For the record 3 June

03-06-2008

by Bryan Collins

Free calls to 11890 this summer | UCC student team wins Innovation Prize

Call 11890, the Irish Directory Enquiries company, has launched a free directory enquiry service for landline callers between 1 June and 31 August. The company is investing EUR1 million to cover the 'Summer Freedom' service and it estimates it will handle between 180,000 and 200,000 calls a week during this period. Call 11890 is also planning a EUR1 million advertising campaign on television and radio to market Summer Freedom.

Online car rental firm CarTrawler has signed an exclusive deal for several years with Spanish low-cost airline Clickair. The new system, which was launched Tuesday on clickair.com, features car rental offers from major car hire companies and is integrated into the booking section of the website. Consumers can use the system to choose from all the major car hire brands.

Microsoft has appointed Cathriona Hallahan as managing director of Microsoft's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations centre which is based at the Microsoft campus in Sandyford in Dublin. Hallahan succeeds Paul Rellis, who was recently appointed as managing director of Microsoft Ireland. In her new role, Hallahan will be responsible for all commercial operations at EOC. This includes logistics, supply chain management and financial support for the EMEA region.

Nokia, Apple and BlackBerry-maker RIM are pioneering new revenue streams for the mobile handset industry by pushing into value-added services like navigation, e-mail and music, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics. "A cocktail of promising applications for wireless consumers is already emerging, such as GPS navigation from Nokia, push e-mail from BlackBerry and iTunes music from Apple," said Tom Kang, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

BT's operations in the Republic and the North of Ireland have won two training awards from the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants (EC-Council). The company's all-island training organisation in Dublin and Belfast's Airport Road West, won the 'Accredited Training Centre of the Year' award. BT's head of security training, Sean Hanna, won the title of 'Security Trainer of the Year' for the second year running.

A group of UCC students, who developed a trading execution system have won the 2008 Business Information System (BIS) Innovation Prize. The UCC student team, known as Flytech, was awarded the prize at the annual BIS Innovative Software showcase last week. "The idea came about when I visited my cousin, a trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, at the end of last summer. He explained how he required an automated system for trading spread strategies. I worked with him for several days and viewed how he traded, and where a project like this could fit in," said team member Cian Hourihane.

Finally, two separate acquisitions were approved on Tuesday. The European Commission given the green light to EMC's acquisition of data back-up firm Iomega Corporation, without conditions, and the British Office of Fair Trade approved the BT Group's proposed acquisition of video conferencing provider Wire One Holdings.