NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 29 October
29-10-2009
by Emmet Cole
Broadband scheme generates 30 new jobs | Saaspoint to advise firms on the cloud
Communications Minister Eamon Ryan announced the creation of 30 new jobs in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, on Thursday, as a result of the Government's National Broadband Scheme (NBS). Three Ireland, the company delivering the nationwide scheme, has awarded a contract to Satellite Broadband Ireland to provide broadband services to homes and businesses in rural Ireland. The NBS is aimed at providing broadband services to areas in Ireland that are currently un-served. As part of the scheme, some 5 percent of the more remote areas will be provided with a satellite product. The cost of the satellite broadband service to consumers within the NBS areas will be the same price as Three Ireland’s NBS mobile broadband service -- EUR19.99 per month, plus a once off charge of EUR49.00 for installation and hardware.
In separate but related news, 8,169 Irish organisations and businesses are in broadband 'black spot' areas, according to a survey conducted by telecommunications and managed services provider, Digiweb. Mainly small businesses in rural areas, the companies are primarily involved in the retail, tourism and agribusiness sectors. Counties with the highest numbers of organisations in areas struggling to get broadband are Cork (1,071), Tipperary (712), Kerry (662), Clare (653) and Meath (494). A recently published report from the National Competitiveness Council ranked Ireland in 12th position in the EU-15 for broadband penetration.
Enterprise Ireland (EI) has appointed international cloud computing specialist, Irish-owned Saaspoint, to deliver and manage a Software as a Service (SaaS) transition program, that will help Irish software companies to develop their products on a cloud platform. Founded in 2005, Saaspoint specialises in helping global companies make the transition to cloud computing. Saaspoint’s partners include salesforce.com and Google.
Communications platform provider Voxeo and IT solutions provider HERMES SoftLab have launched a partnership aimed at the Irish market. With Voxeo's VoiceObjects platform now incorporated into HERMES SoftLab's offering, customers will be able to develop applications that make use of voice, mobile web, SMS, video and IM chat to create new customer contact channels.
German-owned SAP has entered into a further 10 year lease of its Citywest Business Park premises in Dublin, a move that's expected to result in an approximate EUR1 billion overall spend in Ireland over the next 10 years and a EUR3 million investment for refurbishment of the facility. Speaking at a meeting with Werner Brandt, SAP's global Chief Financial Officer, who is visiting Ireland for meetings with the Irish Government, customers of SAP and employees from SAP's Dublin and Galway offices, the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, welcomed SAP's announcement. SAP has been supported by IDA Ireland since its establishment in Dublin in 1997.
EMC has been awarded the it@Cork Green Technology Award. EMC has achieved an 18 percent reduction in paper usage for printing over 2.5 years and has virtualised 43 percent of its production servers. The company has also achieved 72 percent data de-duplication across the EMEA region. Meanwhile, EMC's datacentre uses "Hot & Cold" corridors to maximise its airflow efficiency.
Stream Global Services, a business process outsourcing (BPO) service provider, has announced that Eircom has renewed its EUR13.5 million contract with Stream to provide technical support services for Eircom's residential and business broadband customers. As part of the deal, Stream will continue to deliver an integrated support solution for the telco.
Motorola has reported sales of USD5.5 billion in the third quarter, compared to USD7.48 billion in the same quarter last year. Third quarter earnings came in at USD12 million, or USD0.01 per share, compared with a loss of USD397 million, or USD0.18 per share, in the same quarter a year ago. Motorola shipped 13.6 million handsets in the quarter for an estimated global market share of 4.7 percent. In related news, the company also announced that Edward J. Fitzpatrick has been appointed chief financial officer, effective immediately. Fitzpatrick, 43, joined Motorola in 2000 and has served as acting chief financial officer since February 2009 and corporate controller since January 2009.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 