put your old PC to good use
June 9, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
It is a shame that computers which still work but can’t run the latest business software or games tends to either lie in the basement for ages or go straight to recycling, when a more useful thing to do might be to give it to other people who could put it really valuable use.
Last Sunday’s SBPost Computers in Business magazine had a feature which I put together on the decommissioning and re-use of IT equipment. This included a look at Camara, an Irish NGO which takes in used IT equipment from companies or normal people, securely deletes all data and then refurbishes the machines for use in schools in Ireland and Africa.
“We reuse the equipment in schools, but that is not the reason businesses deal with us,” said ” said Eoghan Crosby, technical director of Camara. “They come to us as we offer them a clean efficient service, we can match any quote that a business gets and the company get some good PR. It costs €50 for Camara to send a computer to a school in Africa. We try and get €20 from the original donor, the business or individual, we fundraise €20 and we ask the school for €10.”
The full article, which also has info on issues like secure data destruction and the relevant environmental legislation, is through here on the SBPost site.
Or you can go straight to Camara’s own website and learn more about their activities by clicking here.
All about adding value
June 1, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
future worker bees
I did an interesting interview with Libby Gribben, international human resources director with US chip design firm Xilinx, for last Sunday’s recruitment page of the Sunday Business Post.
Xilinx has been in Ireland since 1995, growing to 450 workers by 2005, but since shrinking to 130 as the company re-organised its global operations, leaving high level R&D and sales support jobs in Ireland and moving the rest elsewhere.
‘‘India is our engineering and software development hub,” said Gribben. ‘‘We have centralised our operations and logistics function in Singapore, close to our manufacturing. We need to be near our customers across the globe, so we have the Irish operation covering Europe, Middle East and Asia. It is not that each region carries out the same role – and is therefore in competition with each other – but more that each region has a value of its own. Over 80 per cent of our staff in Ireland would be educated to third level and above.”
We didn’t really have time to get into whether it was better for Ireland as a whole for multinationals with Irish operations to have 450 jobs spread across different specialities and levels or 130 high value ‘knowledge economy’ jobs. It’s a moot point anyways I guess.
Full article, including comment from Gribben about the HR challenges of going through a restructuring process, how Ireland is fixed for attracting high value jobs and the technology being developed by Xilinx in Ireland, is through here though on thepost.ie, if you want a read.
Flexible learning is now
May 24, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
Yesterday’s Sunday Business Post ran a story I wrote about Bluebrick.ie, a new website which helps candidates find out about the flexible learning options on offer across Ireland’s 14 institutes of technology. The site, and the courses behind it, are being promoted by Dr Richard Thorn, director of flexible learning at Institute of Technology Ireland.
say cheese
One of the more interesting features about BlueBrick.ie is the way the site can intelligently guide users towards courses or subjects, which they might not have thought of before.
‘‘The site makes suggestions of other courses or areas based on what you have searched for already, similar to sites like Amazon and Expedia,” Thorn said. ‘‘If you are looking at a green energy course, it will remember what other things people who looked at green energy before also looked at, and prompt you to look at those courses too. For example, someone with an electrical installation qualification might be pointed towards courses around sustainable energy.”
The full text of the article, including some very interesting stuff about how the ITs are focusing more now on lifelong learning than school-leavers, and attempts to bring in flexible, modularised learning that would allow students to pick subjects from any course in any IT, is through here on the SBPost website.
Or you could go straight to the BlueBrick.ie website itself I guess.
It can you know…
May 18, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
Last Sunday’s Sunday Business Post had a page I put together featuring three small Irish companies who are making big progress despite the downturn. The feature page is in association with small business networking site, Smallbusinesscan.com, and looked at the different challenges facing Irish small businesses as they look to grow in an uncertain economic climate.
Smallbusinesscan.com is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Ron Immink and Fionan Sheehan, and is supported by Ulster Bank. It recently got a web 2.0 revamp, and now includes loads of handy community-building features such as member profiles, networking groups, friend functionality, contributor articles and plenty more social media type stuff.
Sunday’s three SBPost profiles are up now online on the Smallbusinesscan.com site. Click here to read about how Clare company Cup Print became Europe’s fastest-growing paper cup manufacturer, here for how Cork’s Mahers Sports is upping its game by playing to its teams’ strengths and / or here for Cork’s JamJo Design’s co-owners discussing how new small businesses can make new media work for them.
Mixing football and politics
May 4, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
Seguiex me
Yesterday’s When Saturday Comes website ‘WSC Daily’ feature was a short piece I wrote about Football Club Barcelona’s outgoing president Joan Laporta’s real world political ambitions. It seems as if Joan fancies himself as the man to bring about an independent Catalonia. As the piece says:
“Outgoing Barcelona president Joan Laporta looks set to run as a candidate for Catalan regional president in elections this November. Although he has yet to announce his candidacy formally, a campaign website is already up and running. “I will continue to dedicate the best years of my life to the country I love,” says a beaming Laporta. “The moment has come for us all to serve Catalonia.”
To read the rest of the piece on wsc.co.uk, click here.
Ireland needs a ‘jobs tsar’
May 4, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
minister Batt O'Keefe and Sigmar's Robert Mac Giolla Phadraig
Last Sunday’s Sunday Business Post recruitment section had a story I wrote around a job creation event last week organised by Robert MacGiolla Phadraig, director of Sigmar. The most intriguing initiative coming from the event was a call for the creation of a ‘job creation tsar’ with a brief to coordinate job creation initiatives at all levels:
‘‘We are calling for a state appointed ambassador or chieftain to become one clear, recognisable face for job creation,” said MacGiolla Phádraig. ‘‘It would be a non-executive or evangelist type position filled by someone who understands all the moving parts involved in job creation, and who can link together all current job creation initiatives across different government departments, agencies and other stakeholders. I would see the individual coming from the private sector, with a background in dealing with government agencies and departments.”
The ‘jobs tsar’ idea was just one of ten suggestions presented to Enterprise Minister Batt O’Keeffe last Thursday, at a ‘Sigmar Job Creation Initiative’ event in the Hibernian Club on St Stephen’s Green. Elan, Microsoft, Cadbury and Hertz were among the companies that contributed to the plan, while Fiona Mullan, HR director of Microsoft, and Joe Carr, managing partner of Mazars, spoke at the event.
To read the rest of the article on the Sunday Business Post website, click here. To go straight to the Sigmar Job Creation Initiative website, click here.
Youth enterprise
I have a piece in the last edition of When Saturday Comes looking at the influence of Irish builder and cultural critic Mick Wallace on his local football club Wexford Youths. This influence seems to be a positive one, as seen in this sneak preview of the story:
“The self-made millionaire who takes over a football club, bringing initial euphoria and success followed by disappointment and disaster is a stock character in football, as fans of English clubs as disparate as Chester City and Crystal Palace know well. But the story of Wexford Youths and Irish property developer / philanthropist / philosopher Mick Wallace is different. Or so it seems anyway.”
To read the rest of the story, well you better buy the May issue of When Saturday Comes magazine, which is available from all good Irish newsagents now, and also available to buy online here at wsc.co.uk.
I feel like a proper contributor to WSC at this point, with five pieces published on different Irish and Spanish football topics over the last 18 months or so. Which is pretty cool, as it’s probably the best football publication around. Here’s a Scribd link a story I wrote last September about a 60,000 strong march through Seville city centre by Real Betis fans angry at how their club was being run.
Creating staff internet usage policies
March 30, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
i was in the scouts, but before this badge was available
The latest ebusinesslive.ie newsletter features a guide I put together for helping companies to develop and implement decent and useful staff internet usage policies.
From the intro:
Staff internet usage has always been a tricky issue to manage. Most companies now make much use of the web or email in doing business. Many staff members need constant access to both in order to carry out their daily tasks. However, no company wants their staff wasting time or viewing inappropriate material online. Hence the requirement in companies of all shapes and sizes for a fair, balanced and easily understood internet usage policy.
Read the rest of the guide by clicking here.
For the record ebusinesslive.ie is delivered by Enterprise Ireland and always choc full of handy technology tips, advice and news for Irish companies. Also in the newsletter this fortnight – email marketing spends increasing, retailers using social media and protecting your brand online.
Upping your performance
March 8, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
One of the highlights of yesterday’s Sunday Business Post Computers in Business magazine was a feature from me looking at the increasingly important field of business performance management (BPM).
The intro article looks at how managers can use BPM systems to help improve performance levels in all areas of the business. Here’s a quote:
Owners or managers looking to implement changes in response to business issues are often faced with the challenge of translating strategic thinking into real change at all levels of the company. This is where business performance management software (BPM) – also called enterprise performance management (EPM) – comes in.
BPM systems tend to be overall guidance systems for companies, according to Patricia Stack, business analytics leader with IBM Global Business Services.
“BPM is focused on providing the right information to the right people at the right time,” said Stack. “It supports organisations translating strategies into plans, to monitor their execution and to provide insight to improve performance.”
The feature goes on from there with lots of tips and advice on different BPM options and systems. It also had panels on how the twin trends of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and socialisation are impacting on the BPM space, and choosing the correct metrics with which to configure your BPM system.
Interviewees included BPM experts from Oracle, SAP Ireland, Infor Ireland and Singularity, as well as an international perspective from John Colbert, vice president of research and analysis for BPM Partners.
The full feature is available on the thepost.ie website and a pdf of the magazine should soon be available in the archive at CiB’s own relatively new website.
Tackling employees’ sick leave
February 24, 2010 by dermot · Leave a Comment
Last week’s Sunday Business Post recruitment page featured a piece I put together on absenteeism trends, policies and procedures, giving advice to employees and more particularly employers on how to deal with the issue / problem, particularly in these straitened times.
not a duvet day
The interviewees were Helena Broderick, managing consultant of Collier Broderick Management Consultants, Jim Curran, head of research and information services at the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises association (Isme) and Andrew Ferguson, managing director of Softworks Ireland. Choice extract:
‘‘All companies should have a sick-leave policy within the terms and conditions of employment for all staff,” Curran said. ‘‘That policy would outline the reporting structure for notification of absences, whether a sick-pay policy is in place, situations regarding contact with a company doctor and the system of back-to-work interviews. It is important that staff know the consequences for regular absenteeism in particular.”
The piece also includes info on training courses for managers in dealing with absenteeism and software products that make it easier to do so. It’s all through here on the SBP website.