Back in November David Smith, SVP (Telecoms/Wireless) at Enterprise Ireland Silicon Valley Office participated in a podcast for www.StartupToDo.com. During the interview he discussed the following questions:

1. What is Enterprise Ireland and why does it have an office in Silicon Valley?
2. Is Ireland a good place for a start-up to open a European office? What does it have that London, Barcelona, and Berlin don’t have?
3. What can you do for Irish start-ups interested in entering the US market?
4. How would you compare the cultures and lifestyles for a start-up here and in Dublin?
5. What else does Ireland do for its start-ups?

Www.StartupToDo.com recently posted the podcast available in any of these locations,

• online: http://startupsuccesspodcast.com/2011/01/show-96-david-smith-enterprise-ireland/
• mp3 file http://media.startupsuccesspodcast.com/StartupSuccess096.mp3
• itunes file http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=293268482

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tango Telecom (www.tangotelecom.com) has been shortlisted for a Mobile World Congress (MWC) Global Mobile Award 2011. MWC has named Tango Telecom as one of the finalists in the Best Customer Care and CRM Solution category for its successful implementation of dynamic pricing with Airtel Africa. Tango Telecom’s Dynamic Pricing Service gave Airtel the ability to price voice services dynamically based on cell load, location, time of day, subscriber type and/or subscriber activity. The service was launched as Zain Flexxy with Airtel Africa in Uganda, and was the most successful launch ever measured by the operator with service uptake exceeding 65% in the first two months.

To read more about the award visit: http://www.tango.ie/news/press/57.asp

Enterprise Ireland today (15th December 2010) welcomed the announcement that Polaris Venture Partners, a leading US venture capital firm, will open a Dogpatch Labs facility in Dublin. This will be the first such facility outside of the United States building on the successful Dogpatch Labs previously established in San Francisco, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and New York.

Dogpatch Labs are dynamic open plan spaces for entrepreneurs working on new business ideas. This facility will benefit Irish entrepreneurs and make Ireland an even more attractive place for mobile entrepreneurs to establish new start-ups.

Welcoming this development the CEO of Enterprise Ireland Mr Frank Ryan said: ‘This is a most welcome announcement under Innovation Fund Ireland, the Government initiative managed by the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) and Enterprise Ireland to attract leading venture capital fund managers to Ireland. The Dogpatch Labs facility will be a significant addition to the Irish entrepreneurial eco-system and the further development of Ireland as a Global Innovation Hub. It is also very complimentary to a number of Enterprise Ireland initiatives and is consistent with enterprise policies outlined in the Report of the Innovation Task Force’.

The announcement of the new Dogpatch Labs facility follows on two other recent initiatives designed to support entrepreneurs and new business start ups in Ireland. Enterprise Ireland has launched the Internet and Games Competitive Start Fund to help internet and games start ups get off the ground and launch new products and services in the international marketplace. This competitive fund is focused on providing start ups with critical early stage funding to explore and determine the market fit of their business and progress to product launch. (more…)

Early this morning, the people of Cork City awoke to the strains of Bach from the city’s famed Shandon Steeple. Harpist Ruth McConnell from University College Cork (UCC) led this morning’s concert. It’s the first in a series of musical initiatives staged by Positively Cork. An ambitious endeavor that reaches into Ireland’s rich musical tradition to showcase the talent and inspire the kind of ingenuity that has made Cork a center of innovation excellence and UCC a destination point for international students.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8zKMqLdb-I[/youtube]

Produced by PathPacific.com

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/16311085[/vimeo]

Founder and CEO of YouTube. Youtube is the world’s number one video sharing website. Chad shares his story of how YouTube was created. He also talks about being an Arts Major at College and Selling YouTube to Google. Chad presented at the Dublin Web Summit.

With today’s collaboration between Enterprise Ireland client, Offaly-based ATSR and Ohio’s Ferno Washington, Inc., managers of emergency service vehicle fleets can soon equip their vehicles with a powerful new communications control system that will improve fleet efficiencies and cut fuel costs. The multi-year deal is valued at $5 million.

Partnership brings fully integrated control systems technology to emergency service vehicles for the first time; solution increases fleet efficiency and reduces fuel costs

OFFALY, Ireland and WILMINGTON, Ohio, Dec. 6, 2010—Ireland’s ATSR Ltd. today signed a $5 million, multi-year partnership agreement with Ferno Washington, Inc., an Ohio-based provider of professional emergency, mortuary and healthcare products. ATSR designs and manufactures fully integrated communications and control systems for emergency vehicles [EMVs]. Ferno will market ATSR’s technology under its new ACETECH North America brand. A first-of-its-kind electronics technology for the EMV industry, the ACETECH solution increases vehicle efficiency, cuts fuel consumption, and gives fleet managers greater overall control of their fleets. The partnership marks ATSR’s United States market debut. The company is already well entrenched in Canada.

ACETECH’s control technology provides a major boost to the performance efficiency of ambulances and fire trucks. Up to now, these EMVs have relied on disparate control systems, each acting independently to fulfill key functions. There are control systems for safety, sirens, asset tracking, directions, equipment and many other functions. But there is no single control technology that can seamlessly connect the pieces and feed actionable information to EMS personnel on site or fleet managers back at headquarters. Idle time, for instance, represents a sizable portion of vehicle in-service time and drains considerably more fuel than necessary. Yet, today’s control technology can’t reliably monitor idle time at accident sites and safely shut off vehicle operation to conserve fuel.

ACETECH’s solution bridges the gap. In a sophisticated, customizable electronics package, fleet managers can access a much broader range of meaningful information in real time. This includes details like vehicle status, event status and duration, and other important data that can be leveraged to boost fleet efficiency and personnel productivity. Older vehicles can be easily retrofitted. (more…)

Online auctions can help streamline the process of getting cash for returned or unsold products, supply-chain executives say.

By David M. Katz, at CFO.com | US | December 2, 2010 – original article found here

The day after Christmas is still weeks away, but that’s close enough for finance and supply-chain executives to start worrying about merchandise returns and excess inventory. How will they get the best value for the unwanted goods?

One answer is to auction them off. By posting returned or overstocked items of interest to consumers (video games, baby clothing, televisions) or other businesses (computer parts, pallets of manufactured items) on an online auction, sellers can gain access to many more potential buyers than they would if they simply went straight to liquidators.

Further, auctions can help streamline the process of getting cash for returned, unsold, or excess products, supply-chain executives say. That process can be cumbersome and haphazard, as it used to be at SanDisk, a maker of memory storage cards used in consumer electronics products. That was before the company started to sell excess inventory via auction about two years ago, according to Doug Lampson, director of corporate financial planning and analysis at the company.

Previously, SanDisk executives would simply ask sales reps to “make some phone calls” to brokers if the pile of unsold items grew too high, says Lampson. That resulted in just one or two potential bidders per item or group of items (and tied up the sales reps’ time). Now, since setting up a regular arrangement with FreeFlow, a logistics and supply-chain company that provides auctions for consumer electronics companies, SanDisk typically has eight vetted bidders for a set of items.

Perhaps more important, the arrangement has turned a scattershot process into a swift and regular routine. Each month SanDisk identifies slow-selling or obsolete products, draws up a pricing proposal, and then puts the products up for bid. Given the volatile nature of the semiconductor storage business, where prices are known to drop as much as 20% in a month, “we try to move product very quickly,” says Lampson.

Of course, surplus goods can be a problem for any company, given the inherent difficulty of forecasting. “There is a level of inaccuracy in the forecasting process, which tends to mean that we have some level of excess inventory,” says David Warrick, general manager for Microsoft’s entertainment and devices operations in Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia/Pacific region, which also has an arrangement with FreeFlow. “And what we continually try to do is keep that to a minimum and make sure it flows as well through the supply chain.” Read full article at CFO.com

TMCnet Media Day in Boston, Massachusetts: Dec 8th & 9th, 2010

TMCnet (www.tmcnet.com) will be holding a special media day in Boston, Massachusetts on Dec 8th and 9th, 2010. They are offering Irish companies an opportunity to meet with TMCnet editors which may result in an online article. If you are in Boston on those dates, and want to take part, here’s what’s on offer:

• A 30 minute interview with a TMCnet editor which may result in an online article.
• A video interview which will be posted to TMCnet and can be reused on your company’s website, YouTube etc…

Published December 2nd, 2010 by Paul Browne at Best Connected

Thanks to Ray and a lot of other people behind the scenes, The Guardian Tech Weekly had a good visit to Ireland, with a lot of follow up coverage of EI Client companies in what is probably the most influential tech section in the UK.

The full Podcast is here, a quick overview of what’s in the Podcast and an ongoing summary of the UK view of what is happening in Ireland’s technology Sector and all live on the Guardian site.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Accenture is to open a research, development and innovation centre in Dublin to develop predictive analytics solutions for clients worldwide, creating 100 high-skilled jobs over four years.

The first dedicated Accenture innovation centre in Ireland will focus on the development of advanced analytics solutions.

Predictive analytics applies advanced statistical modelling techniques to internal and external data sources to generate deeper insights that help businesses and governments drive better outcomes.

The Accenture Analytics Innovation Centre (AAIC) is expected to create 100 new highly-skilled jobs over the next four years, adding to Accenture’s 1,300 people employed in Ireland today.

The AAIC is backed by IDA Ireland and will form part of a wider Accenture global network of innovation centres dedicated to the demonstration, research and development and delivery of predictive analytics.

“Today’s announcement marks another milestone in the ongoing development of Accenture in Ireland,” said Mark Ryan, country managing director of Accenture in Ireland. (more…)