Tech Shorts

A round-up of this week's technology news stories in brief

€1.3m silver lining for cloud computing firm

Irish-owned software and consultancy firm Saaspoint has raised €1.35 million in funding from Enterprise Ireland and a number of private investors which it says will be used to invest in its existing and future applications. Saaspoint, which was founded by a group of former Salesforce.com executives, specialises in building applications for, and providing consultancy on, cloud computing.

“We had international interest in this round which augurs well for future fund raising,” said John Appleby, chairman of Saaspoint. “There is an appetite out there for leaders in the cloud computing space.”

Saaspoint has annual revenues of more than €3 million, it employs 34 people and is currently recruiting.

Lucey signs up 80 clients for files and payments service

Lucey Technology has signed up 80 customers in Ireland and Britain for its new service, Lucey oCE, which allows small businesses securely store and distribute files, digitally sign documents and accept payments online.

Building on Microsoft’s Sharepoint platform, it has primarily been sold to accountants to date. Firms pay as little as €10 a month to access the service. Co-founded by Ian Lucey and Joe Healy, the firm has raised almost €1 million from the founders, Enterprise Ireland and a Business Expansion Scheme.

Lucey said one large practice will pay for the service through postal savings.

Money talks for Digiweb

Telecoms firm Digiweb said it has signed corporate deals worth €5 million for its Digitalk service which launched at the beginning of this year. Over 600 businesses have moved to the service including Vesta, Ask.com, ChannelAdvisor and Four Seasons hotels in Carlingford and Monaghan.

Digiweb said its voice-over IP service is proving to be particularly popular as calls can be made free of charge between offices which are connected to Digiweb’s Metro network. The company claims new customers are saving on average 35 per cent compared to their previous supplier.

Energy to create jobs

The National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) and Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) said this week that Ireland could become a world leader in tackling climate change by developing its energy management industry, which also has the potential of creating thousands of new jobs.

“We already have considerable experience in developing world-class standards in energy management and have a growing industry around energy, well ahead of Europe,” said Maurice Buckley, chief executive of the NSAI, at an event to mark World Standards Day.

E-government officer to be appointed, says Taoiseach

ICT Ireland, the Ibec group representing the technology sector, has welcomed the announcement that the Government will appoint a chief information officer (CIO), reporting directly to Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

At an industry event this week, Cowen said the CIO would “lead a streamlined government structure for delivering the ICT function both within the government and in the community”.

The office-holder will also advise on how information technology can be used to assist public sector modernisation and will take a cross-departmental and agency role in driving Ireland’s e-government programme.

Finns to get broadband rights

Finland will make access to a 1Mbit/sec broadband service a legal right for citizens from July next, according to media reports in the country this week.

Last year the Finnish government said access to 100Mbit/sec broadband would be a legal right by the end of 2015, but the current legislation is seen as an interim measure towards that goal. Finland is the first country to make broadband access a legal right although France has made internet access a basic human right.