NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 2 December
02-12-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
Trinity Biotech to cut jobs | C&W nets EUR94m contract
Irish diagnostic products maker Trinity Biotech has announced it is to cut 70 jobs in order to reduce costs. The firm said the job cuts, together with other measures, would generate around USD6 million in savings in 2009. The firm, which has a manufacturing facility in Bray, Co Wicklow, hasn't said if the job cuts will affect Irish employees. Some 340 people are employed at the Bray facility. The firm also has a number of manufacturing sites throughout the US, as well as one in Germany. This time last year Trinity Biotech closed its plant in Umea, Sweden, as part of a previously announced restructuring plan.
Avvio, which provides reservations software and online marketing to the hospitality industry, has announced plans to expand its business in both the domestic and international markets. The Irish-owned firm said it plans to double its business in size every year for each of the next three years. It will do this by executing a global franchise model over the next year, continuing to invest up to 20 percent of turnover in R&D and partnering with local firms for non-software services. Avvio aims to fund its expansion through a Business Expansion Scheme, and is currently seeking external investors. Over the past year the firm has grown its workforce to 43 people from 20 this time last year.
Despite the challenging economic environment, the majority (82 percent) of Irish IT departments are confident they will meet their IT goals during 2009. That's according to a report compiled by Cisco Ireland, which revealed that 92 percent of businesses that consider themselves 'cutting edge' in terms of innovation are more confident of achieving their IT goals, whilst only 67 percent of the businesses with a cautious approach to innovation expressed the same level of confidence. The report also found that 78 percent of respondents use video or rich media content on their networks, with almost one in four saying that it is either important or very important for their network to support video. Despite this enthusiasm, however, 50 percent of respondents associate challenges with delivering rich media and video content. "Whilst IT is certainly not insulated from the prevailing economic climate, it is clear that there is an appetite from Irish businesses to drive innovation, as long as measurable objectives can be set," said Kim Majerus, managing director, Cisco Ireland.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, Dell Ireland outlined the three main areas it aims to focus on in the coming years. The three areas are: services, mobility and the environment. Within the area of services Dell will focus on cloud computing and virtualisation. In tackling the issue of mobility the PC maker pointed to its E-series of laptops and its Flexible Computing programme, which focuses on Unified Communications. Finally, on the issue of the environment, Dell Ireland general manager Dermot O'Connell said that over the next year Dell will transition all laptop displays to LED, which is mercury-free and recyclable.
Cable & Wireless has announced it has signed a five-year contract worth EUR94 million with UK energy firm Centrica to provide a next-generation telecoms network for the group's UK operations. Under the contract, Cable & Wireless will become the exclusive telecoms provider to Centrica in the UK and will streamline the group's existing systems into a single IP network -- Cable & Wireless' Multi Service Platform (MSP). The new network will connect 61 of Centrica's sites in the UK and provide managed services to 111 Centrica sites in total.
Children who spend a lot of time watching TV, surfing the web and playing video games are more prone to a range of health problems, including obesity and smoking, according to researchers from the US National Institutes of Health, Yale University and the California Pacific Medical Center. One study cited in the report found that children who spent more than eight hours watching TV per week at age three were more likely to be obese at age seven. The researchers analysed 173 research papers on the topic of media exposure, going back as far as 1980. In their findings, they calculated that the average modern child spends nearly 45 hours a week with TV, movies, magazines, music, the internet, mobile phones and video games. By comparison, children spend on average 17 hours a week with their parents and 30 hours a week in school.
EU ministers have backed a five-year plan to tackle cybercrime. The plan aims to fight the growth in electronic crime, the trade in images of children being sexually abused, and the increase in PCs used to spread spam and malware. It will also encourage better sharing of data among European police forces in order to track down and prosecute cyber criminals. Europol will co-ordinate the investigative work and will also issue alerts about cybercrime sprees. Around EUR300,000 has been granted to Europol in order to set up an alert system.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 