Ennis Initiative

“Government, banks and other corporates who need to move citizens and customers toward electronic communications and transactions will need to budget for roll out programmes that take this human prospective into account and we are in a position to help them achieve it”.

This is one of the most innovative Internet projects introduced by any government so far. The establishment of a technology town is a first in Ireland and also a first for the world. The details of the implementation of the Technology infrastructure have been referenced below. Location may not be a high priority for some E-Business service companies. The idea of having a secure and speedy connection to the Internet may be of much higher importance. An example of this would be a share dealing agent, in the Irish context it may be more suitable to locate the bricks and mortar part of the company in Ennis to allow it to benefit from the lower access costs in that part of the country and speedier connections and infrastructure. The proximity of Shannon Airport is also a bonus. (Enterprise Ireland, 2001)

The situation in Ennis is encouraging for E-Business providers throughout the country. While consumer confidence in E-Commerce is rising, more and more companies are thinking of increasing their business by using B2B E-Commerce rather than the B2C model, as statistics have shown that the B2B market is far more voluminous (Enterprise Ireland, 2002). The introduction of E-Business bodes well for those business service providers who see the advantage of E-Business as a means of increasing their business in the Irish and international context.

Services for software industry

• Usability testing of websites and technologies.
• Testing the Market - by conducting pilot programmes.
• Managing the Market - highlighting the benefit to the end user rather than the features of the product.

‘Frequency of use of the Internet is 90%, with eight out of ten residents clocking up almost fifteen hours per month surfing the internet. This is compared to nine hours for the US and the Irish national average of four and a half hours.’ (Ennis.ie 30/03/02)

Conclusion

As businesses move to the first stage of the model, they would do well to use some of the services offered by these government departments. Good places to start would be Enterprise Ireland and Basis.ie, which will provide a foundation with regard to the I.T. and E-Business environment the organisation is entering. The services offered by some of the agencies are mostly suitable for specialised SMEs; we would promote the use of IBEC, SFA, and the Attorney Generals website for all small service SMEs. The Enterprise Ireland site would tend to be aimed more at the innovative side of SMEs and where a new service may be under consideration, grants can be made available on a merit basis. FÁS is the main employment agency in the country and a source for new entrants of all disciplines. The employment grants allow the government to provide small business with incentives to employ and with respect to Business Expansion Schemes, secure employment and employees for the future. In effect all of the sites are aimed at SMEs to allow them to continue increasing revenues in the state and as such providing a more stable place to live and work. This will create a more economically sound place to do business, work and live which is the ultimate aim of all business, including e-business.

© Trinity Solutions 2002 ~ 2012