Innovation
Using International Connections To Bring Investment To Ireland
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media and Content Specialist at Sage
We spoke to Terry Clune, founder of Connectireland about their recent initiative to bring investment to Ireland.
Terry Clune
Hi Terry, your most recent project is ConnectIreland which was launched in March 2012. What is Connect Ireland?
ConnectIreland is a crowdsourcing inspired initiative asking individuals to use their contacts, family, friends and business connections, to identify and make introductions between ConnectIreland and overseas companies who are considering international expansion. Any individual who introduces a company that subsequently invests in Ireland and creates new jobs will receive a minimum reward from the Irish Government. For each job created the introducer will receive of €1,500 per job, up to a maximum of 100 jobs.
How many people have registered on the site to date?
Almost 15,000 people worldwide have visited the website and over 5,000 people have liked our inspirational YouTube video featuring Irish-American Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley, Hollywood veteran Martin Sheen and emerging young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan. We have received interest from all over the world, but in particular from North American which has traditionally been a good investor in Ireland and its people. Since our launch date on March 8th ConnectIreland has over 40 high end potential investors in its pipeline as a result of introductions made by people in Ireland and overseas. ConnectIreland is also using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to inform audiences worldwide about the initiative but also to communicate good news stories about Ireland.
Posted under: Interview With Entrepreneur Ron Immink
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media & Content Specialist at Sage
Ron Immink is a key individual in the Irish business community. He is a business development expert for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is board advisor to a number of start-ups, a fellow of the Institute of Commercial Management and on the panel of experts in entrepreneurship for the OECD and entrepreneur in residence of the Innovation Academy in University College Dublin. What better person to talk to about business and entrepreneurship in Ireland at the moment.
Hi Ron. You have your finger on the pulse of the Irish small business community, what is the general feeling about Ireland’s Economic Recovery among small businesses, do they feel we have turned a corner?
Yes and no. It really depends on whom you talk to. Retail is tough. Local services is though. Companies with modern business models with an international outlook are doing well. The companies with outdated concepts, focused on the local market are not doing that well. It is not only the recession, the company life cycles are getting shorter (average age of a company is 7 years), technology and global competition are making being and staying in business more and more difficult for everyone.
The good news is that the companies that are currently still standing have become lean and mean fighting machines that are capable of competing in any market. And they should.
Cloud Computing, The Challenges And Benefits
John Muldoon, a Writer for Tech site IrishDev.com explores the immediate challenges and benefits of cloud computing as a whole.
A Meaning as Grey As the Cloud Itself
With a meaning so nebulous that it was only just last September when the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) laid out its “final” definition, Cloud Computing can still mean different things to different people, and envelope discussions in a fog of misty meanings and hazy expectations.
Stamping its mark on the discussion, tech research powerhouse Gartner put out a much leaner definition where it said Cloud Computing is a “style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service using Internet technologies.”
From The Boardroom To Floating Foam Clouds!
By Patricia McGrath, Marketing Manager at Sage
It all started in the boardroom like most important strategic initiatives do. The brief was simple. Sage is in the Cloud – we need to let the business community know and also encourage them to experience the cloud for themselves. Simple! The brief was exciting and we saw it as an opportunity to do something unexpected, something innovative. So how did we get from there to Grafton Street with a foam printer?
BYOD – Bring Your Own Device and Sage 50 Accounts
By Simon Bell, Product Manager at Sage
We recently featured a blog post on how to make the best use of your iPad by using this to access your business applications. The iPad provides you with the ability to not only get out of the office but also gives you greater flexibility within the office to access your data and business critical information (or show your colleagues your pictures of your kids!) without having to run back to your desk or carry around your laptop. It helps you to get access to the information that you need immediately and as a result improves your productivity by giving you great immediacy.
All that said, if you are in a medium sized business or have complex business accounting needs it is simply not practical to do very complex business activities from your tablet either as advanced accounting processes require a qualified individual to spend time on a computer with sufficient processing power and access to a variety of files in various formats to put together the business critical financial data that helps your business move along. You still however need to be able to process some simple accounting procedures on the go and also get a reliable picture of your position.
Sage Ireland Launches Sage In The Cloud
Ireland’s leading business management software company, Sage Ireland, launches Sage in the Cloud with a stunt on South King St, Dublin 2 at 11am. The launch will bring the concept of the cloud to life through a quirky and innovative device, which will create floating cloud shapes using a foam printer – a first for Ireland!
For the past 30 years, Sage has supported the business software industry and, in the last number of years, provided hosted online software solutions for a range of customers. With the Sage in the Cloud campaign, Sage is encouraging business owners across Ireland to experience the cloud for themselves by exploring free trials on www.sagecloud.ie.
The Sage Cloud Evolution
By David O’Reilly Head of Product Marketing at Sage Ireland
Evolution. Now there’s a big idea. But it’s a big idea driven by a very simple one; the drive to do things better. We see this in the evolution of computing. The capabilities get ever better, bigger and more powerful. Yet there’s also this interesting trajectory going on, where the bigger the capabilities get, the neater and sleeker the operating experience becomes. It’s a weird but cool inversion of scale. Systems become more powerful but also more manageable. Users can do more than ever, yet with more autonomy. They have more ability but they also become more free; free to travel light, free of the baggage of storage and the weight of hardware.It’s like everything evolves with a sleek and beautiful economy. And the evolution doesn’t stop. In fact, all this is possible because we are already deep into a new phase of the computing evolution. We are deep into the cloud.
At it’s very simplest, anything you do, communicate or store beyond your firewall is ‘in the cloud’. Cloud computing means you can use vast and huge capabilities but keep your own software, training and infrastructure to a minimum. Servers are virtual. Platforms offer perfect accessibility. No-one yet knows where integration in the cloud can take us. As yet, the horizons of cloud computing are distant. We know only that it will inform every aspect of our technological future and it is already guiding the present. And where the future goes, Sage is happy to lead.
How To Run Your Business From An iPad
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media and Content Specialist at Sage Ireland
Now here’s a big statement: you can run your entire business from your iPad. It’s true! And I don’t just mean a light and nimble small business with streamlined operations. Thanks to the wonders of cloud software, and some clever thinking from Sage, you can run ventures of all shapes and sizes – even big business – from the comfort of your own iPad.
It’s all possible because cloud technology literally lightens your load. The action happens in the cloud, not on your overworked server. Your information gets stored in a safe place where space never runs out, hardware never becomes dated or erodes and there are no breakdowns or viruses. The only capability you need is good cloud based software with a simple user interface.
That’s all very well, you’re probably thinking, but real business can be real complex. It’s not just wheeling and dealing – or even good old-fashioned production. It practically takes a business to run a business. There’s communications, accounts, project management, staff issues, CRM and so much more. Would you be surprised to know that it’s all in the cloud and all accessible from the iPad?
Sage Trick Shots
Have you seen our Trick Shots video yet? Imagine if everything in the office was this easy! With Sage at least your accounts will be!
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