[28.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]Microsoft has completed a US$1.5bn takeover of a Norwegian search and business intelligence firm to expand on its enterprise search strategy.
Oslo-based Fast Search & Transfer ASA offers enterprises efficient indexing of vast quantities of searchable content, including speech recognition.
The company is amongst a number of major internet firms […]

[25.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]IT software and services player Ergo has secured a €1m contract to deploy automated loan process technology for ambitious finance newcomer Springboard Mortgages.
The investment by Springboard Mortgages aims to leverage greater efficiencies at a challenging time for the financial services sector.
“We believe that the specialist lending market is […]

[18.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]The Irish Government’s Task Force on Emergency Planning has awarded a €2m contract to Damovo to rollout a secure IP communications platform for the National Emergency Co-ordination Centre (NECC) in Dublin.
The five-year contract, awarded following a public tender process, will see Damovo rollout mission critical voice and data […]

[18.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]The Irish economy is losing up to €1.4bn a year due to huge inefficiencies in rolling out electronic payments services, the Irish Payments Services Organisation (IPSO) has claimed.
Ireland is one of the most inefficient countries in Europe when it comes to electronic payments, IPSO said, with the continued […]

[16.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]National airline Aer Lingus’ e-commerce division has deployed open source technology that will enable it to automate testing instead of running costly manual website testing.
Until now, website testing has been 100pc manual despite previous attempts to introduce automation tools.
The carrier has struck a deal with Irish technology firm […]

[14.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]The forecasts are for cloudy computing as internet powerhouse Google has struck a deal to allow Salesforce.com to use its Google Apps service as a platform for software as a service (SaaS) delivery.
Robin Daniels, senior manager in charge of product marketing at Salesforce.com, told siliconrepublic.com that the deal […]

[14.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]Salesforce.com has integrated its customer relationship management (CRM) software with Google’s suite of office productivity applications, Google Apps.
Customers of Salesforce.com’s CRM software will now get Google email, word processing, online chat and spreadsheets programmes embedded.
According to Phil Wainewright, CEO of business automation consultancy Procullux Ventures, who wrote the […]

[11.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]Storage giant EMC has signed an agreement to buy rival storage drive and disk manufacturer Iomega for US$213m in cash.
The deal will expand EMC’s reach into the fast-growing consumer and small business market.
The acquisition – part of a cash tender offer of US$3.85 per share – is expected […]

[08.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]Cisco has opened the first Telepresence suite for high-tech videoconferencing in Ireland at its Dublin headquarters and announced the availability of this technology for sale here for the first time.
The technology will be available in two models: the Cisco TelePresence 1000, designed for small group meetings and one-on-one […]

[07.04.2008 first posted on silicon republic]The first major acquisition and consolidation in the Irish hosting market in over 10 years occurred today as rapidly growing internet service provider Digiweb acquired veteran Dublin web-hosting firm Novara for an undisclosed sum.
Novara chief executive, Eoin Costello, said the Irish hosting industry has been fragmented for some […]