In short

A roundup of today's other stories in brief.

€5m Soft-ex contract with BT Global

Telecoms software company Soft-ex has signed a significant contract with BT Global Services.

The deal, which is worth more than €5 million, will see the Irish company becoming its preferred voice-management supplier for hosted services.

"Visibility in telecom spend with online demand access is one of the biggest challenges facing business today," said Soft-ex chief executive Ian Sparling.

"The combined offering will offer BT and Soft-ex the potential to open up new revenue streams and exploit new market streams."

Tidal turbines for Nova Scotia Power

Energy technology group OpenHydro will supply its tidal turbine technology to Canadian utility Nova Scotia Power.

The Irish-based group designs and manufactures turbines to generate renewable energy from tidal currents.

Nova Scotia Power has a 97 per cent market share in the Canadian province.

The Canadian deal follows the recent installation of an OpenHydro turbine in Orkney, site of the first grid connected tidal turbine in Britain and Ireland.

Insurance deal with Mapflow

The British unit of American insurance giant St Paul Travelers has signed a €250,000 deal with Irish software services group Mapflow.

The contract will facilitate the insurer in assessing the likely exposure of property to a range of risks.

Warning over internet directory

Irish companies are being targeted by a Spanish-based company for listings in internet directories that they never sought.

A company using the name World Wide Web Page Directory creates the web listings without being asked to and then sends out invoices to the companies concerned.

The invoices came from a firm in Spain called World Data Telecom.

Companies in Dublin have reported receiving invoices for in excess of €1,000 which, in the words of one executive "look very legitimate".