NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 9 August
09-08-2007
by Charlie Taylor
Intune Networks raises USD17.75 million in funding | Novell names UK and Ireland Country Manager
Intune Networks, a Dublin-based network equipment manufacturer has raised USD17.75 million from a consortium of international investors consisting of Amadeus Capital Partners, Balderton Capital (formerly known as Benchmark Capital Europe) and Spark Capital. The company said the fundraising will provide the resources necessary to commercialise its innovations for the telecommunications market.
An Irish-based college has awarded what it claims is the world's first online Masters in Pharmaceutical Medicine to 27 people from 11 countries. The event was marked by a graduation ceremony in the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin on Thursday. The e-learning programme is a collaboration between Hibernia College and Pfizer -- who funded the initiative -- and is run in conjunction with faculty from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Harvard University.
Commtech, an Irish distributor of specialist networking and internet security products and services, has announced the appointment of Katherine O'Sullivan as its new marketing and communications executive. O'Sullivan, who previously worked for two years with Epson Ireland, will be responsible for marketing of key products. She will also oversee customer communications, the monthly newsletter and website content and development as well as assisting with events, seminars and workshops.
In related news, Commtech has also announced the appointment of Edward McGrane to the position of VMware business development manager. McGrane, who previously worked with Dell as an enterprise pre-sales technical consultant, is charged with raising the profile of the VMware brand in the channel. One of his key responsibilities will be to work closely with partners assisting in technical design and support of their customers' virtual infrastructure solutions.
In yet more news of appointments, Novell has named Jacqueline de Rojas as Country Manager for UK and Ireland. She will oversee the full range of Novell's sales and consulting business across the region. Prior to joining Novell, de Rojas spent over 20 years in leadership roles and successfully led change initiatives in a variety of tech firms. Most recently, de Rojas was VP sales, EMEA for Cartesis, responsible for increasing revenues in software internationally and transforming the company into a licence-driven business. De Rojas has also held various executive level positions at Business Objects, Ascential Software, Informix Software and Computer Associates.
Irish diagnostics firm Trinity Biotech has announced profits of USD3.04 million for the second quarter, compared to a loss of USD3.81 million for the same three-month period a year ago. The company saw revenues jump from USD27.31 million to USD37.44 million during the past 12 months. Trinity also reported an operating profit of USD3.70 million versus a previous loss of USD3.72 million.
Belfast-based SpeechStorm, a provider of advanced speech recognition solutions, has announced a successful first quarter and the doubling of its UK sales revenues. The company, which was launched in April as a separate operating division of the IT consulting firm Kainos, won deals with SITA UK, Northern Ireland Electricity and Stirling Council during its first three months in business. It has also opened offices in both London and Glasgow and said it made a number of key sales hires to meet and service increased market demand. The firm added that it plans to launch a new version of its AssistOnDemand product offering later this year which will include expanded speech applications with enhanced features such as outbound notification, enhanced configuration management and reporting.
Online Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) provider Salesforce.com has won the first Corporate Sector Award at the South County Dublin Community Awards. Salesforce.com employees, who have volunteered with the Citywise Education Centre for the past three years, were nominated for the award by Volunteer Centres Ireland (VCI). In addition to its work with Citywise, salesforce.com recently developed the new volunteer vacancy search page and a volunteer application page on the VCI's website.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 