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OPINION■
By Richie Howard, director, Telecommunications, Media and Technology Group, Deloitte
SINCE the mid-Eighties, successive multinational tech- one that facilitates sales and distribution. This has led
nology companies have set up in Ireland. Once out of to the growth of two types of indigenous companies –
university, and sometimes while still there, graduates the website designers and those companies seeking to
have been offered a red carpet by blue-chip technology trade via the web. While the Irish website design indus-
companies. They have been offered good pay, share try had been a fragmented one, with few barriers to
options, opportunities to travel and all the benefits that entry, a number of these companies have found them-
come with working for a multinational company. selves consistently in the Fast 50.
Yet despite the lure of the multinational, some of The ability to sell online is one which every new busi-
these well-educated graduates decide to go out and set ness craves. Between December 1999 and May 2008, the
up their own business, forgoing that well-paid, pension- number of worldwide internet users increased from 248
able job. Instead, they choose to work themselves to the million to 1.4 billion and during that same period we
bone – all to show the world that their business idea is began to recognise brands such as Google, Yahoo! and
better than anyone else’s. Amazon. However, we have also seen a growth in Irish
We Irish are adept at setting up our own businesses firms using the internet to reach an ever-increasing,
and making a success out of them. Since the turn of the web-enabled customer base. Companies demonstrating
millennium, Deloitte has been measuring this success growth in the Fast 50 over the past few years have
story through the Fast 50 Awards, which recognise the included Web Reservations International, which has
50 fastest-growing indigenous technology companies by carved out a niche market for online accommodation
revenue on an annual basis. Each year, firms are recog- booking, while
Directski.com has cornered the UK and
nised for their revenue growth over the preceding five- Irish ski holiday market.
year period. All these companies have shown themselves
to be at the cutting-edge of the technology industry,
carving out their own niches in what is a multi-trillion
2007 onwards
euro business. And, as expected, they have been shaped Examining the businesses competing to be the fastest-
by the environment in which they find themselves. growing technology company in Ireland is a very
insightful exercise – and speaking to those companies’
2000-2006 founders even more so. Based on our interaction with
Since beginning to measure the success of these Irish those firms competing in 2007 and 2008, what trends
companies at the start of the millennium, it has become will we see in the Irish technology industry?
evident how different factors have helped their growth. There is a definite shift towards outsourcing of data
In the period from 2000 through to 2003, Irish compa- storage. And while Amazon, Google and Microsoft will
nies grasped the opportunity presented by telecom invest billions into trying to lead the utility computing
deregulation, with firms such as Conduit and eTel lead- revolution, there is a market for the smaller Irish player
ing the way in the provision of telecommunications to carve out a niche market focusing on customer service.
service offerings. As the years progressed, and mobile We will expect to see a number of companies demon-
phone penetration grew, other companies such as strating growth in data storage in 2008 and onwards.
Zamano, Newbay and ChangingWorlds have become In the software sector, the data storage revolution will
leaders in the provision of mobile telephony software lead the way in terms of requiring virtualisation soft-
and content. ware and technologies to enable the new server farms to
The growth of the Irish financial services sector in the operate as efficiently as possible with as little power
Nineties also proved a catalyst for Irish software entre- usage as possible. Such software may also find its way
preneurs in the banking and finance world. Over the into the computer gaming and PC markets.
past eight years, the development of software for the Finally, we would expect to see the continued partici-
financial services sector has meant that companies such pation of Irish firms in the online services market. The
as First Derivatives, Fineos and Percana have featured ability of Irish companies to act as agents in the ¤85bn-
heavily in the Fast 50. a-year global travel market means Ireland will continue
A key trend at the start of the millennium was the to build up its competencies in this industry. Equally, we
growth of own-business websites as both a marketing expect a strong representation of e-learning and web-
tool and a distribution channel. Since 2000, we have seen based training companies in the Fast 50 over the coming
the evolution of the internet from a marketing tool to years, following PulseLearning’s success in 2007.
September 2008 Knowledge Ireland 19
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