Dell Computer's third European manufacturing plant, a $90 million facility in Limerick, will be operational by the end of the year and the 1,700 new jobs it brings to the Raheen Industrial Estate will take the company's Irish workforce to nearly 6,000. "Our ongoing expansion in Ireland reflects our strong growth in Europe and our overall confidence in this country as a base for European business," chief executive Michael Dell said on a visit to Limerick to lay the foundation stone for the new plant last week.
He described the Internet as the way for Ireland, "already a high-tech economy", to build on its current success and to sustain economic growth into the future. He also said that, unlike several hardware manufacturers who had jumped ship, his company remained committed to its operations in Ireland: "We're here and we're staying."
Emigrant's Birthday: Irish Emigrant Publications celebrates the 12th birthday of its main email publication, the Irish Emigrant, today. To mark the occasion, which the company says makes it the world's longest-running national Internet news provider, it is launching a new title, the Daily Update. This will be available from Wednesday at www.emigrant.ie/daily.
Lotus On Top: After a year of head-to-head competition between Lotus and Microsoft, the former has ended up on top in the worldwide market for integrated collaborative software, commonly referred to as groupware. Lotus Domino/Notes retained its market lead by capturing 13.44 million new users worldwide in 1998, Microsoft Exchange followed with 11.78 million new users and Novell GroupWise settled into third with 4.51 million new users.
Disc Go 2000: Today sees the launch of the DISC (Dublin Inner City Schools) project, which aims to provide high-spec multimedia PCs to schools serving 4,500 pupils and to co-ordinate basic IT training for 350 teachers. The project involves the DIT, the Department of Education and Science, Siemens, the Dublin Inner City Partnership and 20 inner-city schools.
Net Tunes: Sony is to allow Net users to download music to mini-discs, according to a report published on Friday. They will pay only for songs downloaded or the playing time of the music, the Asahi newspaper reported, but there was no mention of when the system would be implemented.
Off To Dublin: Belfast-based Internet Service Provider Direct Net Access (DNA) has expanded to Dublin. Its £115-a-year service includes unlimited web space, multiple email addresses and no surcharge for ISDN access. One-year subscribers get a free 56K modem. Pictured above at the DNA launch are Martin Lyon (left) and Scott Taunton of DNA. - info: www.dna.ie
Bord's Best: Bord Failte's website, www.ireland.travel.ie, has won the National Tourist Board award at ENTER '99, the competition run by the International Federation for Information Technology and Tourism. In 1998 the site had one million visitors and this year it is showing a 62 per cent increase on the same period in 1998, making it the most important source of enquiries for Irish tourism.
Cable Transactions: MCI WorldCom has contracted the British communications company NTL for increased capacity between Dublin and London, using the Sirius submarine cable. The new capacity will deliver greater bandwidth and extend MCI WorldCom's range of voice, data and Internet services.
Indigo's Iron Injection: Foundry Networks, provider of gigabit Ethernet switches, routers and server load balancers, has announced the installation of its FastIron gigabit ethernet switches in the LAN backbone of Indigo.
Strike Up The Bandwidth: PeopleFinder Communications has been renamed Bandwidth Telecommunications. The company said the move reflects growth in its services, from finding people with pagers, radio and nurse-call systems, into DECT telephony, microwave links, masts, towers and maintenance. - info: 01-8601515
In Brief...Intel and Analog Devices have announced a joint development agreement to design a digital signal processor core architecture. . . The Bull CARA Group has recently delivered a cabling infrastructure for Pricewaterhouse-Coopers headquarters in Dublin. . . LAN Communications has been given the Partner Growth Award by Cisco Systems. . . JetForm has unveiled the latest upgrade of the JetForm Output Pak for SAP R/3. . .