Sync NI Magazine - Winter 2011 by Sync NI

Issue

#04

FREE

WINTER 2011

Issue 4 Northern Ireland’s Technology, Science & Innovation Community

Brendan Smyth 12

Director of Development @ CyberSource

q COMPETITIVENESS 08 q Capital Markets tech 10 q NISP CONNECT AWARDS 16 q SOPHIA CASE STUDY 20

NISP CONNECT £25K Awards 2011

Recruitment Focus 15

Using social media to recruit?

Local ‘Tech Sector’ Shines at All Island Awards www.syncni.com

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

Solution

Not all legal minds think alike. 23

Recently Carson McDowell advised Innovation Ulster Ltd. in connection with its investments in various spin out companies including:

EXPERT THINKING IN THE TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

For expert advice on any issue or transaction in the Technology sector please contact Dawn McKnight, Partner, dawn.mcknight@carson-dowell.com

Carson McDowell, Murray House, Murray Street, Belfast BT1 6DN. T: +44 (0) 28 9024 4951 E: Law@carson-mcdowell.com

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

Welcome to the Winter edition of the SyncNi magazine foreword

from U.S. Consul General Kamala Lakdhir

ust over two years ago, Secretary Clinton visited Northern Ireland to reunite with old friends and reconnect with political developments in a region which lies close to her heart. During her speech to the Northern Ireland Assembly, she sought to enhance our engagement here by pledging to increase our focus on supporting and growing business-to-business collaborations and the genuine opportunities that these entailed on both sides of the Atlantic. Much of the Consulate’s work involves shining an international spotlight on the real opportunities Northern Ireland affords as place in which to invest or do business. Working alongside local partners across the business community, in the Northern Ireland Executive, InvestNI, the universities, and in neighbourhoods throughout this region, we’re convinced that Northern Ireland possesses all the necessary pre-requisites -- talent, infrastructure, competitiveness, and quality of life -- to thrive as a creative, dynamic, and innovative economy. During my time here, I’ve witnessed indigenous businesses compete and succeed on a global scale as well as foreign direct investments that exemplify the region’s reputation as an outstanding business proposition. An expansion by Citi across its legal, compliance and technology functions generated around 500 new jobs. NYSE Euronext, one of the world’s leading financial services firms, launched a centre of excellence generating 400 new positions. CyberSource, a market leader in payment management solutions, reinvested £2.8m in its Belfast facility due to the talent and output of its team here. Powerhouses such as GE Energy and Dow Chemical have laid down roots, and

leaders in the creative industries such as HBO have determined that Northern Ireland is the place for developing signature entertainment. These leading companies did not make these strategic investments based on shared cultural connections, as widespread as they may be. Nor were they made through direct political influence. Rather, they were commercial decisions based purely on commercial variables, ably aided and abetted by the intangibles that make this place unique and special. In other words, Northern Ireland has what it takes to out-compete, outperform, and out-innovate other places across the globe. As it has done so before, so can it do again. Sadly, I will shortly leave Northern Ireland to return to a position at the Department of State in Washington D.C. During my tenure as Consul General, it was a privilege to observe, experience, and promote what makes this place truly special, not only to outside investors but to local entrepreneurs. Having enjoyed the many benefits of living here, I can say with conviction that you will have a lifelong advocate for the business proposition which is Northern Ireland, in Washington or wherever I may travel. Kamala Lakdhir U.S. Consul General

Sync NI would like to thank the Consul General for her contributuion to this edition and to wish her every success in her new post. Kamala is now Chief of Staff to Wendy Sherman, the Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the State Department and the Department’s third highest ranking official.

Northern Ireland’s Technology, Science & Innovation Community

EDITORIAL SyncNi Team Phone: 028 90820944 Email: info@syncni.com ADVERTISING Sales and Marketing: Damien Doran Mobile: 077 17797777 Phone: 028 90820944 Email:damien@syncni.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Email: subscribe@syncni.com DESIGN Graphic Design: Niall Mooney Email:niall@syncni.com GENERAL ENQUIRIES Postal Address Sync NI Northern Ireland Science Park Queen’s Island Belfast BT3 9DT Phone: 028 90820944 Emai: info@syncni.com Website: www.syncni.com

COPYRIGHT No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyholder and publisher. SyncNi accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of contributed articles or statements appearing in this magazine and any views or opinions expressed are not necessarily those of SyncNi , unless otherwise indicated. No responsibility for loss or distress associated to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of the material in this magazine can be accepted by the authors, contributors, editors or publishers. SyncNi does not endorse any goods or services advertised, nor any claims or representations made in any advertisement in this magazine. The recruitment agencies listed are acting as employment agencies on behalf of their clients.

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

50,000 Extra Jobs if NI is Transformed into the UK’s Leading Knowledge Economy

contents

ISP CONNECT & Northern Bank Launch ‘Northern Ireland Knowledge Economy Index – Baseline Report’ and Issue a Call to Action to Fast-track the Knowledge Economy

08 08 Competitiveness 10 Capital Markets Tech 12 CyberSource Interview 14 All Island Awards 16 Cover Story 20 Sophia Case Study

‘If Northern Ireland can be transformed into the UK’s leading knowledge economy it would result in an extra 25,500 direct jobs across 6000 new technology businesses and an additional 24,000 indirect jobs in the economy, generating an extra £3 billion of Gross Value Added (GVA). This scale of change would have a profound effect on the NI Economy, turning it into one of the UK’s strongest.’ The Report was launched at an event in Stormont Castle, where it was welcomed by Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster and Employment & Learning Minister, Dr Stephen Farry. This inaugural report, underpinned by research by Oxford Economics, outlines the current health of the Northern Ireland innovation economy across a number of key metrics and compares our performance with other regions. Its publication also signalled a ‘Call to Action’ to all interested parties to work together to fast-track the Knowledge Economy and deliver on the massive opportunity it represents. The ‘Knowledge Economy Index’ will now be used as the basis for setting ambitious targets and an annual review of regional performance against those targets to grow the knowledge economy in Northern Ireland and will underpin a number of key action points. It is designed to

help policymakers, trade organisations and individual businesses and entrepreneurs to deliver an innovation based economy. It will also serve to demonstrate to the rest of the world that Northern Ireland is building momentum towards being recognised as a leading centre for innovation. Outlining the purpose of the Report, Steve Orr, Director, NISP CONNECT said; “For too long we have talked about developing a Knowledge Economy in Northern Ireland, now is the time for action. International experience tells us that we can achieve high levels of economic growth and job creation through knowledge-based growth. “This report is a starting point to tell us exactly where we are in the development of an entrepreneurial knowledge economy. Clearly while we are making progress in some areas we are not there yet on a number of key metrics. In particular it exposes the weaknesses in the availability of capital in Northern Ireland. It shows us that while we get significant return on the small investment that has gone into the knowledge economy to date, comparatively the capital flows into NI in research funding, VC, M&A and public markets is far too low. “This Index Report sets out the challenges and confirms the desire of the private sector to engage with and support the public policy agenda to deliver a step change in our economic ambitions. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5537

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

‘Generation Innovation’ Launched to Reverse NI Brain Drain

ne hundred of Northern Ireland’s most innovative and entrepreneurial students from a wide range of backgrounds, deemed most likely to succeed in the new knowledge economy, have become the first members of the exclusive ‘Generation Innovation’ network at a launch event in Belfast City Hall. The new initiative is designed to stem and eventually reverse the brain drain from Northern Ireland by building a physical and online network of Northern Ireland’s best young people. The 100 budding entrepreneurs and innovators attended the inaugural ‘Generation Innovation’ networking event where they were inspired by leading global technology experts. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5575

North West Announces Plans to Create 100 New Digital Companies

igital Derry have announced a range of initiatives designed to help create 100 new digital companies in the North West of Ireland by 2015. The measures include a privately-funded incubation project and a major international festival. Speaking before the launch, the city’s Digital Champion, Mark Nagurski, said: “We’ve spent much of the last year at Digital Derry trying to create a buzz about the sector and encourage new startups. We’ve had some real successes but are keenly aware that we need to set our sites even higher. The projects we’ve unveiled today are exactly the kind of high impact programmes that can help us hit our target of 100 new digital businesses by 2015.” Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5575

UNIQUE JOBS FOR UNIQUE TALENT

www.bondselection.com

Bond Information Technology have been retained by a wide selection of clients throughout the Province to source the highest calibre IT professionals. Our clients include NI Top 100 companies, large software houses, specialist research & development centres, multimedia / web design agencies and leading SMEʼs. Greater Belfast

Co Antrim

Mid Ulster

Senior C#/.ASP.Net Web Developer

Citrix Administrator

Java Analyst Developer

Service Desk Team Lead

Senior Business Systems

Programme Manager

Analyst

Business Systems Analyst

Graduate .Net Software Developer

.Net Software Engineer

PHP/MySQL Developer

Dynamics CRM Developer

Java Software Developer

CRM Project Manager

Java Software Engineer (Cloud)

C++ Software Developer

Service Desk Technician

SQL Developer (SSIS/SSRS)

LʼDerry & Donegal

CC&B Support Analyst

SQL Server DBA

Flash Developer (AS2/AS3/HTML5)

Helpdesk Support Engineer (French)

Senior Infrastructure Analyst

Software Tester QA Test Engineer

Helpdesk Analyst Network Support Engineer

Co Down Infrastructure Consultant C#/ASP.Net Software Developer Java Developer .Net Software Engineer Cisco Engineer Desktop Support

Co Tyrone & Co Fermanagh IT Business Systems Analyst IT Support Engineer (1st/2nd line) 3rd Line Support Engineer VB.Net/ASP.Net Developer Network Support Analyst

Systems Administrator Sharepoint Analyst VB.Net Software Developer Java Developer Software Tester Business Analyst IT Sales Executive Unix Systems Administrator (AIX/Linux) Oracle DBA C++ Software Developer (ATL/COM)

For further information on any of the above contact Dene McFarlane (IT Recruitment Manager) on 028 90 339968 or email dene@bondselection.com in complete confidence.

MAKE YOUR COMPANY STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD... Join the new look SyncNi.com and avail of the following features:

q q q q q q

Comprehensive company profile Company case studies Key people profiles Job Board Publicise your news stories and events Reach out to an audience of thousands of local professionals To feature in the next edition of SyncNi magazine, contact us asap via info@syncni.com or via telephone: 028 9082 0944

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

Ulster Tech Spin-out Wins US Approval

ntelesens, a Belfast-based healthcare technology spin-out company from the University of Ulster, is set to enter the massive American healthcare market after getting the green light from US authorities for a pioneering health monitoring device. Following successful clinical trials in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has awarded Class 2 regulatory approval to Intelesens’ new “Aingeal“ device for use in US hospitals and healthcare organisations. The wearable product enables patients to be monitored, continuously and wirelessly, from the moment they arrive in hospital until discharged. Michael Caulfield, Intelesens CEO, said: ”We have always aspired to take our unique monitoring technology to the global healthcare market and this formal validation means that we can now move forward rapidly.” Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5454

Mformation Celebrates 5th Anniversary of Operations in Belfast

formation Technologies, the leading global provider of mobile device management (MDM) technology, recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of the opening of its Belfast Development Centre. ‘Mformation’s Belfast Development Center has been a key contributor to the overall success of the company over the last 5 years’, said Charles Crouchman, Mformation’s Senior VP. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5564

C-TRIC Builds Boston Biotech Links

linical Translational Research and Innovation Centre (C-TRIC) Northern Ireland’s award winning healthcare innovation hub, found itself back in Boston presenting at the Boston-Northwest Ireland Golden Bridges Reception and Showcase event organized by the Irish Echo. C-TRIC used this opportunity to showcase it’s R&D capability in the Life and Health Sciences. In addition, C-TRIC participated in the Partners Healthcare 7th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference. Personalized Medicine involves the use of genetic testing to ensure that

the right treatment, for the right person, at the right time is provided rather than the traditional ‘one size fits all’ approach. C-TRIC is developing a strong international profile in this area. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5574

CSIT announces Associate Member programme to drive collaborative innovation in Cyber Security technologies

ueens University’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) announced an expansion to its Membership Programme with the introduction of its Associate Member status. This will allow an increased number of organisations in the security technologies domain to share technical expertise and market knowledge within a collaborative

forum. Qosmos and Tyco Security Products have been announced as Foundation Associate Members. CSIT’s Full Member companies have a seat on the CSIT board and inform and direct research, ensure market relevance and provide an assured pathway to technology impact. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5608

Andor Technology launch comprehensive High Energy Detection capability

ndor Technology plc (Andor), have announced the availability of a new, comprehensive High Energy Detection portfolio. Presented in a new brochure and web launch, Andor’s versatile range of high-performance camera detection solutions span the Vacuum UV, Extreme UV, Soft X-Ray, Hard X-ray and Gamma energy ranges, via either ‘direct detection’ of incoming high energy photons or ‘indirect detection’ of photons emitted from a fiber-optic or lens-coupled phosphor/scintillator.

Andor’s high energy detection solutions are built around an extensive range of imaging and spectroscopy camera platforms and sensor options. Furthermore, each platform can be configured to interface with a variety of sampling environments, such as ‘invacuum’, ‘vacuum-attached’ or ‘standalone Beryllium window’ designs. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5557

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

The Innovation and Leadership Programme number of highly regarded international visiting professors from around the world. The Centre administers the tutorials and workshops and, while not designed for academic excellence, they are designed to inject new thinking into solving real problems, real time in real business situations by a creating a unique innovative learning space.

Bob Barbour, Centre for Competitiveness’s Director and Chief Executive

very organisation needs transformational leadership - those who spearhead changes that elevate efficiency, profitability, expand market share and change the rules of the game in their industry or sector. But few executives understand the unique strengths needed to become a leader and they miss the opportunity to develop these strengths and so they and their firm and their local and regional economy lose out. In addressing the need the Centre for Competitiveness has joined forces with the Institute of Directors, Queens University Leadership Institute and a

The programme is designed for Managing Directors, Chief Executives and company Directors, who currently operate or plan to operate their business internationally. Tutorial workshops will be structured to support breakthrough thinking and big impact improvements in business performance. With years of experience of international trade, negotiation, top academic incubation and teaching, our team of tutors has insights into the most creative spaces in the world. The programme is NOT designed for academic achievement but to address the day-to-day practical problems and opportunities facing leaders within their own working environment. Workshops are organised to last for 1.5 days offsite for intensive tuition and problem solving periods covering individual and group activities five times per year. The workshops are supported by highly respected University Professors from

leading universities in Europe and the USA (details attached). Follow-on mentoring appropriate to business needs can also be arranged. The future “has become a moving target.” Uncertainty today is not an occasional, temporary deviation from reasonable predictability; it is a basic feature of the business environment.” Pierre Wack, HBR. Leadership groups will form from the workshops and interdisciplinary groups will meet to devise, design, develop and deliver ideas in products, goods and services. It will be a jacuzzi in which ideas blend. The first session on Oct 21/22 was attended to by up to twenty of Northern Ireland’s Chief Executives and Managing Directors over 1 1/2 days of intense study and problem solving (Friday through Saturday lunchtime) including live case study examples requiring group analysis and breakthrough recommendations, all of which is shared under strict rules of confidentiality. The next Tutorials and workshops will be hosted on 2/3 & 5/6 March 2012. - More details available on our blog: http://www.cforc.org/news For more information and to reserve your place contact email: bob.barbour@cforc.org or telephone: 028 9073 7950

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

Aepona and Bubble Motion Form Partnership

epona, and Bubble Motion, have announced a partnership that will allow mobile operators to rapidly generate new revenue streams.

Bubbly, best described as a “voice-based Twitter”, is a social messaging service created by Bubble Motion where people share voice and text updates with friends, family, fans and followers via mobile phone. The service is enabled by Aepona’s Telecom Application Gateway platform, which allows operators to quickly and easily launch a broad range of value-added voice and data services. The Aepona Telecom Application Gateway (TAG) is at the core of Aepona’s Open IN solution portfolio, which combines best-of-breed third party applications that are tightly integrated with the TAG platform to create end-to-end solutions that solve current operator business challenges. Besides the Bubbly service, Aepona also offers converged charging and roaming solutions as part of its Open IN suite. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5420

Asidua secure place on LGSAS framework

uilding on recent successes, contact management and integration specialists Asidua, have announced their successful placement onto the new Local Government Software Application Solutions (LGSAS) framework. Set up by Government Procurement Service, the LGSAS framework provides local government organisations with a means of procuring a range of sector-specific software and services solutions. As a key IT services provider to the local government sector, Asidua were keen “to give customers the increased visibility and added security that the Government Procurements Service LGSAS framework provides,” said Bob McClean, Sales and Marketing Director at Asidua. As a result of their successful placement, Asidua’s key local government IT service offering – Customer Contact PlatformTM (CCP) – can now be procured directly via the new LGSAS framework. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5508

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SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

Capital Markets Collaboration

- building on the success of the emerging capital markets technology sector

The first PhD students to be recruited under a unique technology initiative announced earlier this year have begun work on a number of research projects designed to put Northern Ireland at the forefront of the rapidly developing field of capital markets engineering. Facilitated by Invest Northern Ireland, the Capital Markets Collaboration aims to build on the success of the emerging capital markets technology sector in Northern Ireland with the ultimate aim of attracting further investment

and creating employment opportunities for graduates in a variety of disciplines. The sector has been growing rapidly recently with NYSE Euronext, Citi, Fidessa and First Derivatives announcing more than 1,400 jobs in the past two years alone. Now, along with Singularity, the four companies are working in partnership with the two local universities to boost research capability and skills across the sector.

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

The capital markets programme is designed to address some of the biggest technology challenges currently facing the world’s financial institutions. These include the need to collate and process huge amounts of international market data in real time and then running complex calculations – and executing decisions based on that information - in tiny fractions of a second. To develop the extremely complex systems that are required to fulfill these and many other routine functions, financial services companies are now drawing upon a wider range of graduate expertise than ever before.

‘‘The PhD programme is a great example of the unique collaboration between international companies and world recognised university research centres. ’’ That trend is illustrated in the wide variety of PhD students recruited under the capital markets engineering initiative to focus on specific aspects of high performance/ distributed computing and the handling and processing of very high volumes of data for fast decision-making. At Queen’s University, the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) is hosting five of the students, four of whom have primary degrees in mathematics while the fifth is a computer science graduate. Meanwhile the five students recruited at the University of Ulster’s Intelligent Systems Research Centre come from backgrounds as diverse as quantitative finance, business management and control engineering. Each student has an academic supervisor from their host university along with two industry supervisors employed at companies participating in the programme. Under their direction they will undertake work on a specific technical issue which will have clear commercial targets. These include the use of text mining and machine learning techniques to identify and analyse investor sentiment in multiple markets and then using this research to develop a method of predicting the movement of stock prices. Other

projects involve investigating the use of novel hardware architectures to accelerate the speed of data processing in specific capital market applications. One area of particular interest to some programme participants is the application of biological approaches to intelligent systems. That work could ultimately help in identifying patterns in market data to provide a better understanding of what’s happening in any given market at any given time. It could also help identify anomalous events quickly - or maybe even prevent them from happening in the first place One of the biggest challenges the capital markets industry faces can perhaps best be understood in the context of Moore’s Law in the computing industry which states that the number of transistors in a processor doubles every 18 months. In contrast, over the last number of years, the volume of market information generated by the world’s financial exchanges has doubled every 12 to 14 months. That means that processing power isn’t keeping step with the amount of data that needs to be processed. Among the locally based operations facing that challenge is NYSE Technologies which employs several hundred people in Belfast. The firm is part of NYSE Euronext which runs the world’s largest exchange group, including the New York Stock Exchange. Every day, NYSE Euronext processes an average of 1.4 billion messages and has experienced daily peaks of more than 4 billion messages. The company also executes transactions worth $2.5 trillion daily. To put those figures into context, the average number of Google searches carried out each day totals around half a billion, while the annual value of eBay transactions amounts to half a trillion US dollars It’s hardly surprising then that the company is enthusiastic about the capital markets initiative. Says Tony McManus, head of operations at NYSE Technologies, Belfast: ”The PhD programme is a great example of the unique collaboration between international companies and world recognised university research centres. In collaboration we will address the grand challenges that face our industry, like how to process huge volumes of complex data in real time so as to improve trading, market surveillance, compliance and risk management.”

Q>A

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

Brendan Smyth, Director of Development @ CyberSource Q A

> What is your company’s elevator pitch?

< Born during the dawn of eCommerce in 1994, CyberSource was one of the pioneers in online payment and fraud management services for medium and large-sized merchants. In 2007, we acquired the leading U.S. small business payment services provider, Authorize.Net, thus expanding our market footprint to cover businesses ranging from the smallest sole proprietorships to the largest global brands. In 2010 CyberSource was acquired by, and operates as a whollyowned subsidiary of, Visa Inc.

> What stage is your company at? (E.g. Startup/Clients/Staff Growth

etc)

< The Belfast R&D centre is unique within the NI marketplace. We work within the exciting and fastpaced Payments/eCommerce industry. CyberSource offers the security of a rapidly growing, global business--with the culture and innovation of a startup. Ours is a rare opportunity to apply your skills within an environment that

blends high technology and financial services, and help us expand our evergrowing portfolio.

Q A

> How did you personally get started in the industry?

< I have extensive experience in delivering solutions in the financial service and ecommerce world, through near shore and offshore development centres, which I have been instrumental in setting up. Joining CyberSource as their first employee in NI in Aug 2008, has given me the opportunity to build a truly unique operation in NI.

Q A

> What is a typical “day in the life” for you?

< I guess the only thing typical about my day is the school run in the morning and trying to avoid the traffic in the evening. In between it is never the same day twice. I have responsibility for the entire NI operations and that keeps things interesting.

> What is your (or your companies) most innovative/exciting project to date?

< In 1994, William McKiernan founded CyberSource, which would ultimately become the first e-commerce payment management company. That probably still owns the title of “most exciting project.” But since then, CyberSource has also introduced an industry-leading fraudfighting capability that has made a world of difference to eCommerce organizations around the world.

Q A

> What trends in the industry really excite you?

< In certain countries with established electronic payments infrastructures, expansive Internet usage and broad mobile network penetration, Visa will be introducing a digital wallet and services platform. The digital wallet will store Visa and non-Visa payments accounts, support NFC payments through the innovative Visa payWave application and deliver a wide range of transaction services to accommodate multiple commerce scenarios--including eCommerce,

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

scenarios--including eCommerce, mobile commerce, micropayments, social networks and person-to-person payments. Visa is working with leading payments card issuers, community banks, credit unions, acquirers, payments processors and merchants to launch the digital wallet.

> Finally, how would you rate the tech industry in NI right now?

< We have a tremendous amount of talent in NI, which is why we are an attractive inward investment location. This talent pool is as skilled and capable as anywhere else in the world.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;CyberSource has introduced an industry-leading fraud-fighting capability that has made a world of difference to eCommerce organizations around the world. â&#x20AC;&#x153;

CyberSource, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Visa Inc., is a payment management company. Over 300,000 businesses worldwide use CyberSource brand solutions to process online payments, streamline fraud management, and simplify payment security.

SYNCNI magazine winter 2011

Local ‘Tech Sector’ Shines at All Island Awards

eloitte, the leading business advisory firm, has announced that fourteen Northern Ireland based companies have been ranked in the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards, marking another strong showing for the region.

Pictured at the awards are Ian Coulter managing Partner Tughans Northern Ireland ; Paul McElvaney and Mary McKenna, Learning Pool Ltd and Glenn Roberts Senior Partner Deloitte

The Fast 50 programme, now in its twelfth year, ranks the fastest growing technology companies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and is an opportunity for businesses to gain recognition for their successes and achievements. Learning Pool Ltd was the highest ranked company from Northern Ireland, featuring at number six and achieving a growth rate of 1,100%. Last year’s Rising Star winner - the award which recognises younger companies with the fastest growth in turnover over the past three years – Learning Pool Ltd was a new entry for 2011’s Fast 50 listings. NI based Novosco, Andor Technology plc and Texthelp Systems Ltd once again achieved a ranking this year and are the only three companies to have featured in the ranking since the beginning of the programme. Congratulating the local winners of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 programme, Glenn Roberts, Senior Partner with Deloitte Belfast said: “In spite of the on-going, challenging financial market conditions, the 2011 Deloitte Fast 50 proves that local technology companies are continuing to show impressive growth.” “Several newcomers have made their mark on the ranking this year such as Etain, Seopa and the highest

ranking local business Learning Pool Ltd representing sectors including online learning, website comparison engines and innovative web design. It’s exciting to recognise this next generation of technological excellence – yet still see steadfast business such as Novosco, Andor Technology and Texthelp Systems standing strong.” Adrian O’Connell, Head of Contracts & Technology at Northern Ireland sponsor Tughans said: “As one of NI’s most active commercial law firms in the tech sector, we work day in, day out with some of NI’s premier businesses and entrepreneurs. We therefore recognise how important this sector is to NI’s continued growth, and are delighted to be a partner to these awards which perfectly reflect this fast paced, innovative industry. Congratulations to the 14 local companies who achieved a place in the rankings.” Seven counties across the island of Ireland are represented on this year’s

listing. Dublin leads the pack with 27 companies, followed by Antrim with 12 companies. There are four companies from Limerick on the ranking, three from Cork and two from Kerry. Down and Derry each have one company on this year’s ranking. The overall winner was Dublin based Populis, one of Europe’s fastest growing digital media companies and European leader in content demand. The awards took place in the Dublin Convention Centre on Friday 21st October. Industry figures speaking at the event included include Maurice Mortell, CEO, Telecity Group Plc (former CEO, Data Electronics) and Regina Moran, CEO, Fujitsu.

Read how Learning Pool have become Northern Ireland’s fastest growing technology company http://www.syncni.com/ news/5509

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

Recruitment Focus - According to Rachel Penny, specialist Employment Lawyer in the Technology Team at Carson McDowell, using social media to recruit staff can be fraught with problems! Employers – Do you use Facebook to recruit?

eadhunters and recruitment consultants used to say that a well crafted CV and a good suit was the best way to make an instant impression on a prospective employer. With the massive growth in popularity of social networking, are prospective employees, and particularly recent graduates, really aware of the impact their electronic impression could have on their career prospects? Technology sector graduates are perhaps more savvy than most about the “employability factor”, how to find the right employer, create an effective CV or application form etc. However, all that could be for naught after a quick Facebook, mySpace or Google search. A survey commissioned by Microsoft in December 2009 revealed that fewer than 15% of candidates believed that information found on line could have any impact on them getting a job. Contrast this with the 41 % of recruiters that responded who said they had previously rejected candidates based on their on line postings and reputations. There is currently no legislation which prohibits employers from accessing social network pages in order to screen applicants. Whilst the availability of uncensored information about an individual which might include provocative photographs or inappropriate language could well raise questions about an invasion of privacy, many HR managers argue

that a social networking profile gives a much more accurate impression of a candidate than a tailored CV. However, using social media in this way to screen candidates is not without its legal risks. Employers may leave themselves open to claims of unlawful discrimination. Online profiles and postings are more likely to reveal information on sexual orientation, religion, political opinion, race or age and any recruitment decision made on the basis of any of these characteristics will be unlawful and could result in considerable financial compensation being awarded to a rejected candidate. The whole point of the fair employment and discrimination legislation in Northern Ireland was to try and remove discriminatory bias from the recruitment process, by as far as possible, standardising the type of information requested from candidates and making it more relevant to the job in question. The theory goes that adopting a practice of checking online profiles during the selection process would undercut such efforts, because that personal information you might gain will no longer be part of a separate monitoring process. If employers want to engage in this practice, they need to do so in the knowledge of the risks. It would probably be wise not to be selective about which candidates to look up online lest discrimination should creep

Rachel Penny Associate, Employment Law Team and Technology Sector Employment Specialist

in – it will be safer to conduct online checks for all candidates or none. Furthermore, while some candidates will have online profiles or blogs, others will not, and where there are varying amounts of information available on each, it will be nigh-on impossible to treat applicants equally. Our advice is that if you want to check candidates’ online profiles and social networking postings as part of your recruitment process, you should be clear about what you are looking for. Ideally, you should draw up a policy on the use of social networking sites as part of the recruitment process. If sites are to be accessed to screen candidates then businesses should ensure that staff responsible for recruitment, are trained in equal opportunities, to understand what information they should not take into account. For instance, it would be acceptable to take into account postings about “a heavy night out” or “taking a sickie”, but it would not be acceptable to take into account a profile that indicates the candidate is gay, or disabled.

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

Winners of NISP CONNECT £25K

Awards

lish, a team from Queen’s University Belfast who have developed a low cost, low power antenna capable of picking up satellite signals automatically, which could make satellite dishes a thing of the past, are ‘flying high’ after being announced as the ‘the next big thing’ to come out of Northern Ireland’s research community at the NISP CONNECT £25K Awards last night.

They have walked away with a total prize fund of £13,000 as overall winners of the technology entrepreneur awards which are sponsored by the Bank of Ireland UK, QUB, University of Ulster and AFBI (Agri Food and Biosciences Institute) and supported by NI’s Health and Social Care Trusts. Designed as a commercial experience the Awards aim to encourage researchers to act on their talents, ideas and energy to produce tomorrow’s leading commercial opportunities. The innovative equipment developed by Flish is a high gain antenna which has the ability to ‘point’ to distant signals such as a satellite. It does not need to be aligned, like a satellite dish, and has no moving parts. It enables satellite dishes to be replaced with flat panels on walls

Winners of the Digital Media & Software category at the £25K Awards, Paul Moutray, Adreanne Clarke and Barry Henderson from Clinical Communicator

Overall & Hitech winner: NISP CONNECT Director, Steve Orr, Neil Buchanan from Flish, overall and Hitech winners, and Clare Guinness, Bank of Ireland UK

or roof tiles that need no set-up or calibration and will have particular relevance to the commercial satellite broadband market with the long-term aim of replacing the cumbersome domestic satellite dishes. It also has potential application in transportation as it can fit around the curves of vehicles or aircraft. The more compact antenna which has the ability to point to a signal in milliseconds has further application in the military and disaster relief market when a team may only have minutes to setup a lifesaving video link.

‘‘Once again the £25K Awards have been a resounding success with the spotlight shining on Northern Ireland’s research community.’’ Neil Buchanan from Flish said: “It is a great honour to be crowned the overall winner of the £25K Awards. We have worked in conjunction with the European Space Agency to fine tune our unique analogue circuit design and have been able to produce an end product that is more power efficient, lighter and less costly than anything else currently available. The global market value of antennas was estimated to be $10.1billion in 2009 and expected to increase to $13.3billion in 2014 and we believe our innovation has the potential

SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

to be a real game changer for the industry. We plan to capitalise on our learning experiences from the £25Ks to seek funding to see the business through to profitability.” The £25k Awards category winners were as follows, each picking up a cheque for £2,500: q Hitech: Flish (QUB) , both category and overall winners. q BioTech: OncoTech (QUB), Ran Biomarker is a diagnostic assay suitable for both tissue and blood that can identify cancer patients at high risk of metastasis. q CleanTech: BMT (QUB), a device for measuring the temperature of a polymer preform profile during the injection stretch blow moulding process largely used in the multi-billion pound packaging industry. q Digital Media & Software: Future Healthcare NI Ltd (HSC/ C-TRIC &Altnagelvin), clinical Communicator is a hosted clinical dashboard on the cloud platform which works as an accident reporting tool, task management tool and a change management tool.

Biotech winner: Jim McIlroy from Warner Chilcott, sponsors of the Biotech category with Mohamed El Tanani from OncoTech, category winners

NISP CONNECT programmes which are designed to inspire, encourage and nurture local technology entrepreneurs during idea conception, growth and improvement stages.” Clare Guinness, Regional Business Manager, Bank of Ireland UK added: “Once again the £25K Awards have been a resounding success with the spotlight shining on Northern Ireland’s research community who have worked hard to produce truly innovative projects with real commercial potential. At Bank of Ireland UK we are delighted support the Awards and look forward to developing our relationships with the teams and other local entrepreneurs who are committed to the commercialisation of knowledge for the benefit of our local economy.” The awards were presented at a gala ceremony in the Titanic’s Dock & Pump-House at the Northern Ireland Science Park.

Cleantech winner: Caolan Small from Dow, sponsors of the Clentech category with Yannis Salomeia from BMT category winners at the £25K Awards.

NISP CONNECT Director, Steve Orr, said: “The £25K Awards offers a showcase for regional research talent to display their world-class innovations while providing a valuable training and development process towards commercialisation of their innovations. I would like to congratulate all the category winners for their innovative entries however special acknowledgement must go to the overall winners, Flish, who wowed the judges with their pioneering antenna device, which offers great commercial potential. “This is an extremely exciting time for the team and moving on from the initial stages of business development I have no doubt that Flish will be able to benefit from other

Winners of the Biotech Category at the £25K Awards, Mohamed El Tanani and Vincent Farrelly from OncoTech

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SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011

Carson McDowell – Law firm of

Choice for the Technology Sector in Northern Ireland

ccording to Dawn McKnight, Partner and Head of the Technology Team at Carson McDowell, a key driver for the future success of the NI economy will be the performance of the private sector, particularly businesses operating within the technology sector. This is simply because one key component of Northern Ireland’s capability to compete globally will be the ability to innovate and develop new products and services locally. Whilst technology drives creativity and generates innovation, its pace of development presents challenges and requires an increasingly sophisticated approach to risk. Dawn believes Carson McDowell is well placed to advise businesses within Northern Ireland or global technology companies doing business here, simply because the firm has a long tradition of acting for clients in the technology sector, developing unrivalled experience and knowledge of the sector issues and risks. She explains; ”We have significant experience in the sector, delivering expertise to some of the most demanding and discerning technology clients, which means we have developed in-depth knowledge of the key issues, risks and requirements. We have a dedicated technology team who deliver cohesive, high-quality, specialist and authoritative advice as well as a prompt and efficient service.” She adds: ”We have worked with a diverse range of global companies

investing or locating in Northern Ireland as well as local start-up tech companies across nearly every aspect of the sector including; bio-tech, telehealth and medical devices, advanced engineering & composites, energy, green tech and renewable, agri tech as well as ICT, apps and electronics.” The list of areas of expertise which the firm can advise on is exhaustive and includes: • Protection and Exploitation of Intellectual Property • R&D collaborations • Reputation Management • Branding • Corporate Finance • Acquisition and Disposal • Regulatory Advice • HR – including advice on Incentives, Protecting IP through Employment Contracts, Restrictive Covenants and Post-Termination Restrictions • Dispute Resolution • Outsourcing • E-commerce • Commercial Arrangements including, Licensing, Supply, Distribution and Agency. She points out, ”In any of the independent guides to the legal profession such as Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500, we are consistently ranked in the top category across the board. It is our experience of meeting client’s needs in a proactive and commercially focussed way which ensures we remain a top performing law firm and stay ahead in the technology sector.”

Dawn McKnight Partner & Head of Carson McDowell’s Tech Team

Carson McDowell appears to be well positioned to be the pre-eminent technology legal advisor in Northern Ireland. The firm is quick to point out that they have worked with many global leading law firms who need a ”best friends” approach in this jurisdiction and that they are firmly committed to delivering an excellent service to their clients underpinned by their commitment to excellence, experience and efficiency. Dawn concludes; ”It is a very exciting time in Northern Ireland mirrored by an equally stimulating period within the technology sector. We believe we can add a lot to the decision making process and be part of any international or local tech company’s ”think tank” here on the ground, offering the best legal expertise to clients.”

Case Study

c SYNCNI magazine WINTER 2011 ontemporary magazine month 20XX

Life after the £25K Awards Y

ear after year NISP CONNECT’s £25K Awards unearth the talent that lies in Northern Ireland’s publically funded research base with the aim of preparing and mentoring these undiscovered innovators to become successful business ventures that will contribute to the growth of the Northern Ireland economy. But what happens when the curtains close on the Awards process?

Dave Patterson, from SOPHIA, the winners of the 2007 £25K Awards who are now based in the Northern Ireland Science Park, discusses how the Awards are just the beginning of an exhilarating journey into entrepreneurship.

Q A

> What is the idea behind SOPHIA and how did it come about?

< 80% of information in organisations is unstructured in nature – stored in documents such as word, pdf and email files and it’s doubling annually. SOPHIA makes an organisation’s search and content management tools smarter by creating what we call semantic profiles for each document within the organisation. These profiles identify the Topic & any sub Topics contained within the document and create tags that increase its findability. SOPHIA also creates document summaries and lists all other documents from the collection that have similar meaning to it. This is useful for users as when they find one interesting document SOPHIA can suggest a list of others that they

will be interested in reading also. What is interesting is that unlike other approaches, SOPHIA does not rely on taxonomies, or dictionaries of any sort. It organises the information and extracts this knowledge automatically and does not rely on any human guidance or training – saving organisations lots of time & money. The idea came about as joint research carried out between the University of Ulster & St. Petersburg State University in Russia back in 2004 and now the company has 15 Granted Patents worldwide based on the research carried out in the early days.

Q A

> Why did you enter the £25K Awards?

< It was the challenge. We wanted to learn from the experience of pitching our business to a panel of experts and learn from the feedback to improve our strategy and business objectives. Winning was certainly a bonus that brought additional benefits over and above the prize money. The exposure provided by winning brought excellent validation and credibility to our business plan and put us on a new platform with investors and other leading entrepreneurs that will ultimately ensure we are successful in

exploiting the massive potential in our unique product.

> Did you find the process valuable? If so what were the key benefits?

< Yes very much so, as we were forced to look at our business from an ‘outside in’ perspective from a very early stage in our development - i.e. what does the commercial marketplace want from a company like us? What changes do we need to make to our product to make it a commercial success, how realistic is our business model & pricing strategy, how can we (as a new company with a new product) compete with more established vendors? We were privileged to appoint Dr. Chris Horn, (formerly of IONA Technologies PLC), as Chairman. Dr. Horn is one of the most successful technology entrepreneurs on the Island of Ireland and has been very influential in enabling us to find viable answers to these questions and more. We then went on to receive the largest ever investment made in Northern Ireland by Halo business angels to the tune of £800k ($1.2M). Most importantly, this ‘spring boarded’ our company’s expansion into the USA, creating new jobs for N.I.

SYNCNI magazine winter 2011

Q A

> Can you talk me through your steps to commercialisation?

< We spun out of the university base with little more than a working prototype and set about building a product. We got initial seed funding from the University to facilitate this and then further funding from the University Challenge Fund & Invest Northern Ireland. We then raised $1.2M from Angel Investors (the Volcano Syndicate) through Halo to start commercialisation activities. Initially we focused on the UK market but soon learned that the economic downturn made it more difficult for companies to adopt new technology. We therefore expedited our move to the USA opening an office in Silicon Valley & appointing an experienced sales professional on the ground there. Since then things have really taken off for the company and we are currently looking to expand our sales force in the US and our Engineering team here in Belfast.

Q A

> Would you recommend the process to other researchers?

< Absolutely, although be warned building a tech business is a ‘roller coaster’ ride – you can go from a great high to a bad low within the space of one morning. Building the product is only a small aspect of the overall challenge. The key is to surround yourself with as many great individuals as possible and to take their advice & learn from them. Also don’t be afraid to change direction if plans are not working out the way you intended them to – listen to what the market is saying, learn from it and adapt accordingly.

> What have been your successes to date and what have these meant for the company?

< Since winning, SOPHIA has gone on to become the first NI company to win Intertrade Ireland’s SeedCorn

Competition and more recently Logica’s Global Innovation Partner Competition in the UK. Winning the various awards over the last couple of years and the appointments of Dr. Chris J Horn as Chairman and Jeff Bierach as our VP of Sales for North America were significant milestones in our early development. But nothing tops securing your first customers and the confirmation that companies found your product valuable enough to sign a cheque! We are really proud of the product that has evolved into Sophia Digital Librarian today; it’s a powerful, low cost solution to leverage more value from your content without the need for taxonomies or tedious hand-tagging of content.

Q A

> What opportunities exist for Sophia in the future?

< We want to continue to expand in the USA building our brand & customer base. We will continue to build out workforce & enter the European market with a wider range of products based on our ambitious vision of what our customers need to help them manage & leverage more from their content.

> What was behind your decision to locate to the Northern Ireland Science Park?

< SOPHIA set-up at the Science Park in 2009 and as the company has developed we have grown three times into larger space. The flexible property solutions at the Park were a major draw as they have allowed us to expand with little disruption to our day-to-day business activities coupled with the unrivalled connectivity and shared networking and meeting space, the Science Park has been the perfect location for SOPHIA to thrive. The location is synonymous with innovation and is a very positive reminder of Belfast’s rich technological history and we hope to be part of its resurgence.

Sophia Profile

Sophia is an innovative leader in contextually aware enterprise search solutions building products that enable organizations to intelligently discover knowledge from unstructured content based on context so that it can be recovered, consolidated and optimised. This enables organizations to seamlessly search, extract, de-duplicate and eliminate redundancy of content to minimize compliance risk and reduce the cost of storing and managing enterprise information. Unlike traditional search solutions that rely on an expensive and limited taxonomical approach, Sophia uses its patented Contextual Discovery Engine (CDE) to automatically understand meaning and identify intrinsic terms, phrases and relationships within content. Established in 2007 by Dr. David Patterson from the University of Ulster (N. Ireland) and Dr. Vladimir Dobrynin from the State University of St. Petersburg (Russia ), Sophia was the winner of Intertrade Ireland’s Seedcorn competition in 2009 beating 250 other companies to win the title of Best High Growth Company in Ireland. It was privately funded in July 2010 by the largest Angel Investment ever made in a Northern Ireland Company and is currently expanding its business in the UK and growing it in the US market. Sophia is in Belfast, N. offices in San

headquartered Ireland with Jose, California.

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Belfast-Based Maildistiller Announce First MSP Partner Stateside

t Systems based in Greenwood Village, Colorado is the first North American MSP to reap the benefits of Maildistiller’s new MSP platform which combines purpose built cloud email security technology with a commercial model designed specifically to support the growing needs of MSPs, maximise recurring revenues and enable the creation of a Master MSP channel whereby MSPs can manage both channel partners and direct customers from one secure platform. 3t Systems intend to fully exasperate the opportunity to build their own channel with Maildistiller’s unique offering by deploying the solution to both direct customers from their extensive customer base and channel partners, which will immediately expand their target market and enable them to further enhance their already impressive service portfolio in this competitive industry. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5626

Northern Ireland hospitals to deploy JAC’s enterprise solution

orthern Ireland Health and Social Care (HSC) has procured a pan-Northern Ireland Pharmacy Software Solution for the Business Services Organisation (BSO) Information and Technology Service (ITS). The contract has been awarded to JAC Computer Services Limited (JAC), under a Technology Partnership Agreement that BSO has with HP. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5504

An agile approach delivers a new web based software product to the veterinary and farming community Farmvet Systems Ltd have engaged with the Ignition Team to develop a new web based software product, VetIMPRESS. The aim of the product is to equip large animal vets with the information needed to offer better services to their clients. Most veterinary practices operate a paper based business. This means they are unable to offer farmers a holistic view of the farm’s operations from a management perspective.

VetIMPRESS solves this problem. Building on the current success of VetIMPRESS, Farmvet Systems Ltd will be utilising the product as a base to further develop their market. http://www.syncni.com/news/5597

Western Health and Social Care Trust deploys SMART to improve workforce efficiency

he Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) is using SMART, provider of solutions for workforce management, as part of a two-year programme to further maximise employee performance and productivity. To date, the Trust has deployed SMART’s e‑Rostering solution at Altnagelvin Hospital, a district general hospital offering 460 beds, and it has begun to deliver tangible time savings. Longer-term, it is anticipated that the SMART technology will cover other hospital premises throughout the Trust to support the organisation’s junior medical, social care, domestic and catering staff. Since going live in September 2010, the Western Trust has already yielded significant benefits from the SMART implementation with positive feedback received from ward sisters and charge nurses. The Trust now has a robust technology framework to better utilise existing skills and resources and take a more

cost-efficient approach to using bank and agency staff. After conducting a thorough review of the marketplace in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Procurement & Logistics Service (PaLS), the Western Trust selected SMART for its robust, easy-to-use functionality, clean look and feel and value for money. The Trust purchased SMART’s e-Rostering system in June 2010 and began deploying the software in September 2010, initially focused on rolling it out to 3,000 nurses and midwives. SMART e-Rostering now provides efficient rosters that ensure that nursing and midwifery staff with the correct mix of skills and experience are on duty for each and every shift and the e-Rostering system assists effective monitoring of the use of bank and agency staff. Read the full story: http://syncni.com/news/5497