Proposal for Advertising Services

The Department of Agriculture & Food has issued a tender for the supply of advertising services.

It seeks advertising services to cover the print media, radio, television and other advertising services requirements of the Dept of Agriculture and Food.

Read more: http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/search_show.aspx?id=SEP091772&ln=EN

European Games Support Centre in Cork

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., with the support of IDA Ireland, is to create a European customer support centre in Cork. An initial 50 positions will be created by this investment, rising to over 100 within three years.

World of Warcraft
The US-based company has developed entertainment software, such as World of Warcraft®, Diablo® and StarCraft®. More than 9 million players worldwide subscribe to World of Warcraft.

Interactive entertainment
Interactive entertainment is one of the fastest-growing and most popular recreational sectors globally, and this demand is creating new opportunities for Ireland as a platform for this highly innovative industry,” said Minister Martin. “It is a strategic target for IDA Ireland and we are fast becoming a location of choice for many of the world’s most advanced Internet and digital content companies, as Blizzard has shown today.”

Blizzard is establishing the European customer support centre in Cork City to meet the demands of its expanding player base and increase the level of support it can offer European players. The Cork facility will complement and strengthen Blizzard’s existing primary European offices, located near Paris, and also work closely with the company’s global teams to provide high-quality customer service and online infrastructure maintenance.

KCI Create 250 high quality jobs

The medical technology company plan to setup a global manufacturing operation at the IDA Business & Technology Park, Garrycastle, Athlone, Co. Westmeath.

250 New Jobs
The investment, supported by IDA Ireland, will create up to 250 new jobs over the next five years, with about one fifth of the jobs requiring third level graduates. Circa. 50 jobs will be created by the end of Q4 2007, with a further 200 jobs linked to the future growth requirements of the business.

Improving clinical outcomes
KCI has leadership positions in advanced wound-care and therapeutic surfaces. It designs, manufactures, markets and services a wide range of proprietary products that can improve clinical outcomes and can help reduce the cost of patient care.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin said “This is excellent news for Athlone and the whole of the Midlands as it will bring new high quality employment opportunities to the region and new benefits for local suppliers in areas such as plastics, electronics, logistics and packaging as KCI plans to locally source a number of components. Ireland faced strong competition for the investment and the factors which influenced the decision in favour of Athlone included the availability of a workforce with experience in the medical technology industry and the Midlands’ record of success with companies in the industry.”

The operation will manufacture KCI’s V.A.C.® Therapy Units and associated sterile products for global markets. In addition, it will manage the supply chain for third party manufacturers, global purchasing, supplier agreements and distribution of KCI’s products.

KCI’s proprietary products include advanced wound-care systems and therapeutic surfaces. Its advanced wound-care systems incorporate its proprietary Vacuum Assisted Closure®, or V.A.C.® Therapy technology. This has been demonstrated clinically to help promote wound healing and can help reduce the cost of treating patients with serious wounds.

KCI’s therapeutic surfaces, include specialty hospital beds, mattress replacement systems and overlays. These are designed to address pulmonary complications associated with immobility, to prevent skin breakdown and assist caregivers in the safe and dignified handling of obese patients. KCI’s infrastructure is designed to meet the specific needs of medical professionals and patients across all healthcare settings, including acute care hospitals, extended care organisations and patients’ homes.

€7 million R&D investment by Schwarz Pharma

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Micheál Martin TD, announced a €7million R&D investment by UCB Schwarz Pharma, supported by Shannon Development.

The announcement took place during a visit by the Minister to a number of companies located in the Shannon Free Zone. The Free Zone is Ireland’s leading multi-sectoral business park with over 7,200 people employed in 110 companies generating over €3.3 billion in annual sales.

Capital Investment

During the visit Minister Martin was briefed at the UCB Schwarz Pharma plant on the capital investment the company is making in 2007. Total investment volume by the company is expected to be in excess of €100 million. The company is currently redeveloping a manufacturing plant on its site to manufacture a new drug which they have recently developed.

Shannon Free Zone
The investment also includes a major upgrade in facilities and infrastructure.
Minister Martin’s visit to the Shannon Free Zone also included visits to aircraft leasing company, Genesis Lease; financial securities company, Genworth Financial; and. underwear manufacturer, Maidenform International.

Speaking at the official opening of their new offices by Minister Martin, Chairman and CEO of Genesis Lease, Mr John McMahon, said ‘We are grateful to Minister Micheál Martin for officially opening our new offices. It is particularly appropriate that he, as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, has done so because Genesis Lease is a testament to the enterprising nature of Irish Aviation, is focused on international trade in the form of aircraft leasing and is committed to providing high quality employment opportunities as we grow the business.’

Pharma-Bio Serv Open Ireland Office

The Puerto Rico based provider of regulatory compliance and validation services is to open an Irish affiliate to serve the Ireland and United Kingdom markets.

The Ireland affiliate will be headed by Jackie Dornan. Ms. Dornan has 18 years of experience in the Ireland pharmaceutical industry, where she has been head and principal of CompuCal Software Solutions since 1995.

Ireland's strategic objectives

Ireland Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Michael Martin, said, "This development supports Ireland's National Development Strategy of establishing itself as a knowledge intensive hub. Pharma-Bio Serv (Ireland) introduces new knowledge-intensive service skills, such as compliance, validation, technology transfer and technical support services to the Irish market; thus strengthening Ireland's position and ability to deliver on innovative knowledge intensive services. This will support Ireland's strategic objectives of delivering the skill sets required to meet the challenges of today's biopharmaceutical sector."

Pharma-Bio Serv offers consulting services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical manufacturing industries, including many of the World's major international pharmaceutical firms.

Marine Institute issue RFP for Professional Services

The Marine Institute is inviting tenders for the provision of professional services for the development of a research agenda in the area of maritime economics and transport.

This is an open invitation to tender with any suitably qualified and experienced expert or team of experts invited to respond.

More at: http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/search_show.aspx?id=SEP091749&ln=EN

RFP for Multi-function and Desktop Printers

The Health Information and Quality Authority "invite tenders for the supply, installation, commissioning and maintenance of a number of high end multi function printers and a number of desktop laser printers."

It is proposed to acquire three multi function printers and a number of desktop laser printers. Each multi function printer must be a power efficient, business level machine capable of competent high level performance, with a low total cost of ownership. It must be able to print, scan, copy and fax.

The desktop laser printers are for single user confidential printing and must be easy to use, quiet with good efficiency and low total cost of ownership.

More at: http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/search_show.aspx?id=SEP091638&ln=EN

Intel Get Havok

Intel are to acquire Havok Inc., the developer of interactive software and services used by digital media creators in the game and movie industries. Havok will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel.

"Havok is a proven leader in physics technology for gaming and digital content, and will become a key element of Intel's visual computing and graphics efforts," said Renee J. James, vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Solutions Group.

Havok's modular suite of software development tools is used by game and digital animation creators to build realistic video games for all types of hardware and digitally animated movies.

The company's combination of superior technology and dedication to customers has led to its technology being used in more than 150 of the world's best-known game titles, including "BioShock," "Stranglehold," "Halo 2," "Half Life 2," "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion," "Crackdown," "Lost Planet: Extreme Condition," "MotorStorm" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

Havok will be a wholly owned Intel subsidiary and continue to operate as an independent business working with its customers in developing digital media content.

Get Your Own IE Domain Name

The IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the managed registry for Ireland's dot.ie domain names, are to relax the rules for registering personal dot.ie domain names for individuals.

Registration of personal domains will be available to individuals from Wednesday, 31st October, 2007.

This follows a seven week notice period, to allow time for sole traders, professionals, politicians, trademark holders who have not already registered their .ie Internet address, to do so under existing non-personal domain categories.

RFP for Laptops

The Health Information and Quality Authority has issued a proposal "to provide laptop computers to its national workforce which includes a significant number of inspectors and surveyors who will use laptops in the performance of fieldwork."

The Health Information and Quality Authority invites tenders (proposals) for the supply of light weight laptop computers and the installation and configuration of an operating system and application software.

Further information is available at http://www.etenders.gov.ie/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=54958.

AGI Therapeutics start Phase III study of Arverapamil

AGI, a speciality pharmaceutical development company focused, report that enrolment has opened into ARDIS-1, the first of three pivotal Phase III studies of arverapamil, (AGI-003), AGI’s lead programme for the treatment of diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome, (IBS-D), a major unmet medical need.

Details were also released of inancial highlights for this period:

• Revenues of €196,000 compared with no revenues in the same period of the previous year
• Cash and short term deposits at 30 June 2007 of €37.4 million (2006: €40.4 million)
• R & D spend of €4.8 million (2006: €1.7 million)
• Net loss of €5.2 million (2006: €2.3 million)
• Loss per ordinary share of €0.08 cent (2006: €0.04 cent)

Highlights of the first half of the year include:

• AGI filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its lead development candidate, arverapamil (AGI-003), for the treatment of IBS-D.
• In 2006 and early 2007 AGI reported the Phase II proof-of-concept data for our arbaclofen (AGI-006), 4-ASA (AGI-022) and mecamylamine CR (AGI-004) product candidates. Since then it has focused on the development programmes for these products and we expect to initiate Phase II clinical studies in gastroparesis, ulcerative colitis and chemotherapy-induced diarrhoea respectively later this year or early in 2008.
• AGI continued to progress its co-development programme with Axcan Pharma Inc. for CHRONAB-omeprazole for the treatment of nocturnal acid breakthrough (NAB) in patients with gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), and expect to provide a further update by year end.

AGI strengthened its management team with the addition Sian Bigora, Pharm D. as Vice President, Clinical Research & Regulatory Affairs and Amir Shojaei, Pharm D., Ph.D. as Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development.

Spreadsheet Risk Mitigation for European Markets

Trintech has expanded its partnership with Prodiance Corporation, a leading provider of solutions for financial spreadsheet remediation and control, to deliver the XLNET spreadsheet risk and compliance management solution to the European market.

The automated solution enables financial managers to:

• Discover and inventory critical spreadsheets
• Identify risk conditions and remediate errors
• Audit changes down to the cell level
• Automate spreadsheet review and approval workflows
• Reconcile, review, and certify spreadsheet results
• Track the entire process from beginning to end

“We have worked with over 500 global customers to drive successful implementation of our accounting compliance solutions, and we’re confident that XLNET will help financial services institutions in Europe achieve higher levels of efficiency and control,” said John Harte, EVP and General Manager for Trintech.

XLNET, based on enabling technologies from Prodiance, is a market-leading spreadsheet inventory, migration, analysis, reporting, and auditing solution that is intuitive and easy-to-use.

The application complements Trintech’s AssureNET GL and ReconNET reconciliation software solutions to provide enterprises with a compliance framework for managing critical spreadsheets associated with account reconciliation, financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, revenue recognition, and other key financial processes.

INM Results Include Expansion in India

Key points in Independent News & Media PLC's interim results for the six months ended 30th June 2007 include:

• Net profit up 9.7% reflecting INM's diversified growth and rigorous cost management strategy
• Good revenue growth of 4.2% in constant currency (2.4% in Euro terms)
• Performance significantly better than peers and driven by underlying advertising (+6.3%) and circulation (+2.5%) revenue growth in the Publishing division
• Operating profit up 4.5% (6.1% in constant currency), with all divisions showing growth
• Continued expansion of business base in India, where JPL associate is thriving
• Investment in Independent College - a new education initiative that will be launched in H2 2007

Group revenues increased by 2.4% to €815.5 million (up 4.2% in constant currency), despite adverse currency movements and the loss of some low-margin distribution contracts in Ireland.

BDZ 120m Bond Issue

Sofia Echo report that state-owned railway company BDZ plans to privately place a 120 million euro, 10-year bond issue.

BDZ plans to use it to repay its debts and upgrade its rolling stock. The issue will have a two-year grace period, state-owned Encouragement Bank said in a statement.

Encouragement Bank, Austrian Dexia Kommunalkredit Bank and Ireland-based Depfa Bank, which are co-managers of the issue, will aim to attract Bulgarian and foreign investors as subscribers, the statement said.

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/banking-briefs/id_24851/catid_23

Kaupthing Bank exits Costcutter

AltAssets report that financial services firm Kaupthing Bank has sold UK retail chain Costcutter to Bibby Line.

The sale will generate an IRR of 67% and Kaupthing will double its money, according to Real Deals.

Kaupthing Bank's services to companies, institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals include corporate banking, investment banking, capital markets services, treasury services, asset management and comprehensive wealth management for private banking clients.

Costcutter has 1,400 stores in the UK and Northern Ireland.

UK Banks Drag Europe Down

The FT highlights the knock-on effect of the current credit crisis, "The banks falling furthest in sympathy with Northern Rock hail from the UK, Spain and Ireland. These included nine of the European sector’s 10 worst performers on Monday. None admits to any difficulties and Spain’s central bank confirmed that no lender had asked for special funding."

Thr Financial Times highlight their common risk as "inflated housing markets, which in turn have transformed banking systems, arguably for the worse."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1/cc11983c-64f6-11dc-bf89-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html

SkidTek Win Inventor of the Month Award

SkidTek Limited, an Ireland-based designer and manufacturer of modular processing and purifying systems for the pharmaceutical industry, has been named the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for September.

The Inventor of the Month program (http://www.autodesk.com/inventorofthemonth) recognizes the most innovative design and engineering advancements made by the extensive community using Autodesk Inventor software, which provides the foundation for Digital Prototyping.

"Inventor has played a key role in helping us develop the most sophisticated high-purity modular processing systems on the market," said Mark Lee, business unit manager of SkidTek.
SkidTek manufactures processing equipment in modules -- or, skids -- that are fully assembled at their factory and then installed at the customer site to minimize on-site fabrication. These skids are then used by pharmaceutical customers for everything from solution preparation and compounding, to water purification, cleaning and sterilization cycles, and inactivation of bio-contaminated materials.

The founders of SkidTek realized early on that the use of 3D modeling would be a vital element in their ability to design and build these compact pharmaceutical process skids. By using digital prototypes created in Inventor, the company is able to test the form, fit and function of their product before it is built, reducing the necessity for physical prototypes. Their digital prototypes also enable them to conduct virtual design reviews with clients. SkidTek is often able to conduct virtual design reviews via a web meeting, eliminating the need for travel and therefore further reducing costs.

"The use of 3D digital prototypes created in Inventor allows us to tightly control the design process and catch any interferences ahead of time," said Lee. "As a result, we can validate our design to help predict that the finished product will meet the requirements of the production operators and maintenance personnel who will be using it in their pharmaceutical facilities. We have even taken it so far as to do a virtual walk-through with the client's occupational health nurse to verify the ergonomics of our designs".

Each month, Autodesk selects an Inventor of the Month from the more than 600,000 users of Autodesk Inventor software, the foundation for Digital Prototyping. Winners are chosen for engineering excellence and groundbreaking innovation.

RFP from Crisis Pregnancy Agency

The Crisis Pregnancy Agency invites tenders for the development of:

• toolkit for the commissioning and establishment of crisis pregnancy counselling services
• final project report with recommendations for implementation of the toolkit and next steps and a reference file containing reference materials collected during the research process

http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/search_show.aspx?id=SEP091619&ln=EN

Redstone Technology Win 121k Computer Equipment Contract

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has issued a contract for the "Purchase of computer equipment" to Redstone Technology.

The final value of the contract is: 121679 Euro excluding VAT.

Full Text: http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/search_show.aspx?id=SEP091611&ln=EN

Booz Allen Win Bord Bia Contract

Booz Allen have won the Bord Bia (Irish Food Board) contract "facilitate the development of a marketing strategy for Irish BeefCPV: 74140000, 74141300, 73210000."

Further information relating to this notice is on the eTenders Web Site at:

http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/search_show.aspx?id=SEP091606&ln=EN

Demand For Flat Panel TVs, Laptops Boosts DSG's Sales

11% U.K.-based DSG international Plc said its 16-week period total sales increased 11%, boosted by continuing strong demand for flat panel TVs and laptops.

The company, formerly known as Dixons Group Plc, reported a 6% rise in like-for like sales. The company reported a 7% total sales growth and a 4% like-for-like rise in its Electricals division.

According to the company, the Electricals businesses in the U.K. & Ireland , Nordics, Central Europe and Greece showed sound performance in the 16-week period.

In the U.K. and Nordics, the sales growth was 4% and 9%, respectively, helped by poor weather conditions that possibly led to consumer spending.

In the central Europe , the company's total sales growth was 25%, while in Greece the sales increased 20%.The company noted that its PC World delivered strong sales growth, however gross margins have been materially impacted by lower than expected demand for Windows Vista software products.

First Deal to Distribute MTVN Shows on Apple iTunes Outside the United States

MTV Networks International and Apple are to distribute full-length hit TV shows from MTV, Nickelodeon, and Paramount Comedy channels for purchase and download from the iTunes Store in the UK.

The UK agreement is the first between the two companies outside the USA . It builds on their existing US partnership and is expected to be the first step in a broad international partnership.

The iTunes offering available from today features 14 top-rated shows across MTV Networksbrands, including full seasons of its ever-popular hits.

MTV programming has been a hit with customers in the US since 2006 when it launched on the iTunes Store.

WWF partners with Marks & Spencer on eco-plan

Under a new partnership, WWF will support a plan by Marks & Spencer that aims to combat climate change, reduce waste and safeguard natural resources.

Known as Plan A, the British retailer has committed to making its operations in the UK and Republic of Ireland carbon neutral, sending no waste to landfill and significantly extending sustainable sourcing by 2012.

"We are taking bold action already within our own business, although we have a long way to go," said Stuart Rose, Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer. "We have also promised to reach out to our customers, our staff and our suppliers to help them to take action to reduce their own environmental impact. We have already made some real inroads here, but we are delighted that we can now accelerate this process with expert support and advice from WWF.

As part of the five-year eco-plan, Marks & Spencer will work with WWF on environmental projects in its agricultural supply chain as it looks to increase its sourcing of sustainable raw materials. WWF will support Marks & Spencer in its efforts to help customers and staff to take action to reduce their individual carbon footprint, including through the WWF Footprint Calculator.

The retailer will also be funding WWF抯 conservation projects in Borneo and the North East Atlantic Marine Eco-Region. Agriculture and the production of food and textiles is where our human ecological footprint is at its greatest and so we are delighted to have strengthened our relationship with Marks & Spencer to help us drive better practices in this sector,?says David Nussbaum, WWF-UK Chief Executive.

This partnership will address some of the most significant environmental challenges on the high street today and Marks & Spencer once again are showing themselves to be at the cutting edge of environmental retailing.

Fujitsu Out of Warranty Laptop Repair Service

The Antrim-based specialist re-manufacturing and repair division, Fujitsu Telecommunications Ireland, has launched a new UK-wide service to provide out-of-warranty support for laptop computers.

Introduced initially for owners of Fujitsu Siemens Computers notebooks and tablet machines, the Out of Warranty Repair Service is available to private individuals, as well as businesses with hundreds of units.

Fujitsu's comprehensive new service can handle a wide range of repairs, from the correction of minor faults to complete as-new rebuilds that rectify major cosmetic or mechanical damage. Faulty machines can be collected from anywhere in the UK for a fixed-price repair-validation fee, which is deductible from the cost of any repair.

The machines are shipped to their facility at Antrim, where the fault is checked and validated, and the customer informed of the repair costs and likely turnaround time.

Smart Telecom invest €2.5m in IPTV service

Smart Telecom is to invest €2.5m in improving its IPTV service, which will form part of a triple play package that it plans to launch in November 2007.

"The triple play market in Europe is expected to be worth €1bn in 2007 yet it is still in its absolute infancy in Ireland," commented Pio Murtagh, Chief Operations Officer at Smart Telecom.

The investment will allow Smart Telecom to offer over 100 television and radio channels to 550,000 homes in Ireland , although for the initial roll-out in November the triple play package will be offered to its existing 15,000 residential customers.

Malta plans to rival Ireland

MaltaMedia News report that 200 new companies are being registered in Malta every month, bringing the total number of registrations to 42,000.

While the number of employees in the financial sector is above 7,500, Malta could become a centre for financial services before 2015.

Prime Minister Dr Lawrence Gonzi spoke of the efforts the party intends to carry so Malta can become a centre of financial services, manufacturing, educational service and tourism, as well as a regional centre for health care. He also added that Malta being declared compatible with the European Union taxation system is an important factor where the Maltese economy is concerned and that the government's aim is to transform Malta's financial sector so that it rivals those of Ireland and Luxembourg.

Finance Ireland Pre-tax Losses

Ireland.com report that Finance Ireland, formerly known as Ardent and headed by former Irish Life & Permanent CEO Billy Kane, said growth in its Lifetime mortgages was slower than expected, due to 'adverse commentary' about the equity release market.

The company "continues to seek opportunities in niche retail financial services and is looking at launching a specialist car finance subsidiary before December. This is subject to equity and debt funding though the timing of this has yet to be determined."

Ireland.com

LBBW Bank Ireland warns delay in product launches

Forbes highlight that LBBW Bank Ireland PLC reported a 61% increase in first-half pretax profit on increased income, mostly from sellling off assets as a part of its geographic restructuring.

The unit of Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg posted a pretax profit of about 21.30 mln eur for the six months to June compared with 13.23 mln eur a year earlier. Total income rose to 28.74 mln eur from 19.21 mln eur. However, LBBW Bank Ireland PLC warned that new product launches have been postponed due to current credit market turmoil and asset illiquidity, which is likely to have a negative impact on expected earnings for the remainder of 2007.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/08/31/afx4071558.html

Troubled Irish Company Allowed to Revamp

Eamon Quinn in The New York Times reports that an Irish court appointed an examiner to oversee the restructuring of a small financial company as it tried to repay a portion of $238 million owed some of the world抯 largest investment banks.

In his article he writes, "Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan ruled that at least a part of the company, Structured Credit, had a reasonable chance to survive if it could raise $125 million from shareholders. The court also heard details of the amounts that Structured Credit owed the 12 banks. One bank, Morgan Stanley, which favored liquidation, said Structured Credit owed it $93.7 million. With the ruling, Structured Credit became the latest company to be enveloped by a crisis in subprime lending that has spread in the global credit market."

Since June 2006, the company had signed 48 agreements to pay its 12 customers - including Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Merrill Lynch and UBS - collateral, in cash, if the derivative contracts it underwrote fell below certain amounts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/business/worldbusiness/06credit.html?ref=business

Doha Bank planning to launch mutual funds in India

Banking-business-review.com reports that Qatar-based Doha Bank, after acquiring a 49% interest in Investnet, an Ireland-based online service provider, has announced a proposal to launch mutual funds in India.

Prince George , MD of Investnet, said that Investnet will focus on non-resident Indians (NRIs) willing to invest in India . He said, "NRIs often do not have much time on their hands so we offer portfolio management schemes. We have tie-ups with 18 mutual funds in India ."

http://www.banking-business-review.com

Pilz expand Cork software division

Pilz has been busy opening new offices around the world, while several existing offices have been focusing on specific areas of new product development.

In Ireland , not only does Pilz offer the usual comprehensive range of safety-related products and services, but the office in Cork is also home to the team that develops Pilz software. Software is becoming increasingly important to Pilz, which is one of the reasons why the software team in Ireland has grown from three in 1999 to 74 in 2007.

Since Pilz Ireland was established in 1999, the software team has developed the PNOZmulti Configurator, the SafetyEYE Configurator and the PAScal Pilz Safety Calculator.

Other offices and subsidiaries have recently been opened in countries as far apart as China , Korea , Poland and Turkey.

SkillSoft Updates Financial Targets

SkillSoft PLC reported total revenue of $71.5 million for the second quarter ending January 31, 2008 (fiscal 2008), which represents a 28% increase from the $55.7 million reported in the second quarter of the fiscal year ended January 31, 2007 (fiscal 2007).

Revenue in the second quarter of fiscal 2008 of $71.5 million includes incremental revenues of $10.8 million related to the amortization of acquired deferred revenue retained by the company following the NETg acquisition.

Deferred revenue at July 31, 2007 was approximately $144 million compared to approximately $110 million at July 31, 2006 . The increase in deferred revenue reflects approximately $14.7 million of unamortized acquired deferred revenue in the NETg acquisition after purchase accounting adjustments.

The increase in deferred revenue also reflects an increase in billing due to additional customers acquired from the NETg acquisition as well as order intake and billings for SkillSoft.

Candidates shortlisted for Irish National Broadband Scheme

Eamon Ryan T.D., Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, announced the four candidates to enter the next phase of the procurement process for the National Broadband Scheme.

• BT Communications Ireland Ltd Consortium
• Eircom Ltd
• Hutchinson 3G Ireland Ltd
• IFA/Motorola Consortium

They have, subject to the receipt of certain undertakings, been invited to participate in the next stage of the National Broadband Scheme procurement process. The pre-qualified candidates will be invited to present their proposed solutions to meet the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources requirements for the delivery of broadband to the unserved areas of the country. It is anticipated that a preferred provider will be selected early in 2008.

The National Broadband Scheme aims to deliver broadband services to consumers and businesses located within those parts of the country that have no form of broadband available at the moment. It is estimated that about 10% of the country remains without such service. When the scheme is fully rolled out it will ensure that all reasonable requests for broadband in these National Broadband Scheme target areas are met.

Of the announcement Minister Ryan said, this next stage ensures that the remaining 10% of the country can have access to the services they require. The Government is committed to bringing competitive, affordable and innovative broadband services to all consumers. We are also mindful of the necessity to offer choice of service provider and product choice to Irish consumers and business.

Tiscali Selects Hibernia Atlantic to Increase Capacity

Tiscali International Network (TINet), the world's only carrier dedicated exclusively to wholesale IP-MPLS, selected Hibernia Atlantic to deliver multiple 10 Gbps wavelengths of capacity to and from Dublin , New York and other major metro areas on Hibernia's private network.

Hibernia Atlantic operates the only undersea cable crossing directly from Ireland to Canada and the U.S. , thereby avoiding single points of failures, landing points and backhaul routes, such as the U.K. Bude, Bristol and Whitesands areas.

This capacity increase means that TINet can offer its European and US customers greater capacity as well as greater access and resiliency. This announcement comes shortly after TINet announced that it was scaling up its investment across the Americas.

As part of that investment, TINet announced it was upgrading its point of presence in Miami as well as increasing its investment in its Trans-Pacific capacity between the West Coast of the United States and Hong Kong , to support its North American customers Asian-based traffic.

www.hiberniaatlantic.com.

scanR enables camera phones and digital cameras to scan, copy and fax

The 3neXt website (http://next.three.com for computers or http://3next.mobi for phones) provides a lively resource of applications and website reviews for X-Series users and others to continue exploring the world of mobile broadband.

In addition to scanR, 3neXt offer links to an ever growing database of applications and websites. X-Series phones are a glimpse today of the future for all of us. Each X-Series phone has a powerful camera and a flat-rate data plan, so people can freely capture and share the moments that are important to them.

Now with scanR, 3neX-Series phones serve as mobile document hubs, which allow users to capture and share their paper documents,said Rudy Ruano, CEO of scanR.

scanR allows users to convert paper into digital information, so you can store, share and search it. With scanR, you can capture the information from handwritten notes, printed documents, business cards and more, with their camera phones. To use scanR, just snap a photo and send it to scanR. The photo is converted into a document, with the keywords and contact information extracted from the text, and returned as a searchable PDF or vCard file.

scanR will even synchronize your information with popular applications such as Facebook, Salesforce and Plaxo.

General Manager of 3neXt Handset and Application team Frank Meehan says, the 3 Group is proud to offer a mobile application which allows customers to turn paperwork into useful digital information in a few simple steps. Customers now have the ability to use their camera phones to scan, copy and fax in creative ways, which are not only fun but incredibly useful.

To date, commercial 3G services have been launched in Italy , the UK , Australia , Austria , Sweden , Denmark , Hong Kong , Israel and Ireland.

Hutchison announced more than 15.9 million customers in August 2007.

www.three.com www.scanr.com

RTE All-Digital Workflow

Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE), is replacing its tape-based production infrastructure with an end-to-end Avid digital workflow.

The Dublin-based broadcaster, which operates two television channels RTE One and RTE Two as well as four radio stations, is building its new production workflow around the Avid Interplay nonlinear workflow engine, tied to the Avid Unity ISIS shared-storage system.

RTE will employ the new digital workflow to produce and publish a wide variety of content including news, promotional spots, sports, and long-form programming to multiple distribution platforms.

Given the breadth of the production needs at RTE the company was seeking to deploy a solution capable of streamlining the management of a wide range of media assets, across a complex set of concurrent workflows. In addition, RTE sought to make it easier for production teams to work collaboratively with all media assets on a shared network.

The digital upgrade, which RTE expects to complete in fall 2007, will deliver significant time and cost savings, allowing the broadcaster to produce a greater number of high quality programs.

In addition to Avid Interplay, the multi-million dollar RTE purchase includes an Avid Unity ISIS system with 80TB of storage and 26 Avid AirSpeed?systems for ingest and playout. A large number of Avid desktop systems are also part of the deal, including 12 Avid NewsCutter Adrenaline editing systems and eight Avid NewsCutter XP systems with Avid Mojo?SDI hardware.

Productivity benefits for RTE will include:

Ability for multiple departments to have instant and simultaneous access to media assets (e.g., a producer will be able to view footage from a sports feed while it is concurrently being logged and indexed)

Simplified editing schedule, allowing suites that were once tied to either long or short format projects to be used for any genre programming

Flexibility in dealing with a wide range of distribution formats, including those used for mobile devices and broadband videoEasy integration of new camera formats required for tapeless acquisition.

Paul Glasgow, general manager, Avid UK & EMEA, said, RTE's participation in the beta testing of the Avid Interplay system was critical, as it allowed them to understand the possible benefits in each part of their workflow. The real benefits, however, will be achieved as RTE leverages technology to transform its business model with more efficient operations.

The new systems are being installed in cooperation with Avid's Dublin-based partner, Tyrell CCT.

FreeStar Win Following Final Court Ruling

The international card payments processor and technology company, announced that a US United States District Court in Nevada has issued a final ruling favoring the company.

United States District Court Judge Jones issued a final order canceling the entire 25 million shares of FreeStar Technology common stock issued to Svensk Kretit Finans. The Court further ordered that Svensk Kreitit Finans was never a shareholder of Freestar and that those 25 million shares are not to be counted as having ever been issued and outstanding.

FreeStar Technology Corporation has remaining claims against Soren Moberg, Moberge Group, Magnus Erneving asserting claims for fraud, conversion, unjust enrichment and negligent misrepresentation, seeking unspecified damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The Court had previously enjoined those individuals from selling, assigning, transferring or otherwise encumbering any of the 25 million shares, which have now been cancelled.

Paul Egan, CEO of FreeStar Technology Corporation stated, "We are pleased with the court's final decision and we will aggressively pursue through all available means any individuals who attempt to defraud and manipulate the company and its shareholders. We look forward to concentrating on bringing shareholder value in the form of increased revenue and business opportunities."

FreeStar Technology Corp. provides mission-critical solutions to the financial industry worldwide. Partners include IKEA, Finnair and Stockmann. www.freestartech.com

Trial Results for Tysabri

Biogen Idec and Elan Corporation, plc have published results demonstrating that patients treated with TYSABRI (natalizumab) showed a significant improvement in health-related quality-of-life measures when compared to placebo.

These results are from the first Phase III multiple sclerosis (MS) studies that have demonstrated improvement on HRQoL measures in patients with relapsing forms of MS. The results have been published in Annals of Neurology.

"These data showed that patients treated with TYSABRI were more likely to experience statistically important improvement in the quality-of-life measures used to assess meaningful disease improvement or progression. These findings have not been previously observed in clinical studies involving MS patients," said Richard Rudick, MD, Director of the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at the Cleveland Clinic, the lead investigator of the study.

These two-year, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, Phase III clinical trials (AFFIRM and SENTINEL) were conducted in 2,113 patients with relapsing forms of MS. The objective was to assess the relationship between disease activity and HRQoL in relapsing forms of MS, and the impact of TYSABRI on these measures.

TYSABRI is a treatment approved for relapsing forms of MS in the United States and relapsing-remitting MS in the European Union. According to data that have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, after two years, TYSABRI treatment led to a 68% relative reduction (p<0.001) in the annualized relapse rate compared to placebo and reduced the relative risk of disability progression by 42-54% (p<0.001).

In addition to the United States and European Union, TYSABRI is also approved in Switzerland, Canada, Australia and Israel. TYSABRI was discovered by Elan and is co-developed with Biogen Idec.
www.tysabri.com www.biogenidec.com www.elan.com

AVANIR Completes Sale Of FazaClo

The pharmaceuticals company completed the sale of currently marketed, antipsychotic drug FazaClo (clozapine, USP) to Azur Pharma, a specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Ireland.

Upon close of the transaction AVANIR received an upfront payment of $42 million, plus an additional $1.9 million in working capital adjustments. Under the terms of the agreement, previously announced on July 3, 2007, AVANIR could receive up to an additional $10 million in payments in 2009 contingent upon certain regulatory conditions, and up to $2 million in royalties, based on 3% of annualized net product revenues in excess of $17 million.

AVANIR has allocated $11 million in payments to pay down a portion of its outstanding debt, which will be reflected on the Company's balance sheet for the year ending September 30, 2007.

The Company believes that the net payments from the sale of FazaClo, plus the cash, cash equivalents and unrestricted investments in securities at June 30, 2007 will be sufficient to finance operating expenses through the end of the next fiscal year, including the initiation of the planned confirmatory Phase III clinical trial of Zenvia(TM) in patients with involuntary emotional expression disorder (IEED), otherwise known as pseudobulbar affect (PBA).

Also under terms of the agreement, Azur Pharma has assumed AVANIR's future earn-out obligations to the prior owner of Alamo Pharmaceuticals payable upon the achievement of certain sales milestones after the closing of the transaction. AVANIR will finalize the transfer of FazaClo business operations to Azur Pharma in the coming months.

Ladbrokes.com joins Income Access network

Looking to expand their global presence in the online sphere, Ladbrokes.com is to partner with Income Access, a network renowned for its robust affiliate software in order to give affiliates access to a world-class affiliate brand.

Gaming affiliates will soon have the opportunity to earn high commissions through their promotion of this premier brand and its suite of products including Sportsbook, Casino, Poker, Bingo and Games.

Ladbrokes is the leading bookmaker in the UK, Ireland and Belgium with over 2,600 shops. Recognised for its excellent coverage of sports betting, Ladbrokes sporsbook gives sports punters and affiliates unparallel entertainment value.

Ladbrokes.com will be available to affiliates in the Income Access Affiliate Network within the next few weeks.

Boss Media, Paddy Power sign deal

The two companies signed an agreement for the delivery of an online multi-lingual games and casino system.

The online casino will be based on Boss Media's latest casino platform including a sophisticated back-office tool-kit that will be integrated with Paddy Power's existing customer base and payment solution, enabling cost effective communication with the established player database.

Paddy Power is Ireland's largest bookmaker and has a strong online presence in the Irish and UK markets. Paddy Power is a publicly listed company with a dual listing on the Irish and UK stock markets and turnover in 2006 of EUR 1.8 billion.

It operates over 220 retail betting shops between Ireland and the UK in addition to an extensive online portfolio of services, which include; fixed odds sports betting, poker, fixed odds games, casino, bingo, financial trading, lotteries, skill gaming and auctions.

Facies Map Browser 2 expands Interpretive Tools

TGS Geological Products and Services, a division of TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company, released a new version of the Facies Map Browser, a database of depositional systems models derived from a database of interpreted wells, packaged with a suite of visualization tools.

In addition to the expanded functionality of the browser itself, there is now an online access option.

The Facies Map Browser (FMB) is built around a large set of interpreted wells, further constrained with TGS, third party and public domain seismic data, which form the core of a screening and prospect evaluation database.

FMB2 adds additional capabilities to the suite of tools used to view the data, including improved viewing of the facies maps, single well review and multi-well correlation displays. A query tool has been added for trend analysis, while grid import, export, display and manipulation features have been implemented to facilitate data use in other interpretation systems. FMB2 also provides access to an online library of reports and references, a virtual audit trail?of supporting documents for the interpretations.

The new version of FMB is distributed to clients for in-office deployment as with previous releases, but with the option of moving to a purely online access method. FMB Online eliminates the program IT footprint in subscribing companies, removing both in-house hardware and support requirements. FMB Online is also available as a standalone option for companies wishing to undertake short term usage for acreage evaluation.

Currently, FMB2 gives extensive coverage offshore UK, Norway and Ireland. TGS is evaluating the possibility of creating new study areas in other key exploration basins.

Narragansett & Digital Relevance Partner in UK & Ireland

Digital Relevance and Narragansett Technologies are set to increase both their businesses range and scope of services in Ireland and the UK.

The partnership will help each company's customers to further monetise websites through, email marketing, RSS, ad serving, inventory sales and online research. Web hosting, content management and search engine marketing are also part of the new joint service provision equation.

Digital marketing continues to offer customers?substantial returns on investment and as such we wanted to accelerate our growth? said Denis Sheehan, CEO and founder of Digital Relevance. Mathew Underhill, Director of Hospitality Update said, Digital Relevance have identified and implemented a strategy that has radically improved our whole web business proposition. Through enriching site content, they have substantially built visitor traffic and advertising revenue.

The increased interaction between advertisers and visitors through email marketing initiatives such as competitions is now further driving revenue which will be reinvested to fuel growth. We have now experienced what Narragansett additionally bring to the table and look forward to working with this refreshingly transparent results driven partnership.

Narragansett Technologies develop online marketing software solutions including SpinnakerPro, the leading email marketing solution package and SensorPro, the online research and survey solution, to a global customer base including Coty, House of Frasier and Procter & Gamble.

Integrated Character & Physics Solution

The release of Havok 5 offers major new features across its modular suite of run-time technology and artists tools which dramatically accelerate the development of cross platform, cutting edge electronic games and special effects for film, in line with the requirements of the world’s top developers and producers.

Havok Physics™ 5 provides significant memory and CPU performance improvements that can dramatically accelerate interactive destruction sequences in games. This release also provides enhanced memory limiting and reporting across all platforms, and adds Wii™ support for Havok’s innovative Visual Debugger, strengthening Havok’s comprehensive offering of cross-platform performance diagnostic tools.

“Havok has become a one stop shop for cross-platform, professionally supported first class technology solutions for the industry. “said David O’Meara, CEO of Havok. “ Our technology is available for the largest range of platforms, including Wii™, PlayStation®2, PLAYSTATION®3, PSP™, Xbox™, Xbox360™,GameCube™, and the PC.” he added.

Havok, acclaimed for its ground breaking physics product employed by the world’s best known game developers - including Sony Computer Entertainment, Nintendo, Microsoft, Midway, Lucas Arts, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Activision, offers an integrated solution incorporating physics, animation and behavior, that helps game developers achieve new standards of interactivity and realism, while mitigating the overall costs and risks associated with creating today’s leading video games and movies.

Increase Interest Rates for Borrowers

The Sunday Business Post report that Irish borrowers could be hit with fresh interest rate rises even in the absence of an European Central Bank (ECB) hike, as a result of the ongoing turmoil on the money markets, according to top bankers.

David Clerkin and Kathleen Barrington highlight that three leading mortgage providers warned that rate rises would be passed on to many business and personal borrowers, unless money market rates fall back quickly.

Brian Goggin, chief executive of Bank of Ireland, told The Sunday Business Post that recent developments - which have resulted in a sharp increase in the rates banks charge when they lend to each other - were equivalent to ‘‘an unofficial interest rate increase’’.

Read more

Generation Game Extracts available online

You can read extracts from David McWilliams new book, The Generation Game, here:

" In the late 1990s, as the housing boom took off, the Jagger generation began to pull away in wealth terms from the younger ones. They have become Ireland’s Accidental Millionaires. Every time house prices rose, the Jaggers, who owned houses, got wealthier; the younger ones – the Jugglers- who didn’t, became poorer. "

David has interviewed some of the most influential characters of our age, from Henry Kissinger to Mikhail Gorbachev, Rudi Guilianni and Hillary Clinton.

He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the College of Europe Bruges, Belgium. First as an economist with the Irish Central Bank, where he helped draft the Irish Submission to the Maastricht Treaty and advised the authorities during the 1992-93 exchange rate crisis.

Vordel wins British American Tobacco Contract

British American Tobacco (BAT) has deployed Vordel's SOA security and management technology to manage its XML traffic throughout a global network of data centers.

Using Vordel, BAT can remotely manage its SOA deployment on a global level. According to BAT, key decision factors for selecting Vordel included their acceleration of XML security primitives, the product's scalability and intuitive centralized policy management controls.

Forrester analyst, Randy Heffner, adds: "Security is most critical for external integration scenarios, but its value is often underestimated in internal integration. More so than many other aspects of your SOA platform, complete security requires an integrated solution across multiple types of products and solutions."

Payments Solutions JV

Wicklow-based Valista and NEC are to target payments solutions business opportunities in Japan with secure and flexible payments offerings.

NEC and Valista’s partnership includes joint development of the 'Value Chain' payments platform, an emerging payments platform fuelled by multi-industry offerings. The ‘Value Chain’ payments platform will be designed for deployment on the next generation network and integration of Valista’s products into NEC’s NGN service application platform. The collaboration will also include joint marketing of payments solutions in digital commerce and emerging fields, sales of Valista’s products and services by NEC, and the provision of system integration and maintenance service for Valista’s products by NEC.

The partnership also has sights beyond the Japanese domestic market aiming to expand into the global telecommunications market combining NEC's proven strength in system integration and Valista's global experience in payments, settlement, and merchandizing solutions.

Valista’s commerce solutions and managed services have been proven across the globe in real world implementations by leading innovators such as America Online, Cricket, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, France Telecom's w-HA, Orange, 3, mBlox, Hong Kong CSL and GTECH.

Allied Irish Banks UPs Estimate

Sharecast reports that "Allied Irish Banks upped its estimates for full year earnings after a strong first half with no sign of any slowing in the booming Irish economy and its UK and Polish arms also going well."

"Loan demand remains good, with growth in business lending particularly strong," the bank said in a statement.

AIB earnings in the half-year to June climbed to 114.7c from 105.9c with profits up to €1.32bn from €1.21bn. Loans to customers rose from €106bn to €135bn. Operating profits rose by 17% in Ireland, by 19% in the UK and 37% in Poland.

More at: http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=1484942

50% Irish mortgages Fixed Rate

Charlie Weston reports in the Independent: "Half of all new mortgages being taken out are now fixed-rate as consumers seek certainty as rates continue to surge upwards.

New figures show that 50pc of new mortgages are now fixed, compared with just 15pc to 20pc this time last year."

Interest rates in Ireland have risen eight times since the end of 2005, with one to two more rate rises predicted before the end of this year.

Ronan Morris of Blue Sky Mortgages, who compiled the figures, says the continued upward spiral in mortgage rates was the main reason for the keen demand for fixed rates.

http://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/50pc-of-mortgages-now-fixed-rate-1039813.html

Greenstar to launch Dublin domestic waste services

Greenstar, Ireland's leading waste management company, is to expand its domestic waste and recycling services into Dublin in an investment worth €7.5 million over five years.

Over 65,000 households in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council area will be able to avail of Greenstar's service, which will include Dublin's first curbside glass collection and will offer householders up to 30% savings on their current waste costs. The Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council area covers a 125 sq. km area including Dundrum, Leopardstown, Blackrock, Clonskeagh and Sandyford and is currently serviced by the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and one private waste operator.

The 2006 Large Recycler of the Year by Repak now operates domestic waste and recycling services in seven counties in Ireland, including launching a service in Cork in February this year. The new Dublin service will be supported by Greenstar's Mixed Recycling Facility (MRF) in Co. Wicklow, where Greenstar has operated a domestic waste and recycling service for the past five years.

Avenco sold for €23m

Joe Brennan reports in the Independent: "Irish architectural hardware distributor Avenco has been acquired for €23m by London-listed group Heywood Williams, a specialist distributor of branded building products. Dublin-based Avenco has two principal operating companies - Locks & Hardware and Balmar, which are leading suppliers of architectural hardware in Ireland."

Avenco had sales of €16.5m last year and employs 37 people.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/avenco-sold-for-euro23m-1066638.html

Public Perception of Farming Increases

A recent survey claims that 83% believe that farming is having a positive effect on Ireland’s countryside. The study conducted by TNS MRBI on behalf of Agri Aware, identified that 83% of the Irish public believe that farming is benefiting the rural environment, up 25% increase since 1997.

The report also highlights that in 2007, a majority of the public believe farmers are treating their animals with greater care than ten years previous.

The TNS MRBI research was conducted in June on behalf of Agri Aware among one thousand people nationwide. The results were then benchmarked against an identical study conducted with three thousand members of the public in 1997 by the ‘Independent Graduate Research Group’.

The main findings of the study were:

83% of the public believe that farming is beneficial to the rural environment; a 25% increase since 1997 Ø 73% of people believe that farmers treat their animals very well or well; an increase of 17% since 1997

54% of people believe that school children have a reasonable to good understanding of farming; 74% believing that time on the farm and education are the best sources of information on farming for children

72% of people believe that agriculture is very important to the Irish economy; an increase of 7% from 65% in 1997

Agri Aware Chairman, Mairead Lavery, commenting on the findings said In 1997, many people envisaged agriculture as an industry that was dying at the hands of the Celtic Tiger and urbanisation. However it is clear that the public strongly believe the agricultural sector remains an important part of the Irish economy and in maintaining our rural legacy.”

Ms. Lavery also stated “Environmental, animal welfare and structural improvement measures have been adopted across the agri-sector over the past ten years to address consumer concern. This report is a clear indication that the investment being made by the Irish farming community is being appreciated and acknowledged by the public.”

http://www.agriaware.ie/

Offshore Outsourcing Forecasts

www.good-outsourcing.com highlight that in 2008 the world outsourcing market will take up to $500 milliards, European market - $322 milliards, Business Processes Outsourcing -$125 milliards and IT Outsourcing - $150 milliards.

Foreign partners search on Outsourcing projects is also effective in the Western Europe countries. This region has the best prospects in economic development and, consequently, is the most perspective consumer of software.

Outsourcing Market breakdown:

USA 40%
Europe 30%
Great Britain 17%
Germany 13%

Traditionally, speaking about the market of services of Offshore Programming, above all are mentioned India, China, Ireland, Mexico, Philippines. The leader of Offshore Software Development (India) turnover is about $7,7 milliards in a year.

Companies that collaborate with the Chinese partners are mainly oriented on product promotion to the market of China.

Ireland today is not the most effective choice with relation to expenses, but it is very successful variant for companies, that choose to create center of software development.

A key barrier in Mexico is insufficient English language proficiency of developers. Other drawback is absence of quality management standards in local IT-companies. Philippines are acknowledged as a good India alternative, if not to take into account the risks of political instability.

Companies from other countries are also ready to offer Offshore Services, for example, East Europe countries. Also should be mentioned Vietnam, where the amount of graduating students of IT-specialties increases more than 10% annually.

Datalex Reports Loss

Ireland-based software firm, Datalex has reported a net loss of US$0.9 million for its first six months of trading to June 30 2007, mostly attributed to cost pressures and the impact of a weak dollar.

The company completed a US$1.2 million charge resulting in a US$2 million drop in annual operating costs.

CEO Cormac Whelan said the company will continue to invest in its product, with its investment of US$2.1 million during the first six months this year to bring the total to US$11.9million.

He said the results showed the benefits of Datalex's transition from a licence-based to a transaction-based business model.

According to Mr Whelan, 'The combination of our business model and our product leave us with a strong pipeline of potential new customers.'

Tango Telecom Opens office in Mexico City

Limerick-based Tango Telecom, a developer of real-time convergent charging and intelligent messaging software, has opened its Latin America Regional Support and Sales office in Mexico City.

Richard Choi, VP of Sales and Marketing at Tango Telecom, says, following on from our success with operators such as America Movil and Iusacell, we have seen a real market demand for our messaging and charging solutions in Latin America, specifically our Mobile Data Charging and SMS VAS solutions."

Initially, the office will host a mix of local Mexican and Irish Tango employees. However the company expects to strengthen the local employee base significantly over the next 12 months.

Kostal Ireland selects Valor

Kostal Ireland selected Valor Computerized Systems Ltd, a developer of productivity-enhancing software solutions for the electronics industry, to provide its DFM (Design for Manufacturability) software for design verification.

Valor's DFM software will help Kostal to analyze and optimize designs for faster time to market and zero-defect, right-first-time manufacturing.

Valor's DFM software is a virtual manufacturing system which enables companies to simulate the entire production process of a chosen PCB, from design to manufacture to assembly, concurrently with the design process.

GRISOFT Acquires AVG UK & Ireland

GRISOFT, the developers of AVG internet security software, has acquired AVG UK & Ireland, its official business partner and authorised operator in the region since 2001.

With over 50 million users, AVG is cited by CNet as one of the top 20 most downloaded software programs of all time.

Last month AVG UK & Ireland announced a significant increase in first-quarter sales bookings year-on-year. A number of factors were responsible for this including; the signing of new accounts and an above average number of licence renewals.

Hays Plc selects FastPath Online

Hays PLC, the recruitment firm, has selected ISV Software's FastPath Online to be deployed throughout its offices in the UK and Ireland.

Geoff Sims commented "the decision to purchase the right online assessment tool is critical to our business. We reviewed various products available in the market and we chose FastPath after considerable analysis into the technical capabilities of the product and both the customer services and technical teams at ISV."

Freeflow Expand Logistics Capabilities

FreeFlow announced the worldwide expansion of its logistics capabilities for liquidating customers excess, returned and obsolete products.

With new facilities in Vietnam, a three-fold facilities increase in its North American headquarters, and existing European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) logistics services being handled from its Tralee, Ireland operations, FreeFlow now provides customers with global end-to-end services and support.

While there is no shortage of web-based inventory liquidation providers, companies such as Motorola, SanDisk, Microsoft and Apple engage FreeFlow to manage their complete end-to-end downstream process of inventory dispositioning.

Using FreeFlow, manufacturers excess and obsolete inventory moves smoothly from their country-of-use to one of FreeFlow three facilities around the world in San Jose, California, Tralee, Ireland, or Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Inventory in North and South America is shipped to San Jose, CA, products in EMEA move to Tralee, Ireland, and with the recent expansion, manufacturers can ship excess and obsolete products from China to Hong Kong, where FreeFlow then ships those products to its new facility in Ho Chi Minh City.

FreeFlow assumes complete operational responsibility for the inventory, managing the regulatory requirements specific to the products within each country, as well as the movement of inventory across national lines. Once the inventory arrives at one of FreeFlow facilities, it is sorted, cataloged, refurbished, re-packaged (if necessary), auctioned, and shipped to the successful bidder.

New HR Head for Bank of Ireland

Personnel Today report that Bank of Ireland has appointed Christine Brennan as the new head of group HR.

Brennan joins from Barclays Bank Group, where she was HR director in the global and retail section. Her main responsibilities in the new role will include progressing the growth of core markets in Ireland and the UK.

Brennan previously held senior HR roles with Computer Sciences Corporation, BT, and AT&T in the US, London and in the Middle East.

Siemens to supply automation system for Irish Cement

The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) will equip the Platin cement factory of Irish Cement Limited with an automation system worth around two million euros.

The project includes complete automation of a new kiln line (Kiln 3). The work involved in equipping line 3 is scheduled for completion in summer 2008. Line 2 is to follow around seven months later.

With a capacity in excess of three million metric tons at two locations, Irish Cement Limited (ICL) is the largest cement producer in Ireland. The company is part of the Irish company CRH, a construction and building-materials group with offices in 27 countries.

At the Platin location in Drogheda, which is around 50 kilometers to the north of Dublin, ICL is building a new kiln line and is modernizing existing installations. The new plant will help make Ireland self-sufficient in cement production and will insure security of supply of cement for the construction industry into the future both north and south of the border.

According to Siemens, one of the reasons why the contract was awarded to Siemens was the latter's ability to carry out the project within the short time frame that the customer specified.

Activant Completes Acquisition

Activant Solutions Inc., who specialize in vertical business management solutions, completed the purchase of the Intuit Eclipse Distribution Management Solutions business from Intuit Inc.

Under the terms of the agreement, Activant acquired the Intuit Eclipse business for approximately $100.5 million in cash, subject to potential post-closing adjustments.

The acquisition strengthens Activant's position with larger wholesale distribution businesses and is an additional step in its corporate strategy to offer retail and distribution technology solutions that scale from independently owned small businesses to large national consolidators.

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing awarded Global Custody Mandate

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing has been appointed by EBS Building Society to provide custody services for its global portfolio valued at $4.2 billion of assets.

Damien Lee, Treasury Department at EBS, said: "We appointed BNY Mellon Asset Servicing because they have demonstrated a clear understanding of our needs, and have proven experience in meeting and servicing the complex requirements of institutions such as ours. Equally importantly, they have shown their ability to develop solutions for us as we grow in sophistication and complexity."

Zomax becomes Stream's third site in Ireland

Stream, a leading global outsourcing company, has acquired Dublin, Ireland-based contact center operation of Zomax, a media and supply chain solutions company.

"This acquisition offers great opportunities for Stream, its clients and its employees in Dublin," said Harry Jackson, Stream's senior vice president EMEA operations. "The 420-seat facility provides an excellent infrastructure to allow for Stream's continued expansion plans."

The site, located in Santry, will become Stream's third site in Dublin. The new location will provide multilingual support for clients throughout Europe.

"The acquisition of this facility in Dublin is the next step in Stream's strategic plan for EMEA growth," continued Jackson. "The location compliments our worldwide Smart Shore(SM) support strategy."

Stream's Smart Shore(SM) methodology is a consultative approach to site selection based on a given client's unique support needs. The company's global infrastructure and locations enable Stream to determine the best mix of onshore, nearshore, and offshore locations for a client's support needs: based on the product line, the customer set, the contact channels, and the type of support required.

Intune Networks Receives Funding Round of US$17.75 Million

Dublin-based Intune Networks has raised US$17.75m from a consortium of international investors consisting of Amadeus Capital Partners, Balderton Capital (formerly known as Benchmark Capital Europe) and Spark Capital.

Intune Networks was formed in Dublin in 1999 by John Dunne, chief marketing officer, and Tom Farrell, chief technology officer. Over the past eight years, the Intune team has developed a global reputation for their expertise in lasers, and this fund-raising will provide the resources to commercialise their innovations for the telecommunications market.

In August 2006, the company recruited Tim Fritzley, a senior executive in Microsoft's IPTV division, as chief executive to accelerate the build-out of the business.

Tim Fritzley said: "New networks are being designed to meet the huge consumer pull for video and other digital entertainment on-demand. Intune has the technology to solve some key problems for the large carriers, particularly with guaranteed service quality and network robustness."

Jacobs / Pfizer Clinical Biotech Manufacturing Center

Jacobs Engineering received a contract from Pfizer Limited to provide construction management services for a new small-scale clinical biotech manufacturing center in Shanbally, Cork, Ireland.

Officials did not disclose the value of the contract.

This will be the first such facility built on Pfizer's 28-acre brownfield site at Shanbally. The facility will accommodate a production plant, laboratories, administration, and associated infrastructure.

Jacobs will start construction in September 2007, with manufacturing scheduled to start in the completed facility by late 2009. Jacobs will manage all work from its offices in Cork.

PartnerRe Centralizes Global Reinsurance Structure in Ireland

Partner Reinsurance Europe Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PartnerRe Ltd., based in Dublin, will, from January 1, 2008, be the principal reinsurance carrier for PartnerRe's business underwritten in France, Ireland, Switzerland and Canada.

Under the new European Union Reinsurance Directive, Partner Reinsurance Europe will be able to operate in all EU member states under a single regulatory framework. PartnerRe's clients will continue to benefit from the company's financial strength, underwriting capabilities, and business unit structure.

Partner Reinsurance Europe Limited, to be capitalized in excess of $1 billion, has received provisional ratings that are in line with those of the rest of PartnerRe's operating subsidiaries: A+ from A.M. Best and AA- from Standard & Poor's.

PartnerRe is a leading global reinsurer, providing multi-line reinsurance to insurance companies. The company through its wholly owned subsidiaries also offers alternative risk products that include weather and credit protection to financial, industrial and service companies.

For the year ended December 31, 2006, total revenues were $4.2 billion. At June 30, 2007, total assets were $15.7 billion, total capital was $4.8 billion and total shareholders' equity was $3.9 billion.

http://www.partnerre.com

Improving Auditing, Documentation, and Internal Control

The newest version of Trintech's reconciliation and account balancing application, ReconNET, is designed to streamline reconciliation workflow, reduce resource allocation, improve auditing, documentation, and internal control, and speed exception management resolution.

The new account reconciliation lockdown features let clients close or "lockdown" specific time periods to ensure complete integrity throughout the accounting, reconciliation and financial governance process.

Additional new functionality is provided to support the complex nature of global enterprise accounting and financial governance practices, including new purge functionality, enhanced search capabilities, extended system management and administration functions, and transaction matching features to improve integration and reporting with general ledger systems.

Using a large client database, some purge processes were reduced by more than 95 percent for Oracle, and 75 percent for MS SQL. Enhancements to search functionality will allow clients to more quickly resolve exceptions.

ReconNET automates complex daily, monthly, and periodic accounting processes, and is designed for organizations with high-volume or complex transaction matching, exception identification, andoperational risk management requirements.

2,500 foreigners ask FAS for a job

The Independent report that "More than half the jobseekers using FAS employment services every day are from abroad, a new report reveals. The demand from Ireland's growing immigrant population is so great that FAS has had to introduce a telephone interpretation service in 150 languages."

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/2500-foreigners-from-94-nations-ask-fas-for-a-job-1074153.html

Start Up and Retailer eCommerce packages

Shopcreator has launched two bew eCommerce software packages, designed to nurture and protect sustained online business growth.

The packages offer new, small and mid-size online retailers two scalable access points to the same hosted eCommerce platform that powers websites for the likes of BHS, EMI Music and Guardian Newspapers.

Both packages are available through easy-to-manage monthly payments, and incur no set-up fee. Start-Up and Retailer cost £45 and £90 per month respectively and can be trialled for free via the Shopcreator Website at http://www.shopcreator.com.

‘Start-Up’ features functionality that includes top-sellers, banner ads, newsletter sign-up, cross-sell, 'e-mail a friend', Froogle Feed and Google Analytics. To help increase conversion ratios, the software is ready-integrated with all major PSPs, including WorldPay, Protx and the latest PayPal offering - Website Payments Pro.

The new software is already in use with a number of online retailers that include; Waddesdon Manor, Black Essentials and The Red Arrows, with many more sites currently in build. The packages are simple to use and are designed to be self-built, with additional assistance available for design, integration and online marketing, if required.

In addiition to direct software sales, Shopcreator also sells and markets its software through a partner network of design agencies, web developers, plus major UK and Irish banks, such as RBS and Bank of Ireland.

IBM as Model for Globalization

CNN Money have a very interesting article on Globalization, "IBM makes computer chips in New York and Vermont. Its data centers are located in Colorado. Global procurement is done from China. Software shops in India deliver global services. Workers in Brazil and Ireland support Web sites around the world. IBM's back office for financing is based in Rio de Janeiro.

"These people are not leading teams focused on China or India or Brazil or Ireland -- or Colorado or Vermont," Palmisano explained. "They are leading integrated global operations."

Full story at: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/IBD-0001-19436800.htm