£2m investment in expansion of network in GB is helping companies on both sides of the Irish Sea

Ireland’s largest telecommunications company, eircom, today announced the launch of its key services into the GB marketplace.

The company, which has been trading successfully in Northern Ireland for four years, made the announcement to an audience of MPs, senior business people and the IT industry at a reception in the Members’ Dining Room at the House of Commons.

Customer reaps results with newly launched eircom AWS cloud offering.

eircom has announced that Smyths Toys Superstores, Ireland and the UK’s leading toy retailer, has moved its online IT infrastructure and related data for its growing online toy business, to eircom’s newly launched cloud services platform, powered by Amazon Web

Customer reaps results with newly launched eircom AWS cloud offering Services (AWS). The new IT platform and supporting services were swiftly put in place by eircom to ensure that Smyths Toys Superstores could effectively handle the significant increase in the volume of business activity achieved through its online business over the Christmas period.

Newstalk Breakfast is one of Ireland’s most-listened-to morning radio programmes. The programme runs from 6.30am to 10.00am Monday to Friday and features the best analysis and opinions on the mornings top business, news and current affairs stories.

Company to take on more staff before end of year

Belfast-based eircom UK has posted a profit of £3.6 million in the last financial year through 30 June 2012 an improvement on a £1.3 million loss recorded for the previous full year.

Overall revenues for the year ending 30 June 2012 were down £5.1m as a result of our exit from loss making parts of the business.

The company also announced it will increase its workforce by 25 per cent before the end of the year. Already employing more than 40 staff in Northern Ireland and GB, the company has built a strong reputation for excellence of product and service delivery.

Darren Lemon, general manager of eircom UK, said; “It has been an encouraging year for us in what everyone recognises are challenging economic times.

Issued 28th November 2012: Ireland’s largest telecommunications company, eircom Group, today announced a strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), a world leader in cloud computing, to offer technology services to businesses in Ireland and the UK, based on Amazon Web Services technology. The agreement forms a key part of eircom’s latest move into the delivery of IT services, enabling businesses to more easily take advantage of the significant benefits from cloud computing.  eircom announced the news at AWS’ inaugural re: Invent conference for global customers and partners, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Certification ensures eircom’s service management systems operate to the highest standards

eircom, Ireland’s leading managed services provider, has been formally awarded the ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 certification. The ISO certification was awarded to eircom following a rigorous auditing process conducted by Certification Europe.

Investment of Quarter of a Million Euro in new Network

eircom today announced that a major network upgrade for Bon Secours Health System is supporting critical clinical needs across multiple hospital facilities in Ireland. Bon Secours has invested €250,000 in the new network over a 3 year period.

Bon Secours is the largest independent hospital group in Ireland, with facilities spread across four locations: Cork, Tralee, Galway and Dublin. With over 2,000 staff and more than 800 beds, Bons Secours caters for over 250,000 patients a year.

eircom has installed the new data network across six sites, providing access to its state-of-the-art Next Generation Network (NGN) for hospitals in Cork, Tralee, Galway and Dublin, as well as for the hosting centre and a care village in Cork. The new eircom network provides broadband speeds of up to 50Mbs.

Bon Secours provides acute care to more than a quarter of a million patients a year, and medical imaging is a key function that underpins most departments, from oncology to cardiology. The new network from eircom is vital to the group’s rollout of RIS-PACS, a high-tech diagnostic imaging system that allows clinicians to share bandwidth-intensive patient X-rays and MRI scans across multiple locations. RIS-PACS, and the supporting new network, help create significant efficiencies - diagnostic analysis and workflow are more efficient for medical staff; patient wait times are reduced and hospital throughput is increased.

Commenting on the successful rollout of the network, David Walsh, Sales Director, eircom Business, said “We’re delighted to support the complex care systems delivered by Bon Secours. The new network will help drive greater efficiencies, and also enable the centralisation and standardisation of IT services across multiple locations.”

“The key benefits of the new network are cost, reliability and security. Our staff use very complex systems, and we have to know that the new infrastructure is going to support them 100 per cent of the time. Now we have a solid network connecting our five hospitals,” said Ian Brennan, Group Head of Information Technology at Bon Secours.”

Since installing the new network, eircom has also provided a complete voice traffic management solution to the hospital’s Cork facilities.

The eircom Spider Awards shortlist has been announced today with the highest number of entries for the internet awards received since its establishment in 1996.

The competition is as strong as ever across each award category including the new business category introduced this year, the Business’ Choice Award, for the most digitally innovative business.

The full shortist is available on www.eircomspiders.ie below is a sample of some of the websites shortlistedthis year in each category:

  Financial Services-moneyadvisor.ie, nca.ie/compare, sortmybooks.com
  Travel,Tourism&Hospitality –gotobelfast.com, hittheroad.ie, wexfordbeachhomes.ie
  Charity & Non Profit -  ie.reachout.com, templestreet.ie, trocaire.org
  Retail Excellence – did.ie, nicholasmosse.com, sliderobes.ie
  E-Business – directski.com, mytoysdirect.com, wallartanddeco.ie
  Social Media Interaction –facebook.com/JamesonIreland, todayfm.com/shaveordye, sciencecalling.com
  Campaign – bulmers.ie/decider.html, walkinmyshoes.ie, peakfresh.ie
  News & Entertainment – 98FM.com, aertv.ie, thejournal.ie
  Web Design & Development Agency – continuum.ie, ican.ie,webfactory.ie
  Sports – cricketireland.ie, Heineken.ie/HeinekenCup, rorymcilroy.com
  Listings – mayo.ie, pubsdirect.ie, wheelchairtaxi.ie/
  Business’Choice – thedigitalhub.com, menupages.ie, printing.ie
  User Experience – greenstar.ie/, materprivate.ie, m.lottery.ie
  Mobile App – daft.ie, entertainment.ie, mocks.ie
  Innovative use of Technology in Digital Marketing – ckskstudios.com, fatcheese.ie, RaboScore.com
  Digital Startup – cleverbug.com, dynamicroutemaps.com, huggity.com

Carolan Lennon, chief commercial officer, consumer and small business, eircom and Chair of the Spider Awards Judging Panel said, “We are delighted with the jump in entries for the 2012 awards, particularly amongst small and medium business owners, many of whom are entering the awards for the first time.The variety of entries we have received for the new Business’ Choice Awardclearly shows how SMEs are pursuing digital innovation to boost their businesses.”

The winners will be announced at the eircom Spider Awards, hosted by well known comedian Des Bishop on Thursday, 1st November 2012 in the Convention Centre, Dublin.

To see the full shortlist, and for further information on the awards and profiles of the judging panel, visit www.eircomspiders.ie

eircom today announces a new five year partnership with AIB to become the bank’s sole provider of communications services.

eircom will completely upgrade and replace AIB’s data networks and voice services systems across its operations in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The signing of this contract is a key enabler for many of the innovative change initiatives planned at AIB.

Over the course of the contract eircom will deliver a portfolio of services to AIB including a 300 site Next Generation Network for delivery of data, voice and video solutions across the three locations by providing a “next generation telecommunication network” to provide a foundation for the ‘OneAIB’ transformation programme. Work has already begun on this upgrade which will boost capacity, speed and flexibility in AIB systems across the branch network in the Republic, Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The upgrade is planned to be completed by October. 

Ronan Kneafsey, managing director, eircom Business said: “We are delighted to work with AIB to provide a world class communications service to the bank across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The upgrade and replacement of AIB’s current data network and voice services will ensure they have the latest advances in technology and service provision that will benefit AIB and its customers into the future”.

Marcel McCann, director of operations and technology at AIB said: “AIB has recently contracted with eircom for the provision of a next generation telecoms network across all branch locations in Republic of Ireland and GB/NI that will be the foundation of AIB’s transformation programme. This network will increase speed, capacity and importantly provide flexibility to allow us achieve the step-change required to support bank transformation. This next generation network is a key enabler for many of the major innovative change initiatives planned within AIB.

These initiatives will allow us to provide more efficient, effective services and enable us to serve our customers in a professional and consistent manner through whatever channel the customer prefers. This investment in IT infrastructure and services reflects our commitment to rebuilding a modern bank which will serve us and the Irish economy well into the future. This next generation network upgrade was started in April 2012 and will be completed by the end of 2012.”

Further information on eircom’s managed network services can be found at www.eircomforbusiness.com and www.connectingbusiness.eircom.net

eircom today unveiled our new range of video, web and audio based conferencing solutions available to our business customers. These new conferencing solutions complement the existing range of services eircom offers and provides businesses with a suite of tools to help them grow and develop their business both nationally and globally.