For the record 5 February

05-02-2008

by Stephen Errity

Manufacturing jobs boost for Shannon | FG slams government broadband consultation

Medical device firm Zimmer Technologies is set to open a new manufacturing base in the Shannon Free Zone, creating 250 jobs in the region and promising investment of EUR50 million in the first two years. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment confirmed the move on Tuesday, crediting it to close co-operation between Shannon Development and IDA Ireland.

Fine Gael's spokesperson on Communications Simon Coveney TD has criticised the announcement by the Minister for Communications Eamonn Ryan of an international advisory forum on next-generation broadband in Ireland. Labelling the proposed forum a 'talking shop', Coveney called on the Minister to immediately take specific steps to prevent Ireland slipping further behind in international broadband speed and access rankings. Fine Gael recently unveiled a 10-point plan to bring about improvements in Irish broadband service.

O2 Ireland has launched a new SIM card back-up service that will allow business and personal users to retrieve key contacts and numbers if they lose or damage their mobile. Data is backed up to a secure server on the O2 network and customers can then access this data through the 'My O2' section of the company's website. The service costs EUR2 for an initial back up of up to 250 contacts and EUR0.50 for each update thereafter. Users with older SIM cards can have them swapped for the 3G versions necessary to use this service free of charge at any O2 store.

Putplace.com founder Joe Drumgoole will launch the latest series of 'Entrepreneurs Live!' seminars organised by NovaUCD and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. The lecture series aims to promote a spirit of entrepreneurship among the academic, research and student population at UCD. The theme of the current series is 'fund raising as a start-up' and other confirmed speakers include John O'Shea of Zamano (12 February), Fabrizio Memon of Delta Index (19 February) and Jamie Jenkinson of Cush'n Shade (26 February).

VHI Healthcare has selected Siperian to provide a new customer service system that will provide complete, real time views of its customers, insurance product offerings and relationships. Siperian's Master Data Management (MDM) Hub is expected to reduce VHI's call centre response times by means of unique member IDs, and consolidation of both patient and family data.

The Expert Group On Future Skills Needs has released a report outlining the future skills needs of the medical devices sector in Ireland. The report says that the requirement for people with engineering, scientific, technician, sales and purchasing skills will continue to rise and the demand for those qualified to Masters and Ph.D level will also increase. Also predicted is a move towards greater numbers of engineers, scientists, analysts and technicians.

Three Ireland has launched a new 'Three Minute Switch' campaign aimed at encouraging mobile users to switch to their network. The company says that it is offering EUR30 to customers if it takes longer than three minutes to switch them from another network to Three, either online or in one of their retail stores. The campaign is in response to ComReg statistics showing that just 41 percent of Irish mobile users have 'shopped around' the market at least once to compare prices.