BRIEFS: My Toys Direct is a new online store with an emphasis on educational arts and crafts toys that get children making things.
Founder Ronan Walsh wants to hear from anyone in Ireland making toys or gifts that might be suitable for his site.
“I was looking for a birthday gift for a young cousin and found there was very little choice if you didn’t want the usual plastic toys or games from the big brand names,” he says.
“I started looking around to see what was available in terms of more traditional toys, like train sets and wooden dolls’ houses for example, and found that there was very little.
“I’m open to all sorts of ideas from wooden toys to handmade dolls, and games with an arts and crafts theme.”
The website can be searched by category of toy and age group, and also features a bestsellers section.
Mytoysdirect.comis based in Galway and will ship orders gift wrapped with 24 hours.
London’s ‘Silicon Valley’ takes shape
The Olympic media centre is poised to be transformed into a site for London’s burgeoning technology sector once the Games have left town, after the only rival bidder lost its financial backing.
Developer Resolution Property pulled its support for a proposal by consortium UK Fashion Hub to turn the one million sq ft site in east London into a centre for the UK’s fashion and textile industries.
“We decided after more detailed consideration that the underlying property asset did not fit with our own particular investment strategy,” Resolution Property said in a statement.
The withdrawal leaves the way clear for the so-called iCity bid, which includes data centre manager Infinity and an unnamed property company, and which fits with British Prime Minister David Cameron’s vision for London’s East End to become a technology centre to rival California’s Silicon Valley.
Legal downsizing boosts profits at software company
Downsizing by legal firms due to the recession has helped make the last two years the most profitable ever for Irish business software development company eXpd8.
The company’s main product is a records management system aimed at legal firms and is designed to minimise the amount of time small organisations spend processing paper. The system logs and collates the paper trail, so that all key documents relating to a specific client are corralled in the same place and can be accessed at the press of a button.
“Because firms are splitting up to reduce overheads, those leaving are setting up their own practices. Our system allows them to keep on top of their work with minimal time investment,” says company founder Declan Branagan.
Since the introduction its novel “pay-as-you-use” €1 per day licensing arrangement in 2009, eXpd8 has doubled its client base. It now has more than 3,500 users in 14 countries worldwide. This includes a claimed 70 per cent of sole practitioner practices in Ireland. Exports account for more than 20 per cent of the firm’s business.
Most recently eXpd8 has launched a cloud-based package in the Scottish market branded as “Just Do Law”.
