The Compaq International plant at Ballybrit in Galway is at the leading edge of developments in the e-commerce market. One of its chief products is the Compaq Firewall, to ensure security of e-commerce transactions. It was researched and developed in Galway.

The company is also already operating electronic ordering and delivery for its own customers and now has an electronic "Try Before You Buy" service for prospective customers. Dr Chris Coughlan, the strategic planning and electronic commerce manager, explained that some 50 per cent of its own business with suppliers and customers is now conducted electronically - both ordering and delivery with electronic downloading of products to customer systems.

Compaq International now publishes its own software catalogue on the Internet. As well as allowing customers to download software demonstrations products, this has allowed the company to launch its "Try before You Buy" initiative. Prospective customers can go to the company's website and get a free trial of a full product for 60 days - an effective software loan of a complete application.

Anything from operating systems and applications to development tools is available, Dr Coughlan explained. When the customer requests a free trial the product can be downloaded to the customer's system electronically. The customer is then given a "key" which will unlock the product. After 60 days the product will no longer work.

Some 10 days before the product "trial" is due to expire Compaq sales employees contact the customer to see if they want to buy it. The initiative has generated a massive response and about one-third of customers who trial products buy them, Dr Coughlan said. E-commerce will change significantly the way business is conducted in the future, he said, with a move from the physical marketplace to a virtual marketplace and the development of different types of marketing. "The present generation of Nintendo kids or Celiccubs will be the business people of tomorrow and will be well used to manipulating data and images on screen." By 2000 he predicts that e-commerce on a global scale is likely to be worth over $200 billion (€195.43 billion). Compaq employs around 500 people in Galway in three main divisions - research and development, software publishing and sales and marketing for Europe.

The company has been growing consistently since the US multinational took over the former Digital software operation. Digital had a computer hardware and a small software operation in Galway. When the hardware operation closed, its European software centre remained open and some time later Digital was taken over by Compaq. Between Digital and Compaq the operation has been on site in Ballybrit for 28 years.

Employment at the software centre has grown steadily and the profile has changed towards higher value-added jobs as employment moves from assembly to highly-technical and skilled information technology jobs. The average age of employees is in the mid-20s. Compaq has not had any difficulty so far in recruiting the skilled staff it needs - mainly with languages and information technology qualifications, but the company also employs scientists and molecular biologists in its research and development division. At any one time the company will have employees with 14 different languages on site - the mix of employees is about 80 per cent Irish and 20 per cent other nationalities.

"Compaq has a good name, the jobs are exciting and Galway is a city that attracts people. But I can see a day when recruitment will get more difficult because the economy is so successful," Dr Coughlan said.

"Already we can see that the recruitment cycle is getting a bit longer. But once you know that, you can work around it," he said. Compaq works with the local third level institutions - NUI Galway and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology - providing one-year work experience places for students as part of their course. Sometimes these students are recruited by Compaq after they have obtained their qualifications. The company sees this as one of the ways by which it can recruit and retain qualified staff, while deepening its links locally.