No limits to border project

A decade on, the Armagh Monaghan Digital Corridor is finally reaching maturity - and there is more in store, writes Karlin Lillington.

In the heady days following the ceasefire in the North and the dotcom boom, a project that would form cross-Border links and spur the growth of the technology industry in the Border regions seemed like an obvious idea.

The Armagh Monaghan Digital Corridor (AMDC) was born out of intense discussion between the Armagh Economic Development Group and the Monaghan County Enterprise Fund.

It was supported by councillors, businesspeople, government bodies, the International Fund for Ireland, Interreg, IDA Ireland, Invest NI, Enterprise Ireland - you get the idea: there was plenty of energy and commitment.

Now, nearly a decade later, the project is finally reaching maturity after its share of ups and downs, including the dotcom bust.

"This was a very hard project to bring to fruition but at fruition it is," says a cheerful Brendan Conlon, business development manager for AMDC.

The AMDC now boasts two state-of-the-art buildings - the a:tek in Armagh and its counterpart the m:tek in Monaghan - both full of companies.

With the recent announcement that BT is to be the preferred supplier of broadband connectivity linking the two facilities - which in turn are also linked to the government's Monaghan Metro Area Network (MAN, a fibre ring around Monaghan), and general broadband connectivity provided by BT and NTL - the picture is complete, says Conlon.

"We see this broadband project as the last major public spend for the AMDC before the project reaches self-sustainability" in the next two to three years, he says.

The broadband link - a contract worth €1.8 million to BT - will give the AMDC Tier 1 internet connectivity, directly to the net's global backbone.

Mr Conlon hopes the network build will begin in September, once it is granted EU approval. Longer-term plans are for the network to provide broadband connections and services like voice over internet protocol (VoIP) to regional business as well as the AMDC business centres.

Mr Conlon is delighted that the project has reached this final phase, which he says demonstrates a real demand in the regions for a range of technology capabilities.

Part of the remit for the project was to keep an eye on the Armagh and Monaghan communities, where people have varied skills. This means that employers in the business centres range from call centres, which don't demand technical skills, to high-end software development companies.

Connections with regional colleges and universities, ranging from Queen's in Belfast to the Dundalk Institute of Technology, mean the centres are linked into research and development projects.

These projects often use high-performance computing in the small to medium enterprise sector, and work on developing a start-up incubator for interactive media companies.

The buildings are also equipped for hot-desking - allowing individuals who work for a blue-chip technology company to telecommute to work from the regions. One Oracle employee is already using space in one of the centres in this way and Conlon hopes to promote the facilities with a range of the island's multinationals.

The spread of companies and levels of skills means the whole project would not suffer if a single company pulls out of the area in the future, he says.

The two buildings are also located in industrial parks that have space for development, which offers scope for further growth.

Ideally, Mr Conlon would like the centres to become hubs for a range of technology activity in those parks.

Mr Conlon feels that the fact that the buildings now have full floors of workers - 500 are employed between a:tek and m:tek - demonstrates that companies can see real reasons for being based outside large urban areas such as Belfast or Dublin.

Many highly skilled workers are tired of the commuter grind, while others want to return to their home regions, he says. Companies based in the corridor have the benefit of close proximity to Belfast and Dublin, but keep costs down and get loyal employees that want to stay in the regions, he adds.

"I think we have exceeded expectations, especially after the two to three years when there was a decline in the technology sector. But the model has now matured," he says.

The AMDC was "lucky to get a few flagship companies in at the start," he says. Eblana and Datacor, for example, helped to promote the centres and give them viability.

Now the goal is to make the project self-sustaining by 2007, Conlon says. That means income from rents in the two buildings will fund the role of the business manager and building and system maintenance.

He acknowledges, however, a range of difficulties in getting the project to where it is now.

"There was definitely a euphoria and a lot of activity at the start," he says. "And to be honest, a lot of that dissipated when reality kicked in about the challenges of a cross-Border project. But that was our job, to push it through."