Open Data in the Public Sector – Grab it as it goes mainstream, Feb 28th at the ISA

Posted by Deirdre O'Neill on 14 February, 2012 in Event | Mobile | Open source | Public | Public procurement - (Be the first to comment)

We’ve covered Open Data Development before, but with the next ISA workshop, Open Data is moving into the mainstream . It has the potential to spur the development of mobile apps, software products and services – not just for the Ireland, but designed for the European and global markets. It has the potential to drive efficiencies and cost-savings for central and local Government.

The Irish Software Association’s Public Procurement working group will hold its second workshop on Open Data  on Feb 28th in IBEC 84/86 Lower Baggot st, Dublin11am – 2pm.  If you are interested in attending, please register via www.software.ie/events or contact Patricia.Keogh@ibec.ie ,  01-6051582 .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/

Open Data is the second of six workshops set to take place over the coming months. The ISA Public Procurement working group has met with senior technology specialists at CMOD, Revenue, Agriculture, Social Protection and LMS (formerly LGCSB) to identify the key ICT requirements within the public sector and to investigate ways of improving pre-market engagement with local suppliers. The specialists  identified 6 areas of technology, which are of particular interest to them, which form the basis of the ISA’s planned Public Procurement workshop series taking place in Dublin over the coming months.

Time Item Speakers
11:00 Registration

 

 

  
11:00:11:05 Opening Address & Introductions Brendan O’Reilly,

Chairman of the ISA Public Procurement Working Group

 
11:10 – 11:35am Dublin Region’s DUBlinked initiative

How businesses can benefit from Dublinked’s

Open Data initiative.

 

 Dominic Byrne,

Assistant Head of IT,

Fingal County Council
11:40 – 12:00am Case Study: Nathean Technologies Maurice Lynch,

CEO,

Nathean Technologies

 
12:05-12:25pm Case Study: Placr, UK Jonathan Raper,

CEO,

Placr, UK

 
12:30 – 1:15pm Panel Discussion

Chaired by: Tim Willoughby, LGMA

Panellist: Jonathan Raper, Placr

Panellist: Ciaran Gilsenan, Mypp Media

Panellist: Maurice Lynch, Nathean Technologies

Panellist: Ronan Farrell, NUI Maynooth

Panellist: Dominic Byrne, Fingal County Council

 

All Speakers

 
1:30-2:00pm Networking & Tea/Coffee

 

 

  
     

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6 Irish Software Companies in Ottowa for GTEC Canada Government show

Posted by Marguerite Bourke on 18 October, 2011 in Canada | Conference | Event | Public | Public procurement - (Be the first to comment)

The GTEC Conference  attracts the key  IT decision makers from all the Canadian Federal, Regional and local governments. The 2011 Conference stretches over 4 days, alongside a major exhibition of technology products and services.

For the first time, Enterprise Ireland is at GTEC. Along with the rest of the EI Toronto office, I’m looking forward to hosting six leading Irish technology companies at an ‘Innovation Ireland’ stand.  As well as the stand, PR activities and setting up key one to one meetings,  The Irish Ambassador to Canada, Ray Basset will also host a networking event on the evening of the 18th, inviting influencers within the government and public sector to meet with the Irish companies.

  •  pTools delivers powerful enterprise web content management solutions that enable their customers to generate and grow rich online websites, intranets and extranets. pTools software solutions are currently deployed across Government Departments (Ireland & UK), Local Council Authorities, Government & Health Service Providers. pTools have a local North American manager in Toronto.
  • NetFort’s LANGuardian product is software that analyzes your network traffic. LANGuardian gives a unique level of visibility into everything that is happening on your network, including user activity, file and database monitoring, intrusion detection, bandwidth usage, and Internet access. Netfort has a North American manager based in Canada. They have sold their products into the public sector in Ireland, UK and Australia.
  • Daonprovide an open software platform that enables governments and large service providers manage the biometric and biographic identities of its citizens, visitors, employees and criminals. Applications include areas such as immigration, border management, critical infrastructure protection, background checking and citizen identity schemes.  4 of the top 6 border management systems in the world have deployed or are in the process of employing Daon’s platform (Japan, UK e-Borders, US-VISIT, European Union Biometric Matching System – Visa Information System).
  • iQuate has developed iQSonar; a powerful discovery platform built to handle highly complex infrastructure. Deployed agentlessly across the largest and most challenging of networks with multiple platforms, protocols, devices and applications, it delivers visibility of all physical, virtual and cloud-based assets, thanks to its extensive technical breadth and depth. They are a certified Oracle partner. In Canada they work with Softchoice and OnX.
  • Spanish Point Technologies is an innovative software company working with Microsoft technologies to provide business systems which remove complexity, increase productivity and connect users to critical business information. They employ technologies such as SharePoint, Microsoft Office, BizTalk, SQL Server and LookupPoint™ to build great solutions.
  • FlexTime is an Irish company that designs and implements software solutions for all types of issues related to time in the workplace and in the classroom. Flextime has clients across healthcare, financial services, education and construction in Ireland, UK and Holland. Clients incluye Irish government departments and local authorities in the UK.

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Reflecting on the Software & Services Public Procurement Showcase

Posted by Roy Scannell on 12 November, 2010 in Cloud Computing | Internet | Links | Mobile | Public | Research - (Be the first to comment)

A mere 12 days after the fact I would like to say a big thank you to everyone that attended the Software and Services conference and showcase that was held in Enterprise Ireland head quarters here in Dublin last Monday. The showcase was quite a success with some clients reporting that they got to meet buyers that they had been trying to meet for quite some time.

How did it work?
The conference was attended by public sector IT buyers and Enterprise Ireland client companies and represented a valuable networking opportunity. Companies represented were from a broad spectrum of our indigenous software and associted services base. It was a half day conference with 7 excellent speakers from a broad range of bodies involved in the Procurement of software landscape.

The topics covered ranged from the future of eGovernment with interesting comparisons being drawn between Ireland and Estonia to the emerging drive toward Government usage of the Cloud dubbed the G-Cloud Programme in the UK.

After the conference was completed the specially designated showcase area was opened up for the It managers to get a flavour of the capabilities offered by Ireland’s indigenous software and services base.

Thoughts on the Event
While far from a perfect event we succeeded in getting a large swathe of Ireland’s Public Sector IT managers and our SME’s into a room and talking about the industries future and thinking of the synergies between the public sector’s current need to drastically reduce budget expenditures and client solutions designed to achieve just that.

While Enterprise Ireland have no concrete plans in place we are interested in running similar events in the future and are looking to add further value to the Public Sector Procurement of IT through our Public Procurement Department.

If you were at the event or are interested in finding out more about what you missed then please get in touch with me on the following email.

roy.scannell@enterprise-ireland.com

FREE online advice on tendering for Public contracts

Posted by Roy Scannell on 10 August, 2010 in Ireland | Links | Public | Services - (Be the first to comment)

You may have been reading recently that the contract for helicopter Search and Rescue services was recently signed by the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey for a value of up to €500m over the period 2012-2022.

The bid manager behind that success,  named Denis Thornton was entrusted by CHC to manage a contract bid that involved an incredibly complex set of requirements to deliver a successful bid. 

Utilising his procuring experience as a former UK Ministry of Defense Procurement official, technical knowledge of procurement requirements and experience managing one of the largest contracts signed this year Denis has developed a bid development methodologies and a software system known as the Evince system©.

He is now passing along some of this knowledge for free! He has created a series of 20 short videos and an eBook offering concise pointers and advice on public procurement in topics such as the following;
(1) Risk Management Plan development.
(2) General Do’s and Dont’s.
(3) Executive Summary Development Advice.
To access this information plus a free interactive webinar on the topic of the ’5 Most Dangerous Trends Facing Irish Companies In The Public Procurement Market Today’ just follow the link below and go through the free sign up process.

Click Here

We are always keen to hear feedback on the services and ideas we highlight through best connected. Please spare a moment to reply to this post when you have had a quick look at the site and let us know what your impressions are.

Coming Soon to Software: Green Public Procurement

Posted by Roy Scannell on 20 July, 2010 in Links | Public | Software - (Be the first to comment)

When most people think of the Green Agenda, factories billowing smoke into the atmosphere come to mind, however software too will soon come under Green scrutiny when looking considering Government contracts.

Trends
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Public Procurement Learning Event: 13-14th July

Posted by Roy Scannell on 8 July, 2010 in Event | Links | Public | Software | Training - (1 Comments)

In keeping with my short notice alerts regarding Public Procurement events of direct interest to the software sector The Tipperary Engineers Forum is running a two day workshop on Public Procurement best practises in the Tipperary Institute of Technology.

The workshop is being run by bid management who are the same company which deliver the hugely successful Go2Tender workshop series on behalf of Intertrade Ireland.

Why Go?

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Public Procurement Event 1st July

Posted by Roy Scannell on 29 June, 2010 in Event | Links | Public | Software | Training - (Be the first to comment)

 

I know that it is a bit late in the day to be posting this however the tender team will be running a Public Procurement Seminar in Limerick this Thursday the 1st of July.

It seeks to address vital issues that arise when SME’s seek to engage with the public sector such as the question of ‘branding’ bids, selling your company and personal experience  and best practise solutions to in-house tender management. For more details of course content and booking details please; click here

The seminar costs €190 and runs for half a day in Limericks Strand Hotel and starts at 1pm. Whilst it is short notice anyone from the software community that happens to find themselves in Limerick on Thursday with a few spare hours could certainly do worse than to attend this seminar!

About the Tender Team
The tender team is “A team of 16 experts skilled in all areas of bid support and business development including bid consultants, ISO specialists, marketing experts, business coaches, project managers, senior graphic designers and website developers”-Tender Team Website

Introducing the SBRI

Posted by Roy Scannell on 1 June, 2010 in Finance | Public | startup | UK | Uncategorized - (Be the first to comment)

The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) run by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board is an absolutely vital and ground breaking mechanism by which businesses can bring their research and ideas to market through use of public procurement.

What it is & how it works
In a nutshell the SBRI is an initiative from the British government which identifies a specific opportunity or need within a government department.
(1) It then invites companies usually SME’s to enter an idea to fill that need. The ideas are then screened.
(2) The more successful ideas are then passed along to a feasibility stage which is fully funded to £100k for a period of 6 months.
(3) After this phase is complete then most promising ideas are selected and brought forward to a development and prototyping phase with limits of £1m and 2 years.
(4) This phase then leads to complete product which is ready for market and the competitive procurement process.

Benefits
The benefits are many. Companies who would normally not have a chance of winning contracts but who have ideas addressing specific needs are essentially given a completely funded mechanism to research and develop their ideas.

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Change in Public Sector Buying: EI Publication

Posted by Roy Scannell on 15 April, 2010 in Health | Public | Uncategorized - (1 Comments)

Public Procurement has finally hit the big time! Enterprise Ireland’s multiple award winning publication The Market ran an article entitled “The Winds of Change in Irish Public sector Procurement” which focussed on the ever increasing drive toward reforming the way in which the Public Sector Procures and as importantly how they interact with the market.

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Company Incubation Centre seeks more eggs now that birds have flown nest

Posted by Paul Browne on 12 April, 2010 in Public | startup | Uncategorized - (7 Comments)

Sean MacEntee has a problem. He runs the Regional Development Centre in Dundalk, and due to the success of some of the companies based there they have now ‘graduated’ from the incubator space in the centre. Sean is now looking for startups and established companies to fill the space. As Sean says;

2009 was a significant year for incubation both in the RDC and at  Millmount, Drogheda with a total of 7 companies ‘graduating’ from both Centres. We are currently actively recruiting suitable entrepreneurs/start-up companies for both the RDC and Millmount. In addition, we  are also interested in speaking to established companies who may wish to set up a separate R&D facility in one of our Centres.

Some of the Enterprise Ireland clients graduating or hosting their R&D facilities at the Regional Development Centre are;

Sean is available at sean-dot-macentee-at-dkit-dot-ie. Of course, there are twelve other incubation centres around the country if you’re looking for a place closer to you. Details are below.

Centre Manager Institute/Location Phone
ArcLabs Tom Corcoran Waterford IT 051-302975
ITSBIC Janette Gillen IT Sligo 071-9155315
Midlands Innovation and Research Centre Michael Lonergan Athlone IT 090-6471882
ICELT Bertie Kelly National College of Ireland,Dublin 01 -4498776
Innovation in Business Centre (Galway) George McCourt Galway/Mayo IT,Galway 091-742822
RDC Sean MacEntee Dundalk IT 042-9370453
Tom Crean Business Centre Tralee IT 066-7119669
Rubicon Centre Paul Healy Cork IT 021-4326223
Learning and Innovation Centre Assumpta Harvey IT Blanchardstown ,Dublin 01-8851186
Enterprise Acceleration Centre Donncha Hughes Limerick IT 061-208208
Business Innovation Centre Brian Ogilvie IT Carlow 059-9170396
Synergy Centre Nicola Mountford IT Tallaght ,Dublin 01-4042000
Digital Media Incubation Centre Martin Hogan IADT,Dun Laoire ,Dublin 01-2144909

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