NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 17 September
17-09-2009
by Emmet Cole
Twitter tops for Irish business | CFOs don't understand IT, say IT pros
Sixty-nine percent of Irish companies use Twitter to build an online community enabling them to develop a greater knowledge of their customers and also create an audience for them to promote company news too, according to a survey conducted by mobile provider Three Ireland. Managing directors and company founders account for 31 percent of updates, followed by marketing and IT personnel with 14 percent and 11 percent respectively. About 13 percent of companies update their Twitter feed on an hourly basis, with 46.2 percent updating on average more than once a day. Over 80 percent of businesses believe that those following their tweets are potential customers, with 55 percent believing that competitors also subscribed to keep an eye on their business. Thirty-one percent of Irish businesses suggested that Twitter had delivered a return of less than EUR100 whilst 17 percent indicated a return of between EUR750 -EUR1,000. Five percent detailed a contribution of EUR5,000 or more. The overwhelming majority (97 percent) of businesses believed in the growing importance of Twitter. Those surveyed also ranked a number of social networking tools in order of importance with Twitter coming top, followed by Facebook, LinkedIn, Boards.ie, Igopeople, and Bebo. The survey of 65 businesses was conducted in August, and Three is said to be planning a more detailed analysis of the ways in which Irish businesses use social networking tools later this year.
Over three quarters (76 percent) of IT professionals say that their company is looking to IT to help save money in the current economic climate, but 62 percent have had their budget cut and 12 percent think their CFOs and CEOs don't understand the cost savings and increased efficiency to be gained through IT solutions, according to a survey carried out by Microsoft Ireland. The survey of Irish IT pros, carried out through Microsoft's TechNet Network, found that 39 percent of Irish SMEs are investing in virtualisation, 14 percent are focusing their spending on business intelligence and 10 percent are focusing on unified communications. Only 6.5 percent identified security as a key focus, while just 4.2 percent expect to focus on open source solutions in the coming year. Of the 356 IT professionals who participated in the survey, 58 percent worked in companies with up to 250 employees, of those, 30 percent were in small companies of up to 25 employees.
Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan has launched an IDA-developed campaign to promote Ireland as a destination for foreign direct investment. Over the next six months the campaign will focus primarily on the North American market, and will include a series of TV advertisements on television stations CNBC and Bloomberg, as well as an internet campaign and advertisements in print and digital media and major US airports. Ireland, says the campaign's tagline, is the place where 'innovation comes naturally'. As part of the campaign senior executives from leading multinational companies --including Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, Colm Long, Head of EMEA Operations for Facebook and Paul Rellis, Managing Director of Microsoft in Ireland -- talk about the advantages that Ireland has to offer.
Researchers from the CLARITY Centre of Science, Engineering and Technology, involving Dublin City University (DCU), University College Dublin (UCD) and NUI Maynooth (NUIM) are monitoring the effects of strenuous physical activity on the An Post/Connaught Team in the Race Around Ireland cycle challenge. The four-member An Post/Connaught team, are kitted out with a range of specialised sensors that monitor a physiological variables such as heart rate, external temperature and respiration rate. Race Around Ireland is a five-day, 1,300km endurance cycling event, which started in Navan at 8pm on Wednesday and will hit all four provinces before finishing in Navan again on Sunday. Researchers are undertaking a number of studies to gain insight into the stresses that our bodies experience during an event of this nature. The data will be fed back direct and live from the team to the CLARITY researchers.
Radio station Newstalk has launched the 2009/10 Student Enterprise Competition, in association with The Irish Times. Now in its fourth year, the competition is designed to promote early-stage entrepreneurship among third level students. A record 330 teams, consisting of 1,300 students from Ireland's 15 Institutes of Technology and the National Colleges of Ireland, entered the 2008/2009 competition. The competition is exclusively open to students from Ireland's 15 Institutes of Technology and the NCI. The 16 judging committees will consist of top local business and media representatives as well as a local INTRE (Irish Network of Teachers and Researchers of Entrepreneurship) representative. The winning team from each of the colleges will receive prize money along with accommodation and hospitality in Dublin for the national semi-final and final in February, 2010. The overall prize is a study trip to the Caribbean where the team will shadow senior executives from telecoms company, Digicel Group. The closing date for entries is Wednesday, 14 October 2009 and entry forms must be completed online.
Interactive education technology solutions provider Promethean has announced its 400,000th member of Planet Promethean. Meanwhile, downloads of Promethean's interactive teaching content, exceeded 4 million in one year. One day in September saw nearly 30,000 visits in 24 hours, according to the company. The number of Irish members has increased by over two-thirds since January 2009 to over 3,600. Promethean Planet is an online interactive whiteboard community, designed to provide teachers with the ability to share lessons, access professional development materials and connect with each other. The company recently launched an iPhone application, which has been downloaded more than 3,000 times and appeared in the iTunes top 100 free educational apps list in August.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 