Just three hours before Ennis was named as Telecom Eireann's "information age town", ShannonSoft, a new regionally-generated initiative for software companies, was launched last week. Heavyweights such as Tellabs, Blackbird Data Systems, ITS, McQueen, Neville Technology Group and Schaffner, together with RTC Limerick, the University of Limerick and Shannon Development's Innovation Centre, have been working since April on the organisation's development.
ShannonSoft is not confined to software developers and producers, but is also geared to companies that embed software or apply it to their manufacturing or business processes. Educational establishments and software recruitment companies are also invited to join.
The organisation will provide a forum for companies in the region, attract to and retain technical personnel in the area, and generally foster Shannon as a software region. Speaking at ShannonSoft's launch, Jennifer Condon of the National Software Directorate said that by the year 2000 software and associated services would be the country's most important sector in terms of revenue and employment.
Fittingly for software exponents, ShannonSoft will be run in the virtual mode - mainly via a Web site it is building.
Anna Nolan is at: anolan@iol.ie.