided.

The recent economic recession has had a tremendous impact on the fortunes of Irish companies. Cost cutting programmes, redundancies, and rationalisation all take their toll on a once vibrant business sector. The overall cost of doing business in Ireland has reduced. At the same time, however, driving profitability is now more difficult with consumer confidence at an all time low. The question we ask is: How can senior executives build profitable business and outperform their competitors, while operating from a lower cost base?

More details, and event booking are availabe on Event Elephant.

Click Video to play. Copyright and original video from the IIEA.

What I found heartening was  the praise that Peter and Google had for Ireland, the commissioners depth of knowledge and positivity about security in the cloud, and the extent of the crossover (although with healthy differences) between the views of the commercial and governmental speakers. My notes on Peter’s talk are below – my most important point to takeaway being that the Cloud, done right, can actually enhance privacy and transparency for users, compared to the status quo.

What does the Cloud mean for Google?

• Physical architecture, number of different elements e.g. Data Centre, networks, software; These all tie into policy issues
• Google has Data centre in Dublin ‘number of years’ – Irish cool climate has advantages here.
• Cloud is a “Bunch of services” – focus until now consumer services , moving into the  Government and Business space – e.g. Google Apps.
• Cloud can also been seen as a Platform, Social Networking sites and as different model of computing –  remote , only local need is a browser. This is a  fundamental paradigm shift from the past 20 years.
• Chrome is Google providing a browser for the cloud environment, expect more developments in this regard.

Privacy in the cloud

• Give users transparency and control
  • Cloud remote storage not inherent problem for privacy, given that it enables transparency not possible before with existing paper or scattered computer systems.
    • E.g. Previously theoretical rights to access data held by companies, now this is a real, enforceable rights. An example is Google account Dashboard - which shows all data that Google holds about you.
    • e.g. Google Ad Preferences; Google think that there is a demand for good, targeted Ad’s so they let you see, change your preferences , or you can opt out.
• Needs predictable applicable law and standards
  • Law Still in flux; so many different theories of which law applies – is it determined by the location of the server, user or  corporation? What is the definition of equipment – actual server machine or cookie on users machine) ? In theory, everybody could claim jurisdiction over all clouds . How do companies know what to do?
• Transparency and rules for Government access to user data.
  • Important for users to have some sense of what is going on. E.g. Google page for government requests (as interactive map of the world) –updated every 6 months. Brazil Num 1 for government access  US 2nd , UK 3^rd.
  • Google is committed to complying with all applicable laws, but seeks to maintain transparency about the process for users.
  • Breach notification regimes; Need for clear and common thresholds for when breaches of security / user data need to be notified

Peter’s view on current Cloud Policy

• Location of data as key but obsolete concept – prefers Canadian concept of organizational accountability. Historically data did have a physical component that no longer holds true. Location changes often due to backups or other Moves for efficiency purposes
• Controller-processor model doesn’t fit – what not create one for the cloud?
  • E.g. Audit requirements on users of cloud services  - can the users ‘audit’ a cloud provider– are they expected to visit each and every data centre (and what would they see if they gained access?)
  • Replace with certification of compliance e.g. binding protocol for the cloud
• Applicable law vague (“make use of equipment”) – what law should apply , who should apply it
  • Either agree global standards, or risk balkanization of the web.

Both courses offer advice and tips on the practical aspects of Digital Marketing, such as search engine optimisation and marketing, marketing for mobile devices and the social media channels, while also highlighting the importance of defining an encompassing marketing strategy for the digital space, to allow Irish companies make the most of the opportunities presented.  If utilised correctly, online channels can deliver a sustained marketing and sales presence in a cost-effective manner for Irish companies looking to export their goods and services overseas.

For more information on these courses, please see the links below.

• Graduate Certificate in Digital Marketing, DCU Business School
• Post Graduate Diploma in Digital Marketing, Digital Marketing Institute

Update

Just saw that the Irish Internet Association (IIA) have also launched a Diploma in Digital Marketing in conjunction with Irish Times Training. The IIA are currently seeking candidates for this FETAC accredited course, register online here.

As part of a survey, the German publication Computerwoche has called for a change in Germany’s IT Startup culture. Ideas are certainly not the issue here as there are more patent registrations in Germany than in the USA. What else then could it be? Commentators point out the risk adverse nature of the German business culture and this is certainly something that EI Germany have noticed when discussing innovative Irish companies with German buyers. Another very strong factor is the role families play in influencing the career choices of their children. A big fat offer from Siemens compared to the hard existence of a start up is not much competition.

Somewhat like Ireland, the reputation of business failure is not something that sits well with the Germans. In this context, we are certainly closer to Berlin than Boston! On the people side, it is felt that Germans make good nerds but not good start up entrepreneurs. That is very easy to say but Germans certainly do not do a good enough job of marketing themselves and leveraging the “Made in Germany” brand.

So what does this mean for Ireland? Firstly, we should be pretty proud of our entrepreneurial spirit. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the rate entrepreneurs in 2008 were starting businesses in Ireland (4.3%) was well above the EU average and close to the US rate (5%). For countries like Germany, it will take generations to “manufacture” this spirit and no lean processes can accelerate this.

One of the guys behind the launch is an American entrepreneur Vernon Hill.  In 1973, at the age of 26, he launched Commerce Bancorp in New Jersey, which he sold in 2007 for $8.5bn.  At that time the bank had 435 branches and was opening 65 new stores annually.   He called them stores because he based his model on brining fast food convenience to banking.

Link this to Virgin Money gaining a foothold in UK retail banking with the acquisition of Church House Trust and the continued expansion of Tesco Bank and you can see a push to introduce FMCG type selling to the staid UK retail banking sector.   How customers will react to this change will only become clear over the next five to ten years.   However, for companies supplying products and services to these new style banks they may need to start learning the rules of FMCG selling.   Tesco retail requires service and product suppliers to have at least as good an understanding of Tesco’s customers as they themselves have.   They assist you by supplying copious amounts of customer data.   They charge you, however, for the data and insist that you provide them with any analysis you carry out on this data.

For Irish companies, in the Financial Services and Financial software sectors, looking to win business with these banks will create a new dynamic in your selling process.   These banks will not only want to see what your offering does for the bank, but equally importantly what your offering will do to improve the end customer experience.   Retail customers, such as Virgin and Tesco, are probably the most demanding you can ever expect to deal with.   Personally, on a visit to the HQ of a major UK retailer I saw a supplier leave in tears after being worked over by a buyer.   This supplier was not a small food supplier but one of the largest suppliers of shopping trolleys in the UK.

Looking forward to the changes and opportunities in banking over the next few years reminds me of the often quoted phrase from Star Trek “It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it”.

PS.  Its interesting to see where Vernon Hill sourced his senior management – RBS, HBOS and Anglo Irish Bank!

eTailing – Opportunities for Irish SME’s

I firmly believe that online trading offers smaller companies operating in limited markets an opportunity to punch above their weight on the global stage. Irish companies have certainly embraced this relatively low-cost method of reaching international markets. E-commerce accounts for 26 percent of the total turnover of Irish companies, compared to 15 percent of the revenue of UK-based companies, according to a European Commission Eurostat survey published January 2010.

Want to know more? Follow this link

When most people think of the Green Agenda, factories billowing smoke into the atmosphere come to mind, however software too will soon come under Green scrutiny when looking considering Government contracts.

Trends
The EU has mandated that by the end of 2010 50% of all government public procurement contracts in terms of both value and numbers will be subject to Green Criteria with an ever increasing drive and ambition toward it.

It is envisioned that with an average buying power equivalent to about 16-19% of all GDP governments will become the new drivers of the transition to Green technology which currently resides in the domain of private sector retailers.

Green in the Software Context
The implication for software is that your product development processes and the energy efficiency implications of using your product will come under scrutiny over the entire life cycle of the product. The following are just two considerations when thinking if you are ready for Green Public Procurement:
(1) The energy efficiency of the machines you use for product development are becoming relevant considerations for procurers seeking to lower the countries carbon footprint through applying entire life cycle methods of pricing contracts.
(2) The energy demands using your software places on the end user machine during its use must now also be considered in the coming era of energy efficiency. For instance can your product efficiently index files to reduce resource intensive search time and therefore save on energy consumption?

Solutions
Now that we established that Green is here to stay and that in the foreseeable future it will spread as far as the software sector. What can Enterprise Ireland do to help?

We have a toolkit of supports ready for our clients who wish begin measuring and reducing their carbon footprint to bring themselves in line with international best practises.

These include assistance in gaining (1) European Eco-Labels, (2) funding towards Environmental Management Systems implementation assistance such as the ISO14001 (3) funding assistance in sourcing a qualified consultant to measure your carbon footprint and help you lower it.

Further Information
Further information about Enterprise Ireland’s GreenTech offering can be found by clicking here.