Ulster Business - December 2013

DECEMBER 2013 Price £2.30 ( 3.75)

FAST 50: IRELAND’S FASTEST GROWING TECH FIRMS PLATFORM FOR GROWTH: H&W TARGETS OIL & GAS THE BIG SQUEEZE: HOW HAS RECESSION HIT WAGES?

OMG it’s 4G Eric Carson from Rainbow Communications on its partnership with EE and the benefits 4G brings for the business world.

ISSN 1363-2507

9 771363 250005

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CONTENTS

What’s inside...

14 Volume V l 25 N No.12 12

DECEMBER 2013

18 70

FEATURES

46

14 - Cover story – Rainbow Communications 18 - David Meade 24 - Export profile 39 - Deloitte Fast 50 54 - NICEP economic analysis 56 - PwC Roundtable on Innovation 70 - Interview – Anita Sands

ICT QUARTERLY 28 - Friday Night Mashup 30 - Knowledge Index 32 - JAR Technologies 34 - IT news

EXPORT FOCUS 46 - Harland & Wolff 50 - Irwin’s Bakery 52 - John Simpson

CROSS BORDER TRADE 58 - Reinventing Kilkeel 60 - Ireland’s Bailout Exit 64 - Osborne King

OUTSOURCING

26

68 - Contact centres 72 - Leaf on Managed IT

REGULARS 6 - News 42 - Matrix column 84 - Motoring 90 - Appointments 92 - Photocall 100 - Gadget Guide 102 - Business Traveller 105 - Business Diary

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28 DECEMBER 2013 3

EDITOR’S COMMENT

New Zealand state of mind

A

s we reach the end of another year it is traditional to take stock of where we are, how the year has compared to the one before, and to look ahead to what the next one might bring.

It would be fair to say that the past 12 months have been a little better than the 12 which preceded them in economic terms and as we stare into 2014, there is something approaching optimism in the air.

Houses are selling again (without prices going crazy, yet), car sales are up, unemployment is slowly edging downwards and output for private sector firms is rising. Our Knowledge Economy is growing at a faster rate than the UK as a whole, Belfast has been named one of the top 10 UK cities to live and work in and even Rory is back to winning ways after a turbulent year.

Rugby fans will likely still be reeling after Ireland’s nail-biting loss to the All Blacks at the end of last month, but it struck me that, as is

often the case with sport, there are lessons to be learned for business in the defeat.

Ireland were up for this one, they looked like a cohesive unit, maintained an intensity only seen in fleeting glimpses in recent years and most importantly approached the match with the belief that they could mix it with the best in the world. It was a rousing performance.

Unfortunately the New Zealand rugby team always plays with the belief that they are the best in the world and the inbuilt understanding that they do not lose games. Their approach, even when they win (which is most of the time) is to work out what they can do to be better in the next game. So, ultimately, as the doubts and tiredness crept in for Ireland the All Blacks capitalised and we were left to wonder what might have been.

In business many of our companies already go toe to toe with the best in their sectors around the world, but as a whole there’s still a sense

we are lacking belief that Northern Ireland can compete consistently.

This issue of Ulster Business is filled with reasons we shouldn’t lack confidence. We report on the growing buzz around our local tech sector; the revival of Harland & Wolff; new jobs in the service sector; innovative SMEs who are increasing sales in export markets; the ongoing rollout of the 4G mobile network; and much more.

As good vibrations start to take hold in the wider economy, let’s approach 2014 with a little confidence and see how far it takes us.

Editor: Symon Ross Manager: Sonia Armstrong Deputy Manager: Sylvie Brando Advertising Executive: Chris Black Art Editor: Stuart Gray Production Manager: Stuart Gray Cover Photography: PressEye Publisher: James & Gladys Greer

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DECEMBER 2013 5

NEWS

IoD names 2013 Directors of the Year The award winners are joined by DEL Minister Stephen Farry; IoD NI Chairman Paul Terrington; Maurice Boyd, MD of the awards’ sponsor Abbey Bond Lovis; and host Tim McGarry.

N

ine business leaders from across the Northern Ireland business spectrum have been honoured by the Institute of Directors in this year’s Northern Ireland Director of the Year awards.

The accolades were presented to directors who were deemed to have made significant and valuable contributions to the success of their companies and typify excellence in leadership and corporate governance.

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6 DECEMBER 2013

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excellence across all sectors of our economy BOE BDLOPXMFEHJOH UIPTF EJSFDUPST XIP EFNPOTUSBUF FYDFQUJPOBM MFBEFSTIJQ TLJMMT UIBU help deliver success to their organisations. “The number of entries this year was UIF IJHIFTU JO UIF "XBSET IJTUPSZ XJUI UIF nominees displaying tremendous business acumen, good corporate governance and above all, leadership.�

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NEWS

PUB OF THE YEAR: Fionn McAlpine from The Harbour Bar, Portrush (centre), chairman of Pubs of Ulster Mark Stewart, (left) and Finance Minister Simon Hamilton (right) are all smiles at Pubs of Ulster’s prestigious Pub of the Year Awards, where The Harbour Bar won the overall Pub of the Year 2013 Award.The Harbour Bar also won the Best Charity Initiative Award. Six other awards were handed out on the night hosted by Apprentice star Jim Eastwood at La Mon Hotel and Country Club.

Belfast was strongly represented with three winners from the city:The Limelight (Best Entertainment); The Garrick (Best Big Idea) and The Hudson Bar (Best New/Improved).The Elk in Toomebridge clinched the Best Food Award and The Wild Duck Inn won the Best Marketing Initiative. Margaret Ferguson from The Lakeside in Ballydugan and Maggie McGaughey from The Front Page in Ballymena were named joint winners of Best Barperson.The awards were supported by Belfast Distillery Company, Britvic, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Dillon Bass, Drinks Inc, Heineken Northern Ireland, Molson Coors, Richmond Marketing,Tennent’s NI and media partners, Sunday Life, U105 and Hospitality Review NI.

DECEMBER 2013 7

NEWS

The BIG Numbers 1.9m The population of Northern Ireland is projected to reach 1.9million by 2020, according to the Statistics and Research Agency. It predicts the population will increase by 10,000 each year over the next decade due to natural growth.

£8,159 The amount the average Northern Ireland household owes in unsecured consumer debt, according to PwC research. It found UK household debt was up 4% in 2013 to £316bn.

1,706

Office space debate heats up

The number of local house sales in the third quarter of 2013, up more than 20% on the previous three months, according to the latest University of Ulster Quarterly House Price Index. Prices remained relatively stable.

I

54% The number of working professionals in Northern Ireland who eat breakfast at their desks, compared with 61% who had breakfast at work in GB, a survey by White’s Oats found.

Only 8% of those surveyed skipped breakfast.

13,900 The number of new cars registered in Northern Ireland in the third quarter of 2013, up 13% on the same period of 2012, which is being read as a sign of improving economic conditions.

9 Belfast’s ranking in a list of the best UK cities to live and work in. The Good Growth for Cities index of 39 cities placed Belfast behind Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol but ahead of Manchester, Liverpool and London.

2214% Belfast based children’s TV production company Sixteen South was ranked the second fastest growing technology firm in Ireland at the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards, thanks to a recorded growth rate of 2214% over a five-year period.

£624m Northern Ireland saw its highest ever expenditure on Research and Development in 2012. Total R&D investment was up by 10% from £568m in 2011 to £624m in 2012, in cash terms.

8 DECEMBER 2013

nvest NI has denied that Northern Ireland is losing out on overseas investment because of a shortage of available Grade A office space in Belfast.

It was responding to a report by commercial property agents Lisney, who said only 5% of the best office accommodation in Belfast city centre is currently vacant.

Lisney predicted demand from the international IT, legal and finance sectors will increase as the economy recovers, but says no new supply is likely to be available for at least 24 months.

“Based on the recent take up figures, there is less than one year’s supply of Grade A offices in Belfast City Centre,” said Lisney’s Managing Director Declan Flynn, (pictured).

A company planning to create 100 jobs would need roughly 10,000 sq ft of office space, but most of what is available is between 2,500 sq ft to 5,000 sq ft, the firm said in its 2013 market report. Lisney said it was aware of one investor which has around 400 staff in Northern Ireland who would like to add another 400 jobs if space was available.

“We are in the position where Invest NI are bringing investors in and we have no product to show them,” said Lisney’s David McNellis.

“We’re now confronted with a situation where they’re looking at the likes of Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, because they have the stock to meet their requirements,” he added.

Invest NI rejected that claim. It said in a statement: “The availability of suitable office space is an important consideration for investors. Invest NI is not aware of any investment projects which have been lost to Northern Ireland as a result of a lack of Grade A office provision.

“Research conducted on behalf of the organisation has identified circa 300,000 sq

ft of Grade A office space currently available within Belfast. To ensure that Northern Ireland can offer investors a choice of high specification, flexible accommodation, Invest NI is currently carrying out a review of the commercial property market here which is due to complete in early 2014. Key elements of the review include the existence and extent of any market failure and whether government intervention would result in a demonstrable market advantage.”

Lisney said close to 2 million square feet of proposed development has been approved by the planning service, but the projects are yet to get off the ground because banks have no appetite for property.

“Lack of finance in general and specifically development finance is still an issue and there may be a need for Stormont to intervene in the market to help bring forward the office development pipeline to enhance their stated job creation aims,” said Flynn.

“One of the simplest ways that bankers have said to me is to put guarantees around break clauses so if a tenant pays a million pounds a year and breaks in year five, the government would guarantee that for a couple of years.

Typically a lot of corporates want flexibility built into their leases in and around five years.

But banks need security beyond 10 years to justify the construction costs.”

Lisney also identified low commercial property rents as a hindrance to future investment. David McNellis said the average rent was £12.50 a sq ft in Belfast, similar to 25 years ago, which he attributed partly to government occupancy in the city centre artificially depressing rents. He noted in Dublin the average rent is closer to €30 per sq ft and believes the Belfast average needs to rise to £15 per sq ft.

NEWS

CMI LAUNCH BOARD:The new Board of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) in Northern Ireland has formally launched with a thought-provoking event on the theme of “Business Growth during challenging economic times.” Speakers at the event, hosted at the University of Ulster in Jordanstown, included David Taylor, bestselling author of The Naked Leader, and Richard McKnight, Digital Marketing Manager at Chain Reaction Cycles.

Philip Bain, Chairman of the CMI Northern Ireland Board and co-owner of ShredBank, said: “We were delighted to see such a significant number of people attend what was truly an inspirational event. Both distinguished speakers were great and dispelled the notion that success is impossible in challenging economic times.” David Taylor challenged the audience of more than sixty senior managers to get rid of jargon to help them focus on what they really want to achieve.

Richard McKnight gave the audience an insight into the digital marketing strategies that enabled Chain Reaction to become an international online retail success.

Pictured at the event are the new CMI board members, Helen McGarry, Caroline Douglas, Lawrence Wylie, Philip Bain,Tom Doran, Kate Speers, Frances Floyd and Stanley Wallace.

DECEMBER 2013 9

Culture will drive future city investment

C

ities that don’t put culture at the heart of future development risk getting left behind economically.

That was the message outlined by Mark Davy of development consultancy Future City at a Business Thinking Rewired breakfast organised

by Arts & Business NI. Using examples from London, Milan and even a favela in Colombia that changed is fortunes by painting the whole town with vibrant colours, Davy showed how integrating arts and culture into city planning and development can bring massive rewards.

“Cities that don’t put culture at the heart of development plans are going to really suffer. It’s absolutely clear now that cities that don’t have a mixed economy and culture offer are not going to attract the big businesses or tourists,” he said.

He noted how places like Marseille, which has just won the Academy of Urbanism city of culture award, have reinvented themselves around their public realm and culture offer, which in turn has attracted business investment.

“Businesses want to be in cultural places. And creative businesses are drawn to other creative businesses. So it’s an absolute now brainer that a city like Belfast has to really drive its cultural offer in order to get more creative businesses to come in. The creative businesses then attract the non-creative businesses,” he said.

Davy said the success of Derry/Londonderry as UK City of Culture showed the benefits of having an authentic cultural offering.

“The big two drivers in future will be the knowledge economies and creative economies.

People in those sectors mostly want to stay in cities. What you are beginning to see is cities drawing the energy from other cities, so there is a real fear from small cities that they’ll lose their place. Cities that aren’t driving their cultural identity are definitely disadvantaging themselves against their competition,” he said.

Davy said cities needed chutzpah – one big idea and the cheek to go for it – to be amongst the winners. Cities of the size of Belfast, he suggested, need “their own superlative” or strap line backed up by an original cultural offer.

While the arts sector has always been owned by the public sector, businesses need to be persuaded to think outside their normal experience and use their resources to benefit culture in more than a philanthropic way.

“What’s begun to happen around the world is that the private sector is realising that culture

offers it something unique and different,” he said.

“Belfast has so many amazing assets but what it also probably has is a lot of businesses that don’t see themselves as part of that cultural offer.

Like most cities arts & culture is one thing, business is another, and maybe business puts a bit of money in and uses it occasionally but businesses don’t see themselves as cultural. Our work is to persuade companies and developers they have more cultural DNA than they think they have.”

Future City advocates artists being involved in placemaking strategies alongside master planners and architects, and where a cultural district can’t be planned from scratch it tries to achieve one organically through clustering creative people together. Davy gave the example of Zona Tortona in Milan, a run down area where cultural brands took over all empty spaces, artists were given cheap rents, and now big brands have put offices there.

“Commercial and corporate organisations want to be where there is a creative, dynamic and cultural feel to a place,” he said. “A lot of our projects are about raising a flag by saying this is going to be the biggest, the most exciting, the first and you find a way of joining up things to create a different kind of map. It is not that any business should do it themselves. Culture is about connectivity.”

“OUR WORK IS TO PERSUADE COMPANIES AND DEVELOPERS THEY HAVE MORE CULTURAL DNA THAN THEY THINK THEY HAVE.” 10 DECEMBER 2013

Capita Managed IT Solutions, based in Newtownabbey, has been awarded a new £800,000 contract with The Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. The contract will see Capita delivering enhanced ICT support to Belfast Trust IT and staff. The first line ICT service desk will deal with reporting and resolving software, hardware, telephone and network issues for all users across a multitude of Trust sites. For the first time, part of the service will be provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

2013 in review

By Angela McGowan, Chief Economist, Danske Bank

A £100m multi-use redevelopment scheme at the Odyssey complex in Belfast has received outline planning permission.

The plan allows for almost 800 homes, two hotels, a retail area, leisure area, cafes, bars and restaurants and a large multi-storey car park. Planning consultants Turley Associates said the development would create more than 1,000 jobs plus a further 800 jobs during construction.

Work has also started on the new Grade A office block at Weaver’s Court in Belfast. Linfield Properties Ltd has begun construction work on a 20,000 sq ft office building which it said will be ready for occupation by Quarter 2, 2014. The new development will provide space over three floors with air-conditioning, carpeted raised access floors, suspended ceilings and 20 dedicated car park spaces, the developer said.

Craigavon based Almac Group has secured a multi-million dollar licensing deal with US company Genomic Health for one of its tests of cancer. The California based firm specialises in the development and delivery of cancer diagnostics tests and has paid an initial upfront fee of $9m to secure the rights to further develop and commercialise Almac’s breast cancer test. This unique test was developed by Almac’s Diagnostics Business Unit, based in Craigavon, to help predict which patients are likely to benefit from chemotherapy.

Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster has announced at review of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, which will be completed by March 2014. The review will examine the NITB’s functions and the role of the organisation in delivering the targets and actions that are set out in the Programme for Government and the Economic Strategy. It will also ensure that appropriate structures are in place to deliver the objectives and targets for tourism and ensure alignment with the work of Invest Northern Ireland.

Broadcaster UTV Media has announced plans to launch a new Irish TV channel which it says will create more than 100 new jobs. This news followed the signing of an agreement with ITV Studios Global Entertainment, which will give UTV the exclusive broadcasting rights for ITV Studios programmes for the Republic of Ireland audience, including Coronation Street and Emmerdale from early 2015. The new channel will be based in Dublin with additional newsgathering and reporting presence in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick.

Children’s television company Sixteen South has launched its new £2.5m animated series, Driftwood Bay, which has created 75 jobs in Belfast and is expected to be sold to over 100 countries by the end of next year. Driftwood Bay has been pre-sold to countries including the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Israel. It will air from spring 2014 and is being distributed globally by The Jim Henson Company, best known as the creators of The Muppets.

W

hile we all feel the chill at this time of year, on the whole 2013 has seen something of a thaw in the global economy. A better than expected recovery in the world’s economic conditions has made things easier for Northern Ireland’s exporting businesses.

Better news from the US economy, which expanded by 1.6 per cent over the year, relative stability in the Eurozone and calm in commodity markets has meant that to some extent confidence has returned and made it easier for Northern Ireland firms to sell their products and services to some of our biggest foreign trading partners.

Closer to home, there has also been a string of positive data announcements for the UK, including bigger than expected expansion in GDP. Inflation, at 2.2 per cent in October, has moved closer to the Bank of England’s official 2 per cent target. Although prices are still rising faster than wages, which are estimated to be rising by 1 per cent annually, this convergence could provide a boost to consumer demand. Forward guidance from the Bank of England (BoE) has also given firms the confidence that interest rates will remain low for the next year and a half, and in its Q3 Credit Conditions Survey, the BoE also reported a slight increase in the availability of credit to the corporate sector.

These are all positive signs for firms seeking to export.

In Northern Ireland, foreign direct investment was particularly strong in the first half of the year. This is an important component of any economic recovery, not only in terms of job creation, but also for the local firms that can develop around the supply chains of multinationals. Although Northern Ireland’s recovery has lagged the UK somewhat, local survey data here has indicated that business conditions are picking up for both the services sector and manufacturing and companies are more confident about the road ahead.

Some of the sectors that are likely to see particular growth in 2014 are information and communication, and manufacturing, which are forecast to grow by 4.5 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively next year. As confidence returns, there is no doubt that it will be the innovating companies engaged in R&D and export markets that will drive up local economic activity levels.

Follow Angela McGowan on Twitter @angela_mcgowan

DECEMBER 2013 11

NEWS

Awards celebrate economic impact of women

Patricia O’Hagan MBE of Core Systems was named Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year at the third annual Women in Business NI Awards. Celebrating with Patricia are Invest NI’s Tracy Meharg and Women in Business CEO Roseann Kelly. Entrepreneur and former Dragon’s Den star Hillary Devey gave guests her insights into building a successful business.

T

he contribution of female led businesses, female business leaders, organisations with female management teams and female sole traders was celebrated for the invaluable contribution they make to the Northern Ireland economy at the third annual Women in Business Northern Ireland Awards.

Patricia O’Hagan MBE of Core Systems received the top honour on the night as she was named the Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year.

Patricia joined Core in 1999 since taking over as managing director in 2005 she has led the company to success in global markets. She has also served on the Economic Advisory Group, providing independent advice to Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster.

Speaking of the accolade, Patricia said: “Thrilled is not the word for it. I’m overwhelmed that from all the wonderful female business women we have in this country that I have been honoured with the title of being outstanding. It’s such a privilege to be recognised by the judges and I would like to pay

12 DECEMBER 2013

tribute to the dedicated team we have at Core Systems who have certainly contributed to me receiving this award.”

Other winners on the evening included Shelly Taylor of Taylored Workwear who took home the Best Small Business prize; Darina Armstrong from Progressive Building Society for Outstanding Leadership; Christine Adams of Abbey Insurance Brokers for best Marketing Campaign; Catherine O’Neil from Amelio, who was named young Business Woman of the Year; Tori Higginson and Andrea Martin from Stamp Promotions, who won best new start-up; and Anne Murphy of Delegate Recruitment, who won the prize for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Roseann Kelly, Chief Executive of Women in Business NI, said: “I believe that it is vitally important that the phenomenal contribution women make to the Northern Ireland economy is recognised and our annual awards ceremony is the perfect platform for doing this.

“Patricia’s success has a certain familiarity to it with that of our awards speaker Hilary Devey CBE as both chose to carve out careers in what many perceive to be industries more suited to the male population. Proof that gender does not matter when a strong business idea can be developed and nurtured into a company trading globally.”

Tracy Meharg, Invest NI’s Executive Director of Business Solutions, said: “Invest NI is pleased to play a part in encouraging entrepreneurship and recognising the significant contribution women are making to the growth and development of Northern Ireland businesses.

These awards offer an important opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women such as Patricia and recognise their success.”

COVER STORY

GAMEChanger Network operator EE and Rainbow Communications, their partner in Northern Ireland, are the only providers offering 4G mobile to customers in the province. Ulster Business met them to find out how 4G can open up a world of possibilities for local business, from large corporates to SMEs.

4

G has been hailed as a game-changer for mobile telephony.

The fourth generation mobile communication network will give people faster mobile internet on their phone, tablet or laptop, helping them to work on the move, increase efficiency and save money.

Cynics might expect that Northern Ireland would have to wait for such technology to be available, an afterthought for the Londoncentric mobile network operators.

But in fact it is now a year since EE, the first network to do a major 4G network rollout, began offering 4G in Northern Ireland.

Formed in 2010 through a merger of major mobile brands Orange and T-Mobile, EE has committed to investing £1.5bn over three years to rollout superfast 4G mobile services to 117 towns and cities, and is aiming to reach 98% of the UK population by the end of 2014.

EE’s tongue in cheek adverts featuring 80s film star Kevin Bacon are aimed at letting consumers know what it can mean for them, showing how 4G lets you watch movies at home or on the go, seamlessly transitioning from one device to another.

But 4G also has major implications for businesses – large and small – and that’s why EE has partnered with Rainbow Communications in Northern Ireland.

Headquartered in Belfast and with offices in Glasgow and Dublin, Rainbow currently employs 80 staff and offers calls and lines, mobiles, broadband, inbound, systems, VoIP, cloud telephony, data and IT Services to 5,500 businesses in the UK and Ireland.

It is the main rival to BT in the local business to business market and director Eric Carson believes the partnership confirms its market leader status.

“4G is a great headline product. EE are the only network investing in it across the UK and it is great for us to be selected as their only direct partner here,” he said.

“We see it as a major endorsement that they took an in-depth look at our business and decided we were the ones to run with.”

PARTNERSHIP Unlike other re-sellers of EE, Rainbow has direct access to EE so it can offer better deals and can go to EE with faults and billing queries without a middle man.

The partnership is already proving a success for Rainbow – helping it to expand its offices and form a new data and IT division – and also for EE, says Gerry McQuade, EE’s head of non-consumer mobile business.

“The partnership is massively important.

A lot of small businesses like working with a local partner, who they feel will understand the issues that they have. We’ve always seen the B2B channel as really important and Rainbow are doing a great job for us in Northern Ireland,” he said.

McQuade says EE has exceeded its ambitious targets for its first year, with around one million customers signed up across the UK including 3,000 corporates and 200,000 small businesses.

“It has a lot of relevance and utility for businesses and so we’re seeing exactly the same level of interest and take up in Northern Ireland

“WE SEE IT AS A MAJOR ENDORSEMENT THAT EE TOOK AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT OUR BUSINESS AND DECIDED WE WERE THE ONES TO RUN WITH.” 14 DECEMBER 2013

as in places like London,” he said.

Having started 4G coverage in Greater Belfast last year – and introduced it at Lough Erne for the G8 – EE is now planning to roll out 4G to more locations.

“We wanted to make sure we didn’t make the same mistake the industry made when we rolled out 3G. A lot of the networks started very London specific. We paid a price for that because there was national advertising and yet most people couldn’t share in it,” explains McQuade.

“That’s why every major city in the UK was on our start list. Belfast was part of that as were all the other cities in the north of England and Scotland. Our next target is to roll it out to towns with more than 30,000 people which should happen by the end of next year. It doesn’t matter where that is in the country. For example Londonderry is on the plan for early next year to be covered.”

The EE executive says it has “probably already achieved what it took the networks five years to do with 3G” and it has also invested in upgrading its 2G and 3G networks to ensure a strong overall service.

“We’ll keep our foot on that pedal. Both businesses and consumers are picking it up really fast so we can’t stop it, we have to keep delivering.”

COMPETITION Rainbow sales and marketing director Stuart Carson sees EE’s decision to provide 4G here as a vote of confidence, but as a company that sells all of the networks he is disappointed there is no sign of competition.

“EE have the largest network and they’ve taken the risk of investing in Northern Ireland with 4G. There are no plans that can be drawn from Vodafone and O2 as to when they are even thinking about Northern Ireland,” he explains.

“So we are positioned way ahead of the game, not only from a technology point of view but from a network point of view. There’s nobody local that are a EE partner that can offer 4G service here.” >>>

COVER STORY

Gerry McQuade and Stuart Carson discuss the 4G roll out

15 DECEMBER 2013

COVER STORY

Rainbow Directors Martin Hamill, Stuart Carson and Eric Carson.

Rainbow believes that 4G has a massive role to play in filling in the gaps in the fibre-to-thecabinet broadband network, which is “severely lacking” in key parts of Belfast.

“There are vast swathes of Belfast that aren’t covered. BT have failed to enable the cabinets in places like Heron Road and the centre of the city – BT1 – because the funds they got were really to drive the rollout to rural areas and the residential areas, which we think was rather cynically to help with BT Sport,” says director Martin Hamill.

“We have devised a solution that enables us to deliver the equivalent of fibre-to-the cabinet to the areas of Belfast where fibre doesn’t exist.

It does everything fibre to the cabinet does and more because you are not on a fixed line. 4G brings faster speeds and more flexibility.”

WHO IS 4G FOR? The big advantage of 4G is that it helps companies to mobilise their workforce.

EE says take-up has ranged from big businesses using 4G for specific parts of their workforce such as their sales force, executives or engineers, to small businesses such as electricians and gas fitters who have all of their staff on the road.

“For a construction company it could be about getting access to data on site from day one, rather than waiting for a fixed line. 4G lets them mimic a fixed line so they don’t need to order one. It can do everything for as many people as they are likely to have using it,” says McQuade.

“We have another customer, London Air Ambulance, where the quicker access to information is taking minutes off their time to

16 DECEMBER 2013

get to patients who are in trauma. They want reliable mobile access to information that 3G didn’t have the depth of capability to enable,” he adds.

“Whether its information or video you want to upload or download, from sales people to someone out filming HD video who wants to get that back to the studio, 4G helps you mobilise your workforce and that’s what adds value to the business.”

Rainbow notes that under the plans it offers, not every user in a company has to be signed up for 4G services because in both SMEs and large corporations not everyone needs access yet.

But Gerry McQuade believes that with the rise of bandwidth-hungry services and increased video content, more people will soon need 4G, which will push prices down and make it viable for more customers.

“The percentage of sales of 4G are going to rise and rise,” he predicts. “I think we’re going to be in a situation very quickly where all handsets at all prices are going to be 4G. The premium, particularly for businesses, is tiny.

And I think you’ll see the first £100 handset relatively soon too. Once you have that it will become more the norm than the exception.”

As an example of just how revolutionary 4G could be, Stuart Carson notes that current broadband at best provides average speeds of 30MB to users while EE has already launched 4G with speeds of 300MB in London.

FUTURE GROWTH The 4G rollout is happening at a time when Rainbow has created a new team to sell a cloud telephony – a VoIP solution that allows a user

to be totally mobile, with seamless movement of voice calls from one device to another. Linking via Wifi a user can use their own number anywhere, even in other countries.

The company has also invested over £500,000 in its sales operation in Scotland and will employ more people in 2014, with further plans to expand south into England.

“Once we’re comfortable with our growth in Scotland we’ll look at where we go to next.

It’s got to be either new services or outside of Northern Ireland because Northern Ireland is a very small marketplace – 2% of the UK telecoms market. We’ve built a good customer base of over 5,500 and with the technology we have now we can still use Northern Ireland as our core activity,” says Eric.

While the Rainbow team are confident about the future and excited about the roll out of 4G they still believe the industry needs more support from politicians.

While much has been made by the DETIbacked spending on broadband rollout and money is now being spent to get coverage to so-called “not spots”, Eric says there has been little real support for mobile network rollout.

Politicians have in the past complained about new mobile masts being introduced and complained about the lack of coverage in rural areas, but he says they can’t have it both ways.

“If we want to have a world class communications network we have to do something about it and mobile is a large part of it. I would ask our politicians what are they prepared to do for business. They need to be prepared to make tough decisions to allow those networks to be built.”

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BUSINESS PSYCHOLOGY

Honey I Shrunk the Team How can reducing the size of a team increase their productivity by up to 25%? David Meade explains what research into the topic tells us about quanitity versus quality.

T

he last seven years have seen rise to significant challenges for virtually all organisations. As consumer confidence has shifted up and down, so too has corporate confidence and consumer demand. Sadly some organisations have been forced to rationalise their resources and workforces, placing extraordinary pressure on productivity ‘post paring-down’.

A big problem in your organisation can only be solved through creativity, agility, experience and most importantly teamwork. Traditional wisdom teaches us that the more complex the problem, the more man power we should throw at it. But a growing body of research shows that when it comes to teams, bigger is rarely ever better.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos famously said that he wanted his entire organisation – now one of the most powerful brands in the world – to be made up solely from “…two pizza teams: if a team couldn’t be fed with two pizzas, it was too big”. Bezos gave oxygen to the growing argument that in modern business, maybe one head might just be better than two.

It’s true to say that larger groups offer a larger collective capacity in some respects; they’ll have more combined personal and professional experience, they can certainly manufacture goods in greater quantities or process raw materials at a faster rate, and frankly five brooms will sweep fifty rooms faster than one.

On more qualitative tasks though, like creating a strategy, developing a brand, or implementing a programme of change, there are a lot of reasons why taking a lot less people to the job at hand might equal a lot more results.

As the size of a team increases, so too do the challenges associated with managing the individuals and respective relationships therein.

Beyond the anecdotal level, the research shows that levels of personal performance reduce and individuals become dramatically less engaged when they see themselves as just one tiny cog in a complex organisation.

THINKING SMALL So how can more people really produce less results? Harvard researcher Richard Hackman found that even though more bodies undoubtedly offer a greater critical mass of resources, they need significantly more management and coordination and at some point the size can in fact become an obstacle to progress.

More significantly though, Hackman argues that it’s not the number of people per se that

18 DECEMBER 2013

create the problems, but the communication links between them that grow in multiples as the number of individuals do. The cost, time, and effort expended in the management and coordination of the larger group grows exponentially. Take the following example: t " NBSLFUJOH UFBN PG PG QFPQMF IBT connection points to maintain t " CPBSE PG EJSFDUPST IBT DPOOFDUJPO points to maintain t " TBMFT UFBN PG IBT DPOOFDUJPO points to maintain. t " MBSHF FOUFSQSJTF PG IBT connection points to maintain.

Every new person that is added to a team does indeed increase the amount of legwork possible for quantitative type production tasks, but Hackman contends that his research shows that each of the individuals contribute at a markedly and observably lower rate. In other words, if you were the fourth person to join the team, you would likely make a bigger impact than if you were the tenth.

CROWD COSTS Hackman argued that as teams get bigger and the number of connections increase, organisations are also much more likely to see disjointed management, less collaboration, and breakdowns in communication. Agility too can be fundamentally compromised as teams get larger, with a significant slow down in decision making, lower interpersonal familiarity, and perhaps even compromised trust.

The phenomenon is now well established in the software industry, having been identified JO BT A#SPPLT MBX XIJDI TVHHFTUT iBEEJOH human-power to a late software project just makes it later.”

USE YOUR LOAF Separate research seems to back up the notion that smaller teams can create bigger results.

The Latané study outlined how even the simple perception that your employees are working as part of a group can erode their motivation, effort, and productivity through a phenomenon known as social loafing.

Participants wore headphones and blindfolds.

They were instructed to shout as loud as they possibly could while in sensory deprivation, and the investigators identified that in all cases, QBSUJDJQBOUT NBEF MFTT OPJTF XIFO UIFZ were in groups than when they participated alone. Put simply, their performance was

reduced when they felt that their effort might be lost in the crowd. Why work hard if the individual contribution won’t be noticed, or, to put it another way, why work hard if the slack can be picked up by others?

According to Choi, while the total volume created by the group was of course much louder, it failed to increase in reasonable proportion with the growing group size.

1FPQMF JO UFBNT PG TJY TIPVUFE BU BSPVOE of their full capacity. Investigators controlled for error by having participants shout in fake groups where participants believed they were shouting in concert when they were actually shouting alone — people still didn’t perform BU GVMM DBQBDJUZ QSPEVDJOH PG UIFJS GVMM potential sound.

According to Latané “when groups get larger, you experience less social pressure and feel less responsibility because your performance becomes difficult, or even impossible, to correctly assess amidst a crowd.

It’s no wonder that when credit and blame get harder to assign, you start to feel disconnected from your job.”

BACK AT THE OFFICE If there’s anything small organisations know how to do, it is firefight. Their patterns of demand shift and change at the whim of commercial and consumer confidence, and as business faces it’s inevitable peaks and troughs it can feel like the best solution is to throw people at it.

The evidence, though, suggests something much different. If you’re carrying out quantitative, processes or production tasks then it’s certainly more likely that more hands will produce more results. For the more qualitative, creative, or strategic roles though, always remember to concentrate the expertise into the smallest manageable team to achieve focus, drive, and results.

ABOUT DAVID David is a researcher and lecturer in international business with one of Ireland’s leading Universities, whose personal interests have always focused on aspects of popular psychology, consumer behaviour, and choice. He’s driven by a passion for understanding how and why we think the way we do. David has become a sought after international speaker and corporate advisor in the USA and Europe with a reputation for an innovative style that forces audiences to think critically about the challenges around them. Find out more about his work at www.davidmeade.co.uk and follow him on twitter @davidmeadelive

BUSINESS PSYCHOLOGY

DECEMBER 2013 19

It’s recovery, but not as we know it

By Kevin MacAllister, Partner and Private Sector Leader, PwC

T

here is now clear evidence that Northern Ireland is recovering from the financial downturn but the problem with this recovery is that it might not actually feel like one.

PwC’s latest Northern Ireland Economic Outlook (NIEO) says that 2014 should see the fastest growth since 2007, with the economy expanding by around 1.6%, unemployment continuing to fall, inflation easing downwards, and interest rates probably staying at their all-time 0.5% low.

Claimant count unemployment has fallen every month since the beginning of the year, redundancies are around 40% below the same period in 2012 and there are 5,230 more people in work than this time last year. Business confidence in October was up again for the fourth consecutive month and consumer confidence is at a four year high.

However, with wage increases almost certainly continuing to lag behind inflation, and continued pressures on energy and other costs, already squeezed households may not feel the direct benefits of recovery. Recent data on household debt suggests that the average Northern Ireland household owes something like £5,900 in unsecured debt; and while that has fallen by 25% since the onset of the financial crisis, is still represents a sizable repayment liability in the current climate.

And when interest rates go up, as they inevitably will, even a 1% increase in interest rates will cost the average Northern Ireland household about £550 a year and add to the squeeze on individuals and families, particularly if inflation continues to run ahead of wages.

While there is no indication that interest rates will increase before UK unemployment hits the Bank of England’s 7% unemployment target, UK unemployment is falling faster than expected and may reach 7% sooner rather than later. The business community should be planning for that now as it will impact the cost of doing business and, combined with the competitive market conditions, may lead to insolvencies amongst so-called “zombie companies” unable to compete in new markets, finance recovery and service growing levels of bank debt.

It’s also fair to say that, while Northern Ireland is recovering, it is not recovering as

quickly as the rest of the UK regions with much of the local private sector growth being driven by a small number of manufacturing exporters, export-focused business services and a modest increase in tourism and leisure.

Consequently, the message for the private sector is that preparing for recovery is as much about having adequate financial and human resources as about having markets, customers and opportunity.

There are also some issues around skills that may impact on recovery. Although Northern Ireland’s overall jobless total is falling, youth unemployment remains worryingly high, with over a fifth (22.5%) of 18-24 year-olds defined as NEET (not in employment, education or training), compared to the UK average of 19.8%. On the face of it, that’s strange, as Northern Ireland schools consistently outperform the rest of the UK, with 28% of local pupils achieving A & A* grade GCSEs in 2013, compared with 20% in England and Wales.

Unfortunately, the reality is that those results do not translate into a more highly qualified workforce.

In 2012, around 10% of the UK’s total working age population had no formal qualifications, while Northern Ireland’s total was almost twice that at 18%.

The same pattern emerges when we look at the working-age population with NVQ level 4 or above (Diploma, Bachelor’s degree, Masters or Doctoral level), where 34% of

all UK workers fall into this category as compared to 28% in Northern Ireland and where that gap has actually widened since 2009.

Adding to the challenge is a recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) report stating that almost half of graduates were working in roles that didn’t need graduate qualifications and that a third of all graduates were actually working in low-skilled jobs.

That simply adds to the complications in developing a skills-based economy, particularly where there is anecdotal evidence that graduates are displacing less well qualified job-seekers for a finite number of employment opportunities, while others are leaving to capitalise on faster recovery elsewhere in the UK. Other countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland focus on developing ‘mid-level’ qualifications; like apprenticeships and vocational and general qualifications achieved above secondary school level, rather than on degrees. Countries that have higher incidences of mid-level qualifications also have much lower youth unemployment and we might do well to learn from their experience and look more closely at how these mid-level qualifications might more readily fill the skills gap as Northern Ireland recovers.

Kevin MacAllister, Partner and Private Sector Leader, Kevin can be contacted at email: kevin.macallister@uk.pwc.com or Tel: 028 9024 5454

EXPORT FOCUS

SDC keep on trucking with export sales

Eddie Stobart’s truck and trailer’s star Mick Leech and SDC Trailers MD Mark Cuskeran.

T

oomebridge-based SDC Trailers is one of Northern Ireland’s lesser known success stories. While most of us will be familiar with the SDC logo on the back of a large percentage of the articulated trucks on our roads, the company itself has largely chosen to fly below the radar.

“We’ve always just kept our heads down and concentrated on getting metal out the door,” says Mark Cuskeran, the firm’s Managing Director.

Established in Toomebridge in 1978, SDC has grown into one of the leading trailer manufacturers in Europe, making trailers for household names such as Eddie Stobart, Tesco and DHL. It employs nearly 300 people at its Toomebridge plant and120 at an MDF facility in Antrim, with several hundred more at plants in England.

And having recently signed contracts worth several hundred thousand pounds with high profile retailers Heatons and Asda, the locallyowned company is confident about the future.

“We’ve really seen an uptake since 2011,” explains Cuskeran. “We’re back up to making 115 trailers a week, so we’re only about 10% below the maximum we’ve ever sold over 30 years.

“It is a combination of a lot of repeat orders

24 DECEMBER 2013

and new orders. We’ve got about 28% of the UK and Irish trailer market, so we are growing by competing against our rivals out there.”

From its foundation in 1978 the business expanded with the acquisition of Neville Charrold in Nottinghamshire in 1994 and the acquisition by Retlan Manufacturing in 1998.

But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. As it did for many manufacturers, the impact of recession led to redundancies and pay freezes for some staff.

“We were absolutely flying up until about June 2008, the order book was six or seven months at about 125 trailers a week, which was more than we’d ever done. But then the orders stopped coming. About three months before the credit crunch hit with Lehman Brothers we realised the confidence wasn’t out there in our industry,” says Mark.

“We saw it come back in 2011 and year on year since there has been growth. We’ve actually increased our employee levels by about 100 people since March this year. We’ve got about 700 people working with us now.”

With continued investment the company now has three modern and efficient manufacturing facilities and Cuskeran is confident that a new product line will further boost its growth prospects.

“We’re very much pushing into Europe with

our new car transporter product, the Autoliner product, which we’ve introduced recently. We will be at the Hanover auto show with it next year,” he notes.

“The car market is flying. We’re selling to a lot of the existing haulage firms that are in the market, Stobart are a big player, we’re selling into Ford already, we sell to the hauliers that haul for Nissan, so we’re feeling very confident about the market.”

While he cites high energy costs in Northern Ireland and European red tape as ongoing challenges, the MD is more positive on finance, noting that customers are starting to be able to afford capital products – such as new trailers – as more funding is being made available by asset based lenders.

Group turnover is currently approximately £125m and Cuskeran predicts the push into Europe with its new product will significantly increase that figure.

“We’ve always sold into Scandinavia and for certain products into Holland. But we see opportunities throughout Europe for this new product. It is going to be very good for us. We think we can increase our sales just through that product line by about 10%,” he says.

“We feel we have a very good product, a competitive price and a very good all round service to our customers.”

TECHNOLOGY

Sleep well at night! Device sales set to slow

T

here is a particularly nasty virus going around called “Cryptolocker.” The virus usually gets onto your computer via an infected email attachment.

Once Cryptolocker is on your machine, it phones back to its command and control servers and generates an encryption key. Then it encrypts the files on your computer preventing you from accessing them. A popup then appears on your screen demanding payment for the key to unlock your files. This type of virus is called “Ransomware” because it literally holds your files ransom for payment.

Advanced managed antivirus programs provided by Leaf which are centrally managed and updated, report that they are able to detect this virus; normal AV solutions rely on users to remember to make sure your antivirus definitions are up to date. A next generation firewall such as a Dell SonicWALL can also help by running Gateway Antivirus scans to prevent the virus from accessing those command and control servers, but again subscriptions definitions must be up to date which we often discover with non-Leaf clients these are not.

Leaf however understand that even with up to date antivirus it is still possible to get infected. Bad habits (like opening attachments you are unsure of ) will break all the security in the world. The best way to protect your files from Ransomware is to make sure they are saved in multiple places. You should never have files on your computer alone. You should always save copies to your corporate server (which should be backed up and monitored regularly).

The virus itself can be removed with antivirus removal tools by Leaf engineers, but the encrypted files are another story. Currently there is no way to decrypt the files without getting the key from the scammers. While some people have reported that paying the ransom allowed them to get their files back, other people have reported that the key they received did not work. The best thing to do is to recover your files from a backup. Leaf ensure our clients have the adequate backups and security measures in place to minimise disruption to this type of attack. Regular checks and updates to our clients networks provide our clients with the safety net required for their business.

This virus is another reminder of how important it is to backup your corporate data. Important data should always live in at least three places (1: live on your computer. 2: in your local backup. 3: online or offsite, in case of disaster).

Leaf provide solutions to clients for both on and off site back up as well as on and off site replication of servers and applications to ensure business disruption for our clients is minimised.

By Kyle Johnston, Leaf Consultancy Tel: 028 9089 7650 or email: sales@leafconsultancy.com

26 DECEMBER 2013

T

he explosive growth in technology devices in recent years is likely to slow down as markets around the world gravitate towards cheaper devices and fewer of them, according to a leading technology analyst.

Paul Lee, Deloitte’s Director of TMT research, told Ulster Business he expects the rapid growth in PC, smartphone and tablet sales to slow as penetration has reached markets where people are likely to choose one device rather than all three.

Lee explained that of the 1.5 billion PCs currently in use many are used by enterprises or consumers in developed markets who can afford to buy a PC, a smartphone and a tablet. That won’t be the case for the next billion people who want to access the internet who will for economic reasons likely pick one or at most two form factors, and are likely to gravitate towards cheaper devices.

“We’ve had a decade of very strong device sales. What we see happening over the next five years is that growth that we’ve had in device sales slowing down. For example we expect a slowing down of the smartphone market in terms of value.

Where you’ll get growth is in the lower value units, which are selling in greater quantity,” he said. “There will also be further reduction in the PC market because people are buying tablets instead and buying them less frequently. We’ve had a golden decade for devices, so while I think it will be a good decade it won’t be as good as the one we just had.”

Speaking to Ulster Business ahead of the Deloitte Fast 50 event in Belfast, which recognises the island of Ireland’s fastest growing tech companies, said trends such as crowdfunding and 4K television had progressed much faster than expected in 2013.

“At the beginning of the year a 4K television was very expensive, we’re talking about Premiership footballer prices. Now they are maybe first division prices. They were initially £25,000 but they are now £4,000,” he said.

In terms of how the island of Ireland measures up to the rest of Europe or the world in terms of tech companies, he said the talent levels were high but ambition levels weren’t high enough, similar to the UK and most of Europe.

“There has been a lot of introspection about why Europe has small tech companies and it is because the psyche isn’t around generating large companies.

Those who think big tend to emigrate – I’m not saying that’s right or wrong – but I can’t see anything that would change that,” he said.

But Lee believes Northern Ireland tech firms have the opportunity to play in the global technology big leagues if they can solve problems for the US-based giants.

“You shouldn’t beat yourselves up for not having an Apple because it would be 100 times more difficult to break an Apple here than in California,” he said.

“The opportunity is around finding a missing piece of the puzzle. Technology is progressing really really quickly at the moment and there are very few large companies that can keep up. One of the advantages of a large company is to identify the gaps in its portfolio and acquire them. That won’t create domestic tech giants, more wealthy individuals, but I would say it is a good approach to have.”

ICT Quarterly

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ICT QUARTERLY

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Belfast’s tech scene is bursting with talent and ideas but has lacked an event for its brightest young start-ups and entrepeneurs to meet up and network. With the launch of Friday Night Mashup, that’s no longer going to be a problem. Symon Ross reports.

Some of the FNM crew: Geoff McGimpsey; Caroline Smith; Aaron Taylor; Herman Chan; Katie McQuillan; and Graham Moucka.

N

orthern Ireland’s newest entrepreneurial support network is a little bit different to the norm. Actually make that a lot different.

The team behind Friday Night Mashup have taken it upon themselves to create a series of events for tech entrepreneurs by tech entrepreneurs.

So there are no suits. No name badges. No glasses of dubious bargain bin wine. No cringeworthy ice breakers. Instead, there’s beer. There’s pulled pork sandwiches. There are 150 people, mostly under 30, in t-shirts and jeans, from Belfast, Derry and Dublin. There’s a proper buzz in the room.

It is exactly the sort of vibrant atmosphere you’d expect from an event which aims to provide a platform for new talent and act as a

28 DECEMBER 2013

launch pad for local companies seeking to make an impact in the US and Europe.

The goal for Mashup is to energise the entrepreneurial eco-system in Northern Ireland and “connect and empower entrepreneurs to go out and take on the world”.

It’s a bold mission statement, but exactly the sort of ambition we’ve long been told is lacking on these shores and which has proved a major stumbling block for our best young tech businesses.

Mashup is the brainchild of Aaron Taylor, CEO of casual gaming tournament company GoPrezzo, which offers real world prizes from some of the biggest brands in the US and which already has a presence in New York and San Francisco.

Sitting in a hotel bar after attending Dublin’s

WebSummit, Taylor and some contemporaries from Northern Ireland who were already past the start-up phase of their own entrepreneurial journey found themselves lamenting the lack of a local meet-up that would help those following in their footsteps to meet the right people and build their own networks.

“We wanted to find a way to connect the tech community. There are so many great people out there who aren’t getting noticed,” Taylor told Ulster Business.

“There are people doing some really cool stuff who just need doors opened for them. As entrepreneurs we need to help one another. The people who have maybe achieved a bit more need to shine a light on the others.”

Brash, full of confidence and not afraid to fail, Taylor took it upon himself to pull the

ICT QUARTERLY

event together, rallying a group of like-minded individuals that included Taggled TV’s Ian Scott, Ronan Cunningham of Bambatech, Junior Nelson from GoPrezzo and Geoff McGimpsey from McGimpsey PR. What’s most impressive is that they did it in just over three weeks, bringing in speakers from outside Northern Ireland including Paul McDonnell, Start Up Director at the Dublin Web Summit and John Pryor from San Francisco tech hub Rocketspace.

They also drew inspiration from within their peer group, inviting Chris McClelland from Brewbot, the start-up which has combined smart technology with home-brewing and recently attracted over £100,000 on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.

On the night, four exciting, highly scalable start-ups who are poised to make an impact in their respective markets were given the chance to demo their businesses - CanDo3D, Komodo, Pirate Dashboard and Sian’s Plan - hopefully bringing them to the attention of potential customers, investors or strategic partners.

“For me Mashup is all about helping the tech community to thrive, not just survive.

It’s not about what we can get out of it,” said Taylor.

“We want the event to become a regular

thing, to engage people, to stimulate activity, to integrate more people into the tech ecosystem and give them a chance to meet with other entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts, investors and media.”

ON THE RIGHT TRACK John Pryor from Rocketspace believes Northern Ireland is on the right track when it comes to the tech sector but says more collaboration will help firms coming out to San Francisco to be ready to step into the big leagues.

“You have to think of coming out to Silicon Valley like the Olympics. You might be the fastest sprinter in Ireland but that doesn’t mean you’ll run quick enough to make the Olympic final,” he told Ulster Business.

“There are more high quality start-ups in San Francisco than anywhere else in the world. It is not that they are better it is just that there are more of them.”

Rocketspace was launched in January 2011 as a high-quality technology community that offers flexibility for a rapidly-growing tech startup.

Its physical space – which has just doubled to 70,000 sq ft - is a platform to deliver an entire ecosystem custom-focused on accelerating the growth of its technology companies.

“It’s not as simple as getting a building and that becomes your accelerator. It is a hard thing

to execute well. Rocketspace’s sweet spot is between the seed and series A funding. We take companies out of incubators, who are beyond the ideation stage and help them to scale and find market momentum. That is hard to do,” said Pryor.

The company is about to set up in London and ultimately plans to establish other hubs across the world. Pryor says several local firms are already on his radar, naming GoPrezzo (which is a Rocketspace company), Taggled, DisplayNote and Roll TV as exciting examples.

“We’re seeing really high quality start-ups in Northern Ireland. The representatives you guys have over the Valley are doing a really good job and we have a good relationship with them.

When we open in London we’ll be a lot closer than San Francisco so we are looking forward to building on that,” he said.

“The next stop will be London, which is scheduled for next year. After that we are probably looking at New York, we don’t know exactly, but the goal in the next three years is to have a Rocketspace in every major tech hub in the world,” Pryor added.

“Dublin is on that radar, Belfast is on that radar, Berlin is on that radar. There are a lot of cities that are putting an emphasis on tech, but the relationship Rocketspace has with Invest Northern Ireland and the start-ups we are seeing here is definitely in Northern Ireland’s favour.”

“It’s like Lego for sound…”

S

ebastien Heinz is proof positive that it doesn’t have to take long for a good idea and great technology to gain traction.

The Queen’s University PhD student, originally from Germany, last month saw his programmable mini synth modules, known as Patchblocks, smash his goal of raising £10,000 from crowdfunding website Kickstarter – ultimately raising more than £61,000.

His programmable synthesisers combine software with hardware and are designed for musicmakers of all genres.

“It’s like lego technics for sound, if that makes sense,” he says. “It’s for geeky music people, it allows you to create your own elements of a synthesizer. The software allows you to do low level stuff with the fundamentals of electronic synthesisers and then combine that with a module you can use in a more physical way to create bigger sound effects.”

Sensing I’m not getting it, he adds hopefully: “You create in the software a programme you can upload to the hardware and it runs independently of the computer because there is a little computer inside the hardware.”

With a background in programming Sebastien came to Belfast when his Masters in London led him to the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s. He’s putting the PhD on hold for 2014 to see if he can make a business of Patchblocks, investing the Kickstarter money in making the software more accessible and building an injection moulded casing as well as in more powerful processors and memory in the hardware device.

“The turning point will be end of next year. If I manage to bring out version two and if it is a successful product, it will probably be a pretty successful business too,” he says.

“At the end of next year I want to introduce it to a wider audience by making the software more accessible to teenagers and people who are not necessarily into the geeky stuff but are interested in making electronic music. There is also a cool factor that goes with electronic music production, which is aesthetic and stylish and we’re trying to bring that too, but for an affordable price.”

DECEMBER 2013 29

ICT QUARTERLY

Knowledge economy index shows NI powering ahead N

ISP CONNECT’s Knowledge Economy Index has shown that the Knowledge Economy in Northern Ireland is growing faster than in the rest of the UK, albeit coming from a lower base.

The index, which benchmarks the health of companies in nine key areas including software, aerospace and transport, pharma and biotech and creative content against the rest of the UK, showed growth of 20% between 2009 and 2012.

The key growth areas are employment, business start-ups and number of Venture Capital investments. The report showed Northern Ireland had seen 295 new innovative business start-ups in the most recent year and jobs in the knowledge economy sectors had risen 6.2%.

Programme Director Steve Orr said the “results represent excellent news for the both the Knowledge Economy and wider business base”.

“Typically, jobs in the Knowledge Economy pay 25% more than the average wage, and the more growth we see in this sector the greater the ripple effect across NI. The investments being made by DETI and delivered by Invest NI and other economic support organisations, including NISP CONNECT are evidently working”.

“We all know that the success of entrepreneurs and innovators will ultimately change the economy but government policies are essential in creating the conditions in which entrepreneurs and innovators can flourish.

“The challenge is to ensure that both government and the private sector make the most of the support available, stretch our growth targets and provide the joined up approach we need in terms of education, training, research and development, business planning, international sales, and marketing and supply chain development.”

30 DECEMBER 2013

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The secret of delivering support at this level is a simple one: the right team. A team that brings together reliability, insight, technical knowhow and crucially empathy for our customers. That’s our team.

Find out how the Nitec Team can support your business’ IT solution.

Call us on 028 9442 7000 Or email solutions@nitec.com

nitec.com

ICT QUARTERLY

Get a load of this Lord Mayor Mairtin O Muilleoir pictured with James Hunter, JAR Technologies

Belfast based JAR Technologies has launched a new cloud based load testing tool and is allowing businesses to use it for free until the end of January.

R

esearch has shown that people will wait on average seven seconds for a website to load before getting bored and going elsewhere.

As digital trade continues to grow, slow, dysfunctional websites are simply unacceptable for a consumer who enjoys a crowded marketplace. Website functionality is the customer service of the digital store; as such businesses must be prepared for increased traffic peaks to ensure maximum revenue generation.

That’s where Belfast company JAR Technologies comes in. It has launched a new testing solution called JAR:Load, which uncovers problems that could cause failures in web applications.

JAR:Load throws thousands of virtual users at an organisation’s online web services until they reach a breaking point, with the aim of uncovering weaknesses and bottlenecks in the web infrastructure.

32 DECEMBER 2013

James Hunter, CEO of JAR Technologies, explains: “Organisations place so much importance on making their websites accessible for e-commerce, but there isn’t the same awareness or importance placed on performance related testing and this is a vital component for ensuring success and growth.”

To help Belfast companies involved in web-based products or sales understand how customers interact with their websites, JAR is offering them the chance to use their new tool free until the end of January for up to 100 virtual users.

JAR:Load allows businesses to cut the risk of losing customers because of slow response times and site crashes. It ensures that their software and infrastructure can cope under the stress of hundreds or thousands of customers.

The load testing market is predicted to become one of the fastest growing sectors of IT, and is attracting investment. US cloud testing

firm SOASTA, for example recently raising a funding round of $30m.

With most of its competitors focused on the US market James sees big opportunities for the company in Europe and Asia, particularly markets such as India, where it partnered with IT giant Wipro on the beta testing of JAR:Load.

JAR has already closed two investment rounds and with the launch of JAR:Load, its CEO expects to double the size of the business in 2014.

“We have very ambitious targets. Our strategy is to have £15m revenue in year five – 2019 - and that’s what we are focused on achieving. I think it is a realistic target for a company in this field. The load testing market will be worth an estimated $2.2bn in 2016 according to Garner. If we could even get 1% of that we would be huge.”

JAR Technologies has been in the market for some time and has enjoyed success with its JAR:Emulate range of WAN Emulators network products for application performance testing. While that product currently brings in revenues from customers in countries as diverse as Japan, Russia and India, James expects the cloud product to be the driving force behind the company’s growth.

“Other people in the market are using legacy systems that are harder to configure and offer a poor user experience. We are the only company doing what we do. We have zero installation cost, it is all automatic and can be accessed anywhere in the world, from any web enabled device. That is one of the major things that sets our performance testing tool apart,” he adds.

James spent 10 years with audio software specialists APT before founding JAR Technologies. He sees JAR:Load mirroring the export success of the JAR:Emulate product, with over 95% of sales outside the UK and Ireland. In addition James plans to reinvest revenues back into R&D and sales.

“The tool has lots of potential customers,” he explains. “People who are developing their own websites and want to know at what point it will fall over in terms of high usage; people releasing new web based products who maybe want to know how many people can shop at one time; and companies who test on behalf of other companies who may want to replace old tools, which allows us to position ourselves as a middleware provider. The market is potentially massive.”

ScalabilITy Our IT services can be tailored to businesses large and small.

Our support and field services provide peace of mind that your IT has the support it needs to keep operating efficiently. Enjoy greater flexibility with 24/7 support, tailored service windows that meet your individual needs and a pool of skilled engineers.

“What we value most about Capita Managed IT Solutions is the continuity and commitment from them. The local delivery team on the ground today is the same team that deployed an implementation for us almost 5 years ago.

We have built up an excellent working relationship and have peace of mind that if issues should occur, the right services and people are in place to ensure they are resolved quickly and we continue to operate efficiently.”

Michael Rooney IT Manager, Murdock Builders Merchant

Why us?

T rusted ICT advisor that values partnership and maintains highest levels of customer service Expertise across a wide range of technologies Commitment to growth and investment locally Supporting over 250 Northern Ireland businesses out of our Belfast based ITIL Service Desk Large engineering team across Northern Ireland, integrated into our local delivery centre with over 500 employees and growing Benefit from the scale, breadth of experience and support of a FTSE 100 company

Call us today to find out how we can help make a difference to your business.

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Web: capita-mits.co.uk

making IT work

ICT QUARTERLY

Eyekiller take it to the bridge N

orthern Ireland web design company Eyekiller have been lauded for their work at the recent 2013 Web Awards in Dublin.

Bangor-based Eyekiller’s work on Bridges of Dublin, an online resource that showcases the catalogue of bridges that make up Dublin’s cityscape, was awarded Best Government and Local Government Website at the Web Awards 2013 in the Four Season’s Hotel.

The website brings the history of Dublin’s 23 bridges to life online in one interactive digital archive which was seen as the ideal resource for those wishing to learn more about the history, design influence and roles played by the bridges in Dublin past and present. Built using responsive design techniques, the website functions across mobile and tablet devices..

Jamie Robinson, Creative Director at Eyekiller, said: “Receiving industry recognition is a fantastic boost for any business. The Web Awards are well established in Ireland and the competition is always very strong, to come home with a win in Best Government Website is something the team at Eyekiller are extremely proud of.”

Dublin City Council said Eyekiller had produced “a superb website within a tight budget” and praised the company’s “cutting edge knowledge of responsive design”.

Sentel ‘on call’ with UK Government

A

local communications firm from Carryduff is the only indigenous communications company to have been awarded a place on the G-Cloud Framework by the UK Government Procurement Service.

Sentel, a provider of call monitoring and telecoms expense management services in the UK, has been added as a provider of specialist cloud services for UK government departments for its cost-control software. The G-cloud framework gives public sector organisations a simple, transparent and legally compliant framework through which they can buy cloud services, as a cheaper and less time-consuming alternative to traditionally sourced IT. Being listed on the Government’s G-cloud framework gives Sentel a fast-track way to sell its services to central government bodies. It already provides communications support for a number of major clients including Dell, the Ministry of Justice and NHS Blood and Transplant.

Ger Connery, Managing Director of Sentel, said: “This is an excellent platform for us and fits with our strategy of developing further business in the public sector IT and communications market. “Through our unique software platforms, we can offer big savings for clients – something that’s particularly important in public sector bodies, where communications budgets are under pressure. We’ve consistently grown our business through a determined focus on export and this demonstrates that local SMEs are capable of pitching for, and winning, business at the highest level.

Chairman of Sentel, Noel Brady added “Ger and his team have put a major effort into this accreditation. We look forward to engaging and working with a wide-range of public sector bodies on some exciting contracts across these islands.” Pictured are Sentel’s Ger Connery, Bev Loyal and Noel Brady.

34 DECEMBER 2013

High demand, low supply: How do we address the IT skills shortage?

D

espite persistently high unemployment, the IT sector cites skills shortages as one of its biggest challenges. The good news is that recent ICT employment initiatives such as those in place at Belfast Met are beginning to close the gap between businesses struggling to fill vacancies and job seekers struggling to find work.

Assistant CEO and Director of Curriculum Justin Edwards explains: “Belfast Met works closely with employers right across all priority growth sectors and understands the difficulty in finding skilled workers and the implications this has on the ability to drive their business forward.

“We’ve seen some excellent initiatives from DEL on the back of its ICT Action Plan and these are showing real potential; not least because they are built on collaboration between industry and education. This collaboration helps businesses recruit for critical but hardto-fill IT posts, gives individuals access to industry recognised qualifications and the opportunity of a job at the end of it, and supports a key growth sector where demand still seriously outstrips supply.”

With initiatives such as the ICT Apprenticeship Programme, the Deloitte Data Analytics Academy and the Software Testers’ Academy now well underway, the latest programme to go live at Belfast Met is the new Cloud Academy. Designed and delivered by Belfast Met with support from DEL and Invest NI under the Assured Skills programme, the Academy will see 14 graduates from a variety of disciplines undertaking an intensive 21-week training programme, including a six-week work placement which can lead directly to an offer of employment.

Hannah Webb, Deloitte Analytics Training Academy (DATA) I graduated with an English degree from Queen’s University and so never thought I’d be working in data analytics.

I began the intensive nine week training programme in September and found it extremely hard work, but also equally rewarding and a lot of fun along the way. All the tutors were passionate and enthusiastic, with real-life business experience, and this brought the different theories and technologies to life.

My sixteen classmates represented every degree under the sun – History, Maths, Biosciences, Psychology etc.

We’ve all increased our employability by participating in the academy and receiving professional qualifications in Prince2 Project Management and IBM’s Cognos BI. This has opened many doors for all of us.

Justin Edwards said: “The Academy and Apprenticeship models are exciting approaches to supporting a vibrant and critical sector and fit well with Belfast Met’s holistic approach to fostering technology talent, both now and for the future.”

This holistic approach includes Saturday morning CoderDojo and LEGO MINDSTORMS sessions for younger children as well as the Kainos Code Camp, which ran over the summer and saw 80 young people aged 17 to 19 working closely with mentors in creating real apps in a real-world software development environment.

“Education isn’t something that should

Aimee Jenkins, Public/Private ICT Apprenticeship I started the ICT Apprenticeship programme in September 2013 and my time is split between one day a week in Belfast Met and four days working as a Support Developer in TotalMobile.

I was offered a place at university but decided to turn it down when I got this opportunity.

My contract lasts until June 2014, and by then I will have completed a Level 3 qualification with the option to continue to Level 4. I never thought I’d be working as an apprentice but I love the fact that I’m learning, earning and gaining a qualification all at the same time. There seems to be a big demand for ICT professionals and I am glad I made the decision to commit to a career in a sector with so many job opportunities.

happen between the ages of 4 and 24 and then just suddenly stop,” said Justin Edwards. “Workers must continue learning if they want to remain relevant, while companies must be supported to address current skills shortages and encouraged to plan for what’s going be needed further down the line.

“The IT industry, in particular, is changing fast. One of the further education sector’s main strengths is its ability to react quickly to shifting industry requirements and to train, re-skill and up-skill individuals for a competitive and dynamic work environment.”

Recent independent research conducted on behalf of Belfast Met confirms this view. When asked for their opinion on the College’s key strengths, a large majority of businesses rated Belfast Met highly in terms of its “speed and flexibility in response to industry.”

For information on Belfast Met courses please visit www.belfastmet.ac.uk or call (028) 9026 5265

ICT QUARTERLY

What are your digital recruitment options?

by John Moore, Director of Hays Northern Ireland

L

ong gone are the days when hiring companies solely placed a recruitment ad in the local press and waited for CVs to come flooding in.

Recruitment has joined many other industries in the online world. How many candidates actually fill in application forms or post CVs these days? First we had email, then job boards, then LinkedIn - all impact on our industry.

The explosion in digital communication has transformed the global business environment.

Recruitment, like most other industries, has had to respond to this. Whether it’s IT professionals, engineers or geophysicists, at Hays we are regularly sourcing candidates from one side of the world and placing them in another.

In Northern Ireland we can be thankful for the global portal. Yes, the pace of technology has made the world a closer place for communication, but these global platforms have also proved to be very useful on a local level. HTML has allowed small and large local enterprises to build very successful e-commerce and online businesses, but now companies are

36 DECEMBER 2013

increasingly looking to digital technologies for brand building.

One such company is Dow. This Fortune 50 company employs 54,000 people in 188 sites worldwide - including their Supply Chain Technology and Expertise Centre in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. When Dow wanted to raise the profile of their global brand in Northern Ireland and also hire 13 professional staff in the supply chain area, the company approached Hays to create a wide-ranging recruitment campaign.

With a search-engine optimised microsite at the core of the strategy, Hays built a campaign using press, online banners, job boards, social media and email marketing to source the scarce candidates for these jobs. All elements of the campaign drove candidates to the website where they could find out more about: i) Dow as a company; ii) Dow in Belfast; iii) working for Dow; and iv) the opportunities available.

The campaign was a huge success, with great staff found for all the jobs and also a noticeable increase in the awareness of Dow in NI. Hays offers a digital solution service for

companies, large or small, looking to raise their profile, find one scarce skillset or hire a large volume of employees. For further information and access to the latest job opportunities visit www.hays.co,uk/northernireland or contact Hays directly on 028 9044 6900.

in Fast 50 for 14th year in a row ovosco has made it into the Deloitte Fast 50 for a remarkable 14th year in a row.

The Belfast-headquartered IT infrastructure business has appeared annually in the prestigious listing of the highest-growth tech businesses on the island of Ireland since the programme was first initiated in the year 2000.

Novosco is one of only two companies to have appeared in the Deloitte Fast 50 every year; the other being Texthelp Systems, based in Antrim.

Novosco was ranked 31st this year, and collected its latest accolade at a gala event in Titanic Belfast.

Novosco managing director, Patrick McAliskey, says: “As businesses become larger and more mature, growth tends to moderate and it becomes harder to compete on growth levels with start-ups and smaller companies. So we’re really pleased to have been able to sustain healthy growth for 14 years, and to retain a strong position in the Fast 50. It is a credit to our team across our sites.”

We moved to new offices in Dublin and opened new offices in Birmingham last year to complement our Belfast headquarters and this has enabled us to significantly grow our business in the rest of the UK and Ireland. We recently won a series of significant contracts, including our largest single order worth more than £3m, and are continuing to develop and expand our service offering to help us retain robust growth into the future,” he adds.

Novosco, which marks 20 years in business next year, was the

N

Brian Dolaghan, Invest NI, event sponsor and John Lennon from Novosco

highest placed Northern Ireland firm in the latest Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For listing (March 2013).

Founded in 2007 with the merger of two local IT firms, Novosco now employs 88 people, with offices in Dublin and Birmingham, in addition to its Belfast base.

It provides cloud computing and IT infrastructure services, including infrastructure optimisation, disaster recovery, managed services and connectivity services, to a wide range of organisations in the public and private sectors. Novosco is a leading partner of Cisco, EMC and VMware in the UK and Ireland.

Further information is available at www.novosco.com

DELOITTE TECHNOLOGY FAST 50 AWARDS

David Crawford, Partner, Deloitte with Colin Williams, Managing Director, Sixteen South, the top ranking NI company in the Fast 50 Awards scooping 2nd place.

2214% and growing Fast!

Northern Ireland companies feel at home in Deloitte Technology Fast 50 214 – not the date when we are expected to be living on Mars but the percentage growth of Northern Ireland’s fastest growing tech company, Sixteen South.

The Belfast-based children’s TV production company was ranked the fastest in Northern Ireland and the second-fastest in all of Ireland, at the Deloitte Fast 50 Awards held recently in Titanic Belfast.

Sixteen South registered a recorded growth rate of 2214% over a five-year period and was beaten to overall top spot by Dublin firm, Ezetop, with an astonishing rate of 3630%!!

Ezetop is a business that allows people living abroad to instantly top up mobile

2

phones of their friends and family at home.

Now in its 14th year, the Deloitte Fast 50 programme aims to recognise the 50 fastest growing companies across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Ulster Business is proud to be the media partner for the awards in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland companies have performed extremely strongly this year, taking 18 spots in total, an increase of three on last year.

David Crawford, partner in Deloitte’s Belfast office, said: “Each of the Fast 50 companies are to be commended for their tenacity, confidence and dedication to innovation.

“The average growth rate of these firms

was 361%, particularly impressive when you consider the challenging economic backdrop.

“Over the course of the programme, we’ve seen many Fast 50 businesses being acquired by larger multinationals. However, we’re now seeing an emerging trend of companies both North and South of the border who are seeking to acquire abroad, either to enhance their intellectual property or grow their sales channel.

“I believe it’s indicative of the huge potential indigenous technology firms have to harness a truly global audience.”

The firms from Northern Ireland who made the top 50 are: Acksen, Aetopia, Catalyst2, Core Systems, Etain, Export Technologies, >>>

Paul Lee, Deloitte’s director of research.

Richard Howard, David Crawford and Paul Lee.

David Crawford addresses the audience.

DECEMBER 2013 39

DELOITTE TECHNOLOGY FAST 50 AWARDS

Farmwizard, First Derivatives plc, Instil Software, Leaf Consultancy, Learning Pool, Novosco, PathXL, Rehabstudio, Seopa, Sixteen South, 8over8 and Texthelp Systems.

Two companies received Rising Star awards, a category that recognises younger companies with the fastest growth in turnover over the past three years.

The Northern Ireland winner was Belfast based Ka-Boom Post Production, a company that provides a full post production service for TV and film. The Republic of Ireland winner was Lucey Technology, which offers cloud technology to SMEs. Six counties across the island of Ireland were represented on this year’s listing.

Dublin led the way with 27 companies and Antrim had a strong representation on the ranking with 15 companies. Other counties represented included Cork, Derry, Down and Limerick.

The awards took place in Titanic

Belfast and featured, Paul Lee, Head of Global Research for Technology, Media and Telecommunications at Deloitte as the keynote speaker.

Paul took a glimpse into the future and gave his thoughts about what we might expect from technology in the years to come, leaving the audience in no doubt that the progress of technological change shows no signs of slowing.

David Crawford added; “The pace of change in the tech sector could sometimes be described as frightening but everyone on the Fast 50 list is embracing it rather than running away from the challenge.

“The 18 Northern Ireland companies represented will be worth watching as our indigenous tech industry continues to grow.

This industry has a growing international reputation for excellence, innovation and, put bluntly, the ability to get the job done!

“We have some amazing creative minds in

Northern Ireland and they are putting this place on the map. At first glance Sixteen South don’t look like a company that should sit on top of a list of technological firms.

“But they use technology in the most innovative and imaginative ways through animation, puppetry and live action, creating children’s programmes that are delivered to broadcasters digitally and viewed all over the world. It’s an astonishing success story.

“In one way they couldn’t be more different, yet they are developing the content that gives expression to recent technological developments. It’s a fascinating world and it’s changing all the time.

“What the Fast 50 demonstrates is that Northern Ireland is extending the frontiers of this wonderful industry.”

Details of the final Technology Fast 50 ranking list are available to download at www.fast50.ie.

Zach Willis, Will McConnell, Ka-boom with Symon Ross, Ulster Business.

Etain: Martin Goss and Peter Shields.

Sixteen South: Colin Williams with the team.

Learning Pool: Mark Lynch, Maeve McLoughlin, Serena McCrossan and David Crawford.

Aetopia: Richie Howard, Deloitte, Aidan McGrath and Mark Gowdy.

Seopa: Ian Wilson and Greg Wilson with David Crawford.

Louise Campbell and Aisling Murphy, First Derivatives with David Crawford.

Rehabstudio: Peter McConnell with David Crawford amd Jurgen Prause.

David Crawford with Clare Colhoun, 8Over8.

40 DECEMBER 2013

Colleges can provide critical R&D capacity for our economy Dr Alan Blair, MATRIX member and STEM & Economic Advisor to Colleges NI, discusses the pivotal role colleges play in driving economic development in Northern Ireland

A

s STEM & Economic Adviser to Northern Ireland’s colleges, I have witnessed major changes occur within Further Education (FE) since the incorporation of colleges in August 2007.

The publication in 2004 of the Department for Employment and Learning’s (DEL) landmark strategy, Further Education Means Business, and in 2007 the establishment of six new regional colleges created the conditions which have allowed the FE sector to evolve into a key agent of economic growth in Northern Ireland.

The role of colleges may be summarised under three main objectives; promoting lifelong learning; enhancing social cohesion; and strengthening economic development; and it is this latter area which I want to focus on.

The NI Executive identified the economy as the top priority in the Programme for Government and this priority has been further developed within both the NI Economic Strategy, published in March 2012, and more recently the Innovation Strategy which is currently out for consultation.

There are critical pointers within the Innovation Strategy which we must address if we are to grow our economy; we rank 11th out of the 12 UK regions in innovation; our innovation competitiveness sits below the median of other

DEL Minister Stephen Farry inspects some of the new innovations at the BEST awards.

42 DECEMBER 2013

European regions; and our Gross Value Added per capita is below most other UK regions.

Our business demographics within Northern Ireland add particularly to this challenge with a higher than average proportion of small and micro-businesses geographically dispersed across the province. We have over 70,000 businesses here, 73% of whom are considered to be ‘innovation inactive’ with only 430 reporting R&D expenditure. The support challenge then becomes one of capacity and outreach if we are to help grow this indigenous business base and this plays to the strengths of our colleges.

With campuses spread across the province, their own business support units, well qualified technical staff and a strong collaboration across the FE sector, colleges are increasingly recognised as solution providers for business.

Through our flagship Employer Support Programme funded by DEL, colleges have aligned their business support with the out workings of MATRIX and the NI Adviser on Employment and Skills as they target those priority sectors identified as critical to our future prosperity. Providing both skills support and innovative solutions for business products and processes, colleges are bringing their considerable resources to bear in meeting the challenge of building an innovative economy.

This capability is further underpinned by the

considerable investment in facilities and estate over the past ten years which has provided the platform for colleges to assume this strong economic role.

In previous articles, my MATRIX colleagues have also highlighted the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills in helping to grow our economy.

As the NI Science Industry Panel, MATRIX is naturally concerned with ensuring the uptake of STEM subjects by our young people and this focus is similarly shared by colleges. STEM within the sector is richly diverse and in 2011 Colleges NI established the BEST Awards to annually celebrate the quality and diversity of STEM across our student population. The competition has grown year on year and in 2013, some 140 students from across all six colleges presented 90 STEM based projects to a select panel of 50 judges drawn from the private, public and academic sectors. The quality of the projects impressed all involved with entries as diverse as a new seaweed based cream to treat eczema; prototypes for new luxury goods; new photographic aids; microcontroller lighting systems for aquariums; superb new textiles and designs; and new web based purchasing concepts. This year, I was particularly inspired by the number of students who were in the process of developing business plans for their products, an outcome which we must increasingly encourage.

A measure of the development of colleges may also be seen in the growth of international outreach and while the education of students continues to be at our core, colleges are increasingly recognising the benefits of international partnerships. With an eye towards Europe and the new funding from 2014 to 2020, plans for increased participation in these programmes are being examined.

Importantly, colleges are also pursuing development opportunities on a global basis and our current engagement with countries across Asia reflects a more outward looking sector.

Colleges have come a long way in the past 10 years but they still recognise the need to continually evolve, to build partnerships and to ensure they adhere to their core objectives of promoting learning, social cohesion and economic growth for the benefit of the people of Northern Ireland.

ICT QUARTERLY

Glowing future ahead for Vita Liberata

T

he Vita Liberata Ltd story is one of impressive growth. The company opened for business in 2003, launching a line of ‘simple but clever’ luxury tanning products in 2007 and has since gone from strength to strength.

It is now an internationally recognised brand, with Vita Liberata products being sold in 22 countries worldwide. Vita Liberata sells impressively across 350 Sephora stores in North America and over 500 Sephora stores in Europe. In the UK, their products are available in Boots, Debenhams, House of Fraser and salons nationwide.

Chief Operating Officer Johnny Choda says: “We’ve seen turnover virtually double year on year, and while it’s rewarding to experience growth on this scale, it still needs careful managing.”

When Johnny joined the company two years ago, he made it a priority to move from the Sage 50 accounting package then in place to a more powerful solution. “We needed a robust, resilient business solution that could support our growth ambitions, while helping us to improve in specific areas such as management reporting, stock control and batch tracking,” he says.

After a careful review of the market, Vita Liberata chose local Sage experts Pinnacle to implement a Sage 200 solution, including customer relationship management (CRM).

“Pinnacle quickly ‘got’ our objectives and issues and demonstrated how Sage 200 could support our business,” recalls Johnny.

It’s nearly a year since the Sage 200 solution went live. Johnny comments: “We’ve achieved our goal of improving control with access to timely, accurate management information. To give just a few examples, every Monday morning we can extract weekly sales analysis data; regional

sales data is coming through better; and we have a clearer visibility of stock by location. Furthermore, for a business like ours, selling a beauty product worldwide, the full batch traceability on Sage 200 is essential. We are also working towards integrating our online operations into Sage 200.”

Johnny added: “With Pinnacle’s help, Vita Liberata now has a business management solution with the integrity and stability to support our growth into the foreseeable future.”

Siobhan Marley, Business Development Director Pinnacle with Johnny Choda, Chief Operating Officer Vita Liberata Ltd.

DECEMBER 2013 43

PROFILE

Building a tangible business Gary McCausland, CEO of the Richland Group, explains what his job entails in the latest of our “Ulster Business School – Leaders In Business” alumni profile series.

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT ROLE AND WHY DOES IT APPEAL TO YOU? I am CEO of the Richland Group, a property development and investment company based in London.

The role appeals to me as I am more or less my own boss and that allows me to use my time as I wish. To me that is the biggest benefit of owning and running your own company.

Having said that, I still work more than 50 hours a week!

HOW DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR CAREER AND WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PATH? I always wanted to be involved in property,

Gary McCausland, CEO, Richland Group; Graduate Diploma in Accounting, Ulster Business School.

initially as an architect. That path changed as I realised I liked the ‘cut and thrust’ of the property world.

I completed a four year degree in Estate Management and a one year Graduate Diploma in Accounting at the University of Ulster. Then I worked in the corporate world for ten years, as property manager/director for Cable and Wireless and then at MCI WorldCom. Following that, with big dreams, I started my own business refurbishing one-bedroom apartments in London. Thankfully some of them have come true!

WHAT ARE THE TOUGHEST PROBLEMS THAT YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH? Financing! Over the last five years finding a bank that will fund a property project has been almost impossible. In a way this has been a blessing in disguise as it made me change my business plan and strategy, focusing on attracting equity investment and finding wealthy clients to work for. It hasn’t been easy, although recently things seem to be getting a little easier.

WHAT IS THE MOST REWARDING PART OF YOUR JOB? In this all too virtual world property stands out as being a truly tangible asset. What satisfies me most is taking a disused or derelict site in a rundown location and developing a landmark building that adds incredible value in terms of

44 DECEMBER 2013

new jobs, improving the area and providing quality accommodation to live and work in.

WHAT TRAINING, EDUCATION, AND QUALIFICATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR YOUR TYPE OF WORK? My education at University of Ulster gave me a strong foundation to help me steer the company in the right direction and make the right decisions at the right time. I also find being a Chartered Surveyor and part qualified CIMA are useful in my career.

Professional qualifications, discipline and relevant experience are essential for success. I would strongly encourage anyone to focus on these early in your career as they will hold you in good stead for the long term.

DO YOU HAVE ANY CURRENT LINKS WITH ULSTER BUSINESS SCHOOL? I sit on the University of Ulster Foundation Board, and through this I hope to use my experience to shape the future of the University including the Ulster Business School.

I believe the University’s new Belfast Campus at York Street will be a huge step forward in providing strength and confidence to the business community and in the long term the continued regeneration of Belfast. It has influenced me to purchase a development site in central Belfast, my first significant investment in the city.

Exports

Sponsored by

The gateway to Northern Ireland for 400 years EXPORTS

Black gold buoys Harland & Wolff One of the most famous brands in Northern Ireland is carving a new niche for itself in the oil and gas industry which will see its once thriving shipyards packed with workers again.

46 DECEMBER 2013

The gateway to Northern Ireland for 400 years EXPORTS

This was the only one that was on time, it came in under budget and we had no injuries.”

The job has opened doors beyond Husky, who introduced H&W to other key contacts in Canada, and the market is now looking at H&W as a serious player. That includes Dolphin, whose fleet H&W had previously refitted in the 1990s but who had gone elsewhere in intervening years. McVeigh is confident the Blackford Dolphin job will yield more work from them and others.

“If we succeed with the rig coming in there are three or four even bigger jobs next year which we are up for grabs,” he said.

B

elfast will have a Christmas tree with a difference lighting up its skyline this year as the Blackford Dolphin oil rig is refurbished by Harland & Wolff Heavy Industries.

The gigantic offshore exploration and drilling platform is undergoing a two month refit after international oil group Dolphin Drilling appointed the iconic Northern Ireland engineering firm to undertake what could be a pivotal contract.

The deal – worth “tens of millions of pounds” – is the latest in a series of projects Harland & Wolff has undertaken in the lucrative oil and gas sector and if completed successfully, management believe it could open the door to more high profile contracts.

Aberdeen-based Dolphin Drilling awarded Harland and Wolff the contract for the dry docking of the Blackford Dolphin – nicknamed

The Beast – earlier this year.

The Aker H-3 propulsion assisted semisubmersible rig underwent a major deep-water upgrade in 2006 to 2008, at which time, H&W designed and built its 130 man accommodation blocks, power generation modules, mud room and additional buoyancy units.

H&W won the latest project over other well established international players after proving its mettle with some other high profile refits.

Those included the dry docking and service of the 272-metre long, 46 metre wide SeaRose Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel for Canadian company Husky Oil, which needed the ship back in operation at the White Rose oil field off the Newfoundland coast within a tight time frame.

Head of Sales & Marketing David McVeigh (pictured) said its work on the Sea Rose “made a big noise” and gave the company major credibility in the market.

The ship is, he says, the “crown jewel” of Husky energy’s fleet and the job had to be in completed on time. In fact it came in a few days early and as a result H&W is now talking to Husky about other projects which may previously have gone to bigger companies.

“Delivering that project in the way we did was the game changer for us in this market, not just because of what we were able to do but because of what everyone else wasn’t able to do,” said McVeigh.

“Most projects like this in Europe in the last five years have been late and ended up in court.

WEIGHT OF HISTORY Few companies are so closely tied to a region’s history as Harland & Wolff.

Many people will have parents and grandparents who worked there and as the firm which built Titanic, the most famous ship of them all, it remains a big part of the tourism story being told a stone’s throw away in what is now known as Titanic Quarter.

Such was the scale of its economic contribution and the sadness that accompanied its decline in the 70s, 80s and 90s that the company’s every move is – somewhat unfairly – viewed through a historical lens.

In its heyday Harland & Wolff employed thousands in its shipyards. The numbers fell as low as 93 as shipbuilding in the UK and Ireland declined, before things began to turn around after the company embarked on a major diversification strategy eight years ago.

Now a subsidiary of Norway-based Fred Olsen Energy ASA, the current management are working hard to make a force for the 21st century as a multi-disciplinary advanced engineering firm.

The company refocused on four main areas of activity: ship-building, repair and conversion; design engineering; renewable energy generating technology; and steel fabrication and installation.

Today H&W’s core workforce is just shy of 200, with other workers on short term contracts meaning around 600 are currently on site.

McVeigh says H&W is “growing cautiously” and adding about 20 new staff every half a year.

McVeigh doesn’t refer to the last ship to be newly built at H&W, he refers to the “most recent” – a roll-on roll-off ferry called Anvil Point, which launched in 2003. But he says the economics of shipbuilding don’t stack up in Belfast any more, and the management are unlikely to gamble the company’s future on “vanity projects”.

That’s not to say the firm’s traditional ship building skills are not in demand in the >>>

DECEMBER 2013 47

The gateway to Northern Ireland for 400 years EXPORTS

repair and conversion sector. Its second dock is busy all year round with up to 70 vessels coming in for work, including the entire Irish Ferries fleet and vessels from Stena Line and P&O. H&W has also put those skills to use in the renewable energy sector, which has yielded a series of big contracts over the last six years.

Large projects it has completed include the manufacture of revolutionary new steel foundations for two offshore meteorological masts to be installed on the Dogger bank offshore wind farm site in the North Sea; completion of 30 offshore win turbines installed off the Cumbrian coast in the Irish Seal; and a 60-turbine wind farm now installed off the west coast of Scotland.

While it is still getting interesting renewables contracts – including offshore substations and floating platforms for offshore wind turbines – McVeigh says the renewables market has cooled and with those projects having a long lead time, it will take a while to heat up again.

That makes H&W’s shift of focus to oil and gas all the more important. A steady flow of commissions to build large-scale accommodation, transformer and power generation modules for the offshore oil industry has complemented other design engineering projects. Current contracts include making innovative foundations and piling jackets for major oil platforms.

H&W’s most recent financial results showed turnover of £42m and profit of £3.6m. The profit line could, says McVeigh, be higher but H&W is putting a lot of investment back into

48 DECEMBER 2013

the company to ensure it has the capabilities to provide a quality product – with around £10m of capital spend last year including new paint halls with renewable roofs for the oil rig work.

McVeigh describes the 60 day job on Blackford Dolphin as a “light job” compared to the full refit in 2006, but the class of client and size of the platform make it significant.

EMPLOYMENT BOOST The 360ft high Blackford Dolphin platform is too big to fit beneath H&W’s iconic gantry cranes Samson and Goliath, meaning Samson (the seaward crane) will be moved on its tracks to the city end of the building dock for the duration of the refurbishment contract.

While taxi drivers might tell tourists they aren’t used any more, Samson and Goliath – now their official names on insurance documents – are in fact fully functional and in regular use.

If they were not paying for themselves they would quickly become unaffordable to keep, with McVeigh noting similar gantry cranes in a shipyard in Malmo were sold for one kroner to avoid the cost of maintenance.

The cranes are not on mains power and move on two diesel engines with the equivalent horsepower of two Bugati Veyrons (though a little more slowly). It is 120 metres to the top of Samson (over 450 steps), which is slightly taller than Goliath, and should they ever go out of use the panoramic views of Belfast would make them an amazing tourism attraction.

For now, the Dolphin Drilling rig is being worked on in H&W’s main building dock,

which at 556 metres by 93 metres and 12 metres deep is one of the largest in the world.

With the rig going straight to a North Sea drilling contract, H&W has brought in 600 temporary workers to complete the renewal, upgrade and maintenance work on time.

About 200 will be hired from the local labour pool, while a further 200 will be drawn from Scotland and the north east of England, and the rest from European countries such as Poland, Portugal and Lithuania because there are no longer enough skilled steelworkers and welders left in Northern Ireland to fill the full complement following the decline of the ship building industry.

“These are wages that can support families.

These are highly skilled people, highly trained people who will be contract in for a minimum of 60 hours a week. We have to give the guys the hours to get them to come,” said McVeigh.

He notes that the skills pool for traditional skilled manufacturing roles such as steelworkers, welders and electricians “isn’t what it used to be” but says the quality of welding done by H&W’s staff is “as good as anywhere in the world” because its rig foundations, platforms and ships are all built to go in or under the water.

If all goes according to plan, we’ll have to get used to many more of these colossal structures making their way up Belfast Lough.

The contracts it is likely to tender for next year could be much bigger than the Blackford Dolphin refit as many rigs have not been refitted for 10 to 15 years. That, H&W hopes, will bring far more jobs to Northern Ireland.

The gateway to Northern Ireland for 400 years EXPORTS

Irwin’s partnership continues to flour Having helped make Irish breads everyday products in British supermarkets, Irwin’s Bakery and Paul Rankin are aiming to capture more of the market in both GB and Ireland.

I

n this age of celebrity, famous people will put their name to almost any product.

But it is rare that celebrity endorsed products are any more than a short-term cash in designed to capitalise on the person’s fame, with quality often not high on the priority list.

One partnership that does not fit into that quick win bracket is that of local company Irwin’s Bakery and television chef Paul Rankin.

The two first worked together over a decade ago to introduce their range of Northern Irish breads into the British marketplace, first tapping into the market for Irish expats before converting local consumers.

Since its introduction in 2002 the range – which includes Soda Farls, Wheaten bread, Potato Farls and more – is estimated to be worth over £16m at retail per year to the Portadown based bakery.

Great Britain is Irwin’s largest export market

50 DECEMBER 2013

and Rankin Selection products make up 80% of sales in the region. Sales in GB have grown by almost 30% since 2008 and have also more than doubled in the Republic of Ireland.

To ensure that success continues, the bakery recently invested £250,000 to refresh the Rankin Selection brand, completely redesigning its packaging, and is now targeting further sales in its key export markets of GB and Ireland.

Michael Murphy, commercial director of Irwin’s Bakery, says 15 years ago only 1% of its trade was in GB. Now almost a third of its trade is in the GB market, with the size of the business having doubled in that period.

The breads are stocked in major retailers Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Morrison’s and Murphy believes the market for premium products is strong.

“The rebrand was about how we take the range on to the next platform of growth,” he says.

“There’s still scope to grow. If you take brown soda bread or potato bread, which are the biggest sellers, we’re in around 1,000 Tesco stores. Tesco have another 1,000 stores we could get into. It is about making our products relevant to the consumers that shop in those stores, whether they are the big supermarkets or smaller convenience stores.”

The company has previously exported further afield, sending bread to the US, but Murphy says it makes sense for Irwin’s to focus on sales of fresh bread to GB and Ireland.

“We do frozen bread as well so we’ve sold bread to America, to Spain, to Italy, to Australia at one time. But our core competency is that we are primarily a fresh loaf baker that happens to be able to sell stuff a bit further afield than Northern Ireland,” he said.

“We’ve looked at countries like China but we realised there were 50-60 million people in GB who’ve never had potato farls and soda farls, so we decided to concentrate our efforts there,” he adds.

“We looked at our speed to market and decided bread had to be on shelves within 14 hours of being baked. We have concentrated on key customers who we can find a supply chain solution for. You won’t find us in a Spar or Costcutter in England because getting to smaller stores on a daily basis is not do-able with fresh bread.”

Murphy says Irwin’s does not rule out going to other countries in future if there is a clear route to market and a market for products with a longer shelf life. But he says the firm’s focus is on being sustainable, not looking for short term wins.

“A lot of celebrity endorsements don’t go beyond the product launch but Paul Rankin was very clear he wanted to have a sustainable brand and that fitted with our way of thinking. It has been a good partnership for us as he was and is seen as the face of Irish cooking in GB,” he adds.

“There’s plenty of competition out there and you just can’t get complacent. The bakery industry in Northern Ireland is fiercely competitive and there’s no such thing as bad food any more. So you have to be ahead of the trends, you have to have an excellent supply chain, you have to deliver customers what they want on time, in full. And quality, well that’s a given.”

Yardmaster International Draperstown

“ We’ve streamlined our manufacturing processes. Now productivity is up by 38 per cent.”

Yardmaster International manufactures flatpack metal garden sheds. The Draperstown company is the UK market leader in its field - winning business across Europe. It has worked with Invest Northern Ireland to optimise its resources, boost skills and increase productivity by 38 per cent.

Managing Director Willie McKeown says: “In 2009, like most businesses, we were experiencing a small downturn.

Instead of laying people off we worked with Invest NI to retrain them in other tasks. This has been immensely beneficial to us, especially recently as we’ve been increasing output via lean manufacturing techniques.

By using staff who can operate more than one machine, we are now much more efficient.”

Yardmaster International is one of the many local companies that have accessed the support available under Invest NI’s Boosting Business campaign and have taken positive action to succeed in these difficult times.

“Within a year we had output up by 38 per cent, with very few extra people and no extra machinery. This is why I would recommend Invest NI as a business partner they have hands on skills that every company can and should make use of.”

Why not join the 23,000 who have already looked to Boosting Business for advice under its five key themes: jobs, skills, exports, technology and research and development.

Find out how Invest NI can help you boost your business:

Call 0800 181 4422 Text BOOST to 78886 Visit boostingbusinessni.com

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

How much has the recession hit our living standards?

As we start to see signs of growth in the economy and unemployment number falling, John Simpson says the feel good factor will take time to filter down to the majority of the population.

H

ave you had a painful recession? Has the impact of the recession eased? As the main sectors of the economy are now reporting better assessments of the levels of output and order books, there is more optimism.

The improving economic sentiments are neither universal nor evenly distributed. Some businesses have customers seeking earlier or faster deliveries: others are still asking why their businesses have seen less of a recovery.

A revealing question asks when the ‘feel good’ factor will improve to match the official statistics. Lying behind that question there is a complex inheritance. The impact of the recession on individuals from about 2009 has been cumulative in several differing ways and we could find recovery will also impact them in differing ways.

The impact of the years of recession can be evidenced in terms of: t &BSOJOHT MBHHJOH CFIJOE UIF DPTU PG MJWJOH t 3FEVDFE XPSLMPBE MFBEJOH UP MFTT PWFSUJNF PS shorter working hours t 4XJUDIJOH GSPN GVMM UJNF UP QBSU UJNF KPCT t +PCT MPTU BOE NBEF SFEVOEBOU CFDPNJOH unemployed In Northern Ireland, each of these has been FYQFSJFODFE 5IF NBKPS GFBUVSFT IBWF CFFO either that earnings levels have lagged behind the DPTU PG MJWJOH PS GPS UIF MFTT GPSUVOBUF KPCT IBWF been lost.

The labour market began to show signs of the deepening recession in 2008. Unemployment began to increase and wages began to grow more slowly than consumer prices. In the comparisons made in the following paragraphs statistical averages for Northern Ireland have been used and there will be sectors with features which differ marginally from these averages.

Also, the consumer price index for the UK has been used, working on the assumption that local price changes were expected to parallel the UK averages.

Perhaps the biggest impact of the recession has been the fall in real earnings levels as money

52 DECEMBER 2013

wages fell behind price increases. This is an indirect fall in living standards but its reality must be accepted.

From 2009 to 2012, drawing on the official earnings and hours enquiry, average earnings in Northern Ireland rose by 5.1% to reach (in terms of weekly pay) ÂŁ459 per week. In the same period the consumer price index (CPI) rose by 11.0%. In simple terms, and making no allowance for extraneous factors, prices rose twice as fast as income.

For the larger part of the employed labour force, this was a sharp change compared to the earlier years when, generally, incomes kept pace with prices (or better).

There is some marginal comfort when this exercise is widened to compare with the overall UK experience. In the three years between 2009 and 12: t $POTVNFS QSJDFT

t "WFSBHF FBSOJOHT / *

t "WFSBHF FBSOJOHT 6 ,

There is a sharper contrast in the erosion of real earnings when the changes in average earnings are tabulated separately for the private and public sectors.

The impact of the worst years of recession was largest for private sector employees in the UK and was lightest for public sector employees in Northern Ireland. During recent years, the relative earnings gap between private sector employees in the UK and separately for NI has remained markedly steady with NI earnings SFNBJOJOH BU KVTU VOEFS PG UIF 6, BWFSBHF MEASURED AS A REAL INCOME REDUCTION For people who were continuously employed

during the worst period of the recession, the impact on living standards might be measured as the equivalent fall in earnings when allowance is made for the impact of the CPI. To illustrate the potential scale of the process, the real value of the annual wages and salaries bill should be reduced by about 5%.

In cash equivalent terms this would be nearly ÂŁ1.2bn or would cancel out the gains for the QSFWJPVT TJY ZFBST GSPN ADDING OTHER CHANGES IN TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT The years of recession have had some impact on the average length of working week and on the TDBMF PG QBSU UJNF FNQMPZNFOU 1BSU UJNF FNQMPZNFOU JO +VOF JOWPMWFE QFPQMF JO /PSUIFSO *SFMBOE 5IJT remained high after a noticeable increase of 5,000 in 2008 and 2009. The total stayed high during the worst of the recession years.

The average working week in 2012 was down UP IPVST B GBMM PG OFBSMZ BO IPVS B week compared to 2008. More significantly, the number of people working any overtime hours GFMM TIBSQMZ GSPN B QFBL PG PG UIF FNQMPZFE labour force in 2008 to only 18.9% in 2012.

One feature of the recent recession has not behaved as some of the forecasters predicted.

Unemployment is high and has risen but, for reasons that are not easily assessed, unemployment has not risen as much as would IBWF CFFO FYQFDUFE KVEHJOH GSPN FBSMJFS QFSJPET of recession.

JOBS LOST During a recession the usual indicator of its TFWFSJUZ GPDVTFT PO UIF OVNCFS PG KPCT UIBU IBWF

Public sector

Private sector

C.P.I.

U.K

4.9%

11.0%

N.I

8.0%

4.4%

11.0%

Ave. earnings inc.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

been lost. The experience in Northern Ireland since about 2008 has not been consistent.

Unemployment, although a serious problem, has not increased proportionately to other measures of performance.

The biggest impact of the recession on jobs seems to have been recorded between 2008 and 2009 when private sector employment fell by nearly 30,000 people. Since then private sector employment (in total) has fallen only marginally.

If jobs had been lost in proportion to the main economic variables, in the year from 2008 to 2009, net output in the private sector fell

by just over 10% which, pro rata, might have affected nearer to 50,000 jobs (than the actual loss of 30,000).

From 2009 to 2012, private sector output fell overall by more than 3% and might have affected a further 15,000 jobs. The recorded change is about 2,000 jobs.

Put together, the welcome news is that the private sector in 2013 is employing possibly 30,000 more people than might have, pessimistically, been anticipated. The reverse side of this more favourable outcome is that, during the current recovery phase, output may increase quite markedly but with only a modest impact

“PERHAPS THE BIGGEST IMPACT OF THE RECESSION HAS BEEN THE FALL IN REAL EARNINGS LEVELS AS WAGES FELL BEHIND PRICE INCREASES.”

on employment.

That the recession has had a smaller than expected effect on employment is also a feature of what has happened on a UK-wide basis as well as locally. Part of the explanation may be that businesses in the private sector have managed policies to restrain pay increases and have been able to afford to retain a larger number of employees than might have been justified.

A TOUGH RECESSION, BUT NOT AS TOUGH AS COULD HAVE BEEN Northern Ireland is emerging, slowly, from the worst of the recession. Ironically, the official statistics have recorded in mid-2013, the highest ever levels of employment. 808,000 people have jobs: 31,000 more than three years ago.

Nevertheless, take home incomes for employees, after allowing for price increases and the fall in real incomes, have fallen appreciably.

Things are improving even though the search for the perception of a ‘better off ’ outcome continues until the recovery gains strength!

DECEMBER 2013 53

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Learning from the best Gareth Hetherington, Associate Director at the Northern Ireland Centre for Economic Policy (NICEP) asks what businesses can learn from the success stories of their peers?

L

ooking across the business landscape of Northern Ireland, it is encouraging to see that we have very successful companies operating in all sectors of the economy.

Typically, these businesses are growth focused and innovative by nature, either in terms of the products and services they provide or the processes by which they produce and bring them to market. New research in the latest InterTradeIreland Business Monitor quarterly survey seeks to explore this further and identifies a number of attributes or behaviours which are more prevalent in these growth companies.

The research found that managers in growth companies consistently show a greater tendency to display certain behaviours such as being creative, taking calculated risks, embracing change and collaborating with other organisations (perhaps even competitors) relative to their peers in non-growth (or stable and contracting) businesses.

This increased tendency could potentially be explained by the psychology of growth company managers. Working in a growing and successful company breeds a confidence which is often required to take on new challenges and adopt different business practices. However, it can be no coincidence that the tendency to display these behaviours is more evident across all the characteristics assessed.

As a consequence, there are a number of potential lessons here for other company managers working in firms of all sizes and in all sectors.

However, it is not just a case of managers in stable or contracting companies simply following the example of managers in growth companies.

The research also identifies a number of simple steps many of our growth companies could also take to improve performance further.

Surprisingly, over 40% of our growth firms do not have a written business plan or strategy.

Organisations which commit to paper their vision, the activities to achieve that vision and associated incremental targets, consistently outperform companies with more ‘informal’ planning arrangements in place. These plans

need not be weighty tomes, three or four pages may be sufficient to give the business leader clarity on key priorities to help decision making when operating in the fog of meeting day to day deadlines. Internally, they also provide an unambiguous message to staff about the firm’s priorities and targets against which everyone will be judged. Furthermore, externally they are essential to access finance, investment and other support from organisations such as Invest NI. The survey also found that only 45% of our growth firms sold outside Northern Ireland and only 15% exported outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. There is literally a world of opportunity out there, which a great many of our growth firms are not accessing. In comparison and as anticipated, our stable or contracting firms are even less likely to export, with only 22% selling outside Northern Ireland.

It must be recognised that selling outside Northern Ireland requires a greater level of investment than selling locally. The low level of external sales therefore reflects the relatively low proportion (49%) of growth firms who have staff dedicated to sales. It is difficult for firms to have an export focused growth strategy without dedicated resource, but in this challenging environment it may be considered a higher risk than many senior managers are prepared to absorb. However, firms that have the resources and choose to make the investment at this time should be better placed to benefit from the rewards when economic growth increases.

While Invest NI and the Local Enterprise Agencies have been providing support to businesses in areas such as business planning and assistance with exports for many years, awareness of these programmes still has to reach many parts of the business community.

What is not in dispute is that economic growth in Northern Ireland is now dependent on the private sector in general and growth companies in particular.

Therefore, helping more firms to adopt the practices of our more successful companies, would be a step in the right direction.

“SURPRISINGLY, OVER 40% OF OUR GROWTH FIRMS DO NOT HAVE A WRITTEN BUSINESS PLAN OR STRATEGY.” 54 DECEMBER 2013

The solutions to the issues and challenges faced by business do not reside with our political leaders or their civil servants but rather with individual business men and women. However, the means to implement policy which could help resolve some of these key challenges does reside in Stormont.

As a result, a different type of engagement between the public and private sectors (one that is structured, proactive and long term) is important to ensure both the challenges facing businesses and solutions are properly understood and the appropriate policy is implemented. This would be a long term project, where the results would not be evident for a number of years, but one we must start sooner rather than later.

CHARITY

What is the most precious gift you will give this Christmas?

Y

es it is that time of year again, Christmas is coming and we start to think of office parties, corporate gifts and how we are going to spend Christmas with the family.

As you make your plans for Christmas please spare a thought for local children with a lifelimiting or life-threatening illness and their families.

Cora was first referred to Children’s Hospice just after her first birthday. Diagnosed with severe Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy and Global Developmental Delay, Cora is also blind and requires care 24 hours a day. She needs oxygen at night and has to be monitored while she sleeps.

Caring for Cora is an exhausting and fulltime job for her mum and dad. Just before last Christmas Cora’s mum, Amy, was taken seriously ill and had to go into hospital. At the same time Cora’s condition deteriorated rapidly and she too was rushed to hospital before being transferred to Children’s Hospice. She stayed for

several weeks, while her condition was stabilised and her mum recovered.

As her dad Ciaran explains: “That was a really tough time for us all and I don’t know what we would have done without the care and support from the Children’s Hospice. Knowing that the Children’s Hospice is there to care for your child and to support us as a family makes all the difference.”

IT’S TIME TO CARE For as little as £100 you can give a child like Cora and her family the gift of a night of Hospice care. This treasured gift is more valuable than you can imagine.

Creating special memories for families is all part of hospice care and this Christmas alongside the essential care that families need Children’s Hospice will provide special times for families to enjoy and create precious happy memories that many of us take for granted but for our families can be all too fleeting.

It will cost £3m to provide Hospice care this year, and with limited government funding of £500k we rely on the generosity of the public and local businesses to help us raise £2.5m.

PLEASE HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO A CHILD THIS CHRISTMAS With the support of the local business community Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice can give a treasured gift to over 250 local children and their families.

You can help by making a donation in lieu of Christmas cards or fundraising at your Christmas party. We will send you a beautiful e-card to pass on to all your staff and customers.

It feels good to give. No matter how big or small, your donation will make a huge difference to a local family.

For further information please contact: Ellen Hillen, Corporate Fundraising Manager on 028 9078 1836, ellen.hillen@nihospice.org or www.nihospice.org

DECEMBER 2013 55

PRIVATE BUSINESS ROUND TABLE SPONSORED BY PwC

Is innovation in the DNA of Northern Ireland’s SMEs? PwC recently brought together some leading SME businesses to discuss how they stay competitive against larger organisations, what makes them different, and the essential role that innovation plays in their success.

THE PARTICIPANTS Paul Terrington: Regional Chair of PwC in Northern Ireland Greg Maguire: CEO of Inlifesize and Professor of Animation at UoU Fergal McCann: Group FD, Tayto Group Colin Williams: Creative Director, Sixteen South Emma Murray: Senior Manager PwC Clive Black: Director of Shore Capital Kevin McAllister: Partner in PwC Noel Culbert: PwC Head of Technology Adrian Doran: Head of Corporate Banking, Barclays Kenneth Webb: MD of Ulster Weavers

PT: Innovation is our theme today. Kenneth, Ulster Weavers have been in business for a long time, what role has innovation played in your longevity?

KW: The way I look at innovation, there are various different levels to it. There is innovation for something that is completely brand new and then there is innovation in taking what is in the market, developing it further and coming up with something that’s actually a lot smarter.

Take our standard tea cosy. Our design team managed to turn it into 3D shapes and animals.

We have seen an uplift in sales within the market. We now have approx 15 of these in our catalogue with some of our bespoke customers using the same idea on their tea cosies. So it is more product addition or extension. This is very important to our business because if we don’t do this our competitors will. We are in a lucky position were we can invest in these new ideas twice a year and stay ahead of our competition.

KM: How do you capture people’s innovative thinking within the business?

56 DECEMBER 2013

KW: The majority of our innovation either comes from my senior sales team or my designers who spend a lot of time in the market.

We have 5 exceptional designers who just like playing with ideas. They sit up in their ivory tower and we give them all the fresh air they need. We remove the shackles and they come up with some wonderful work and ideas.

FM: We have a dedicated Product Development Team and innovation is one of the four key strands in Tayto’s strategy. Innovation, Quality, Efficiency and People. If it doesn’t line up with that it doesn’t get priority. Innovation comes all the way from on the line, to matching and beating best in the market. We have invested a lot of money into customer insights, buying data from retailers, interpreting that and coming up with the next opportunity. Whilst there may not appear to be much opportunity for innovation in frying potatoes into crisps, there are new flavours, new snacks, new formats, new packs, new processes, new ways of delivering to the supply chain and to the retailer. We find that sometimes the person on the line does have better ideas than the supervisor/manager above him. Every month on a board there is a league table of where we are in terms of ideas raised and progressed. The best ideas should be competing against each other. Then you have to get traction with the customer and then you have to learn from your mistakes because sometimes it doesn’t work.! It’s a continuous process.

KM: So in what’s a fairly traditional business, how do you promote that culture of innovation?

FM: Through encouragement and engagement.

We have a relatively flat structure. Even though we are a large company in terms of numbers most lines are dedicated to certain customers or a certain technology, so you can get at the information quickly. Everybody in the retail sector is under pressure, so it’s all about value – and that’s where the growth in the market is coming. The winners have invested in people ; young, educated, innovative, hungry managers, and processes to eliminate all unnecessary costs and develop the best products. Getting that right is the challenge; recognising you have to invest in innovation, where appropriate change cultures and not being afraid to make mistakes.

EM: On that theme of making mistakes, for newer businesses, is there any advice you can pass on?

FM: The culture needs to be one of ‘how did we do, did we do it well’. Sometimes if someone makes a mistake you try and forget about it. I’m just saying let’s try and learn from it.

PT: What about you guys who are creating something from scratch, do you recognise the same sort of challenges around innovation?

CW: If there’s not innovation in what we’re doing we don’t exist. Innovation is not optional it’s what sets you apart. We make children’s

PRIVATE BUSINESS ROUND TABLE SPONSORED BY PwC

entertainment for pre-school and that’s a very specific market. We have competitors who are in London, New York, Los Angeles and all over the world. You get to know very quickly that you are one of quite a small number of people across the world who are making good content and you are competing against them for a broadcaster’s slot.

There are so few slots in the world where people are prepared to pay some money to actually buy your content, or commission your content and thousands of producers pedalling their wares.

As an estimate somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 ideas are floated around. We are talking to an American broadcaster about a new idea at the moment and he came back from MIP, the big market event in October, and he had seen 5,000 things. So how do you stand out in that sea of ideas? How do you get noticed? A wee fella from Belfast up against people in much bigger set-ups in New York and London. It comes down to innovation. The market wants to buy stuff that is unique and original and innovative. I’m not really blowing my own trumpet, but that’s what people tell me we are doing.

PT: Is there a culture of innovation with the younger guys that you are dealing with at the university Greg?

sense a culture with your students of ‘go for it, don’t worry about falling down, you’re young enough to dust yourself off and press on’, or do you find that conservatism, they are happy just to be ideas people rather than saying actually I want to own this and grow this?

GM: CGI is an inherently innovative activity.

Still in it’s infancy, new processes, practices, software and distribution models are coming online all the time. It’s also moving into new and more traditional sectors. An important part of our process is to teach soft skills, how to work within a team, to see collaboration as the default and to continually explore and to fail, to fail within a safe university environment.

GM: Having lived in California for 16 years I’ve experienced a completely different approach to ideas. What I’ve found here, is an overthinking that creates artificial brick walls. Most plans are based around finding ways around those walls. Whereas in California they say, I’m going over there and they just go, and they take whatever comes along the way. It’s a culture of ‘I’m going to do that’.

CB: But that failure element is central to business, not being scared to fail. In a relatively conservative place like Northern Ireland there is a great fear of failure which prevents a lot of people from running with ideas. Given your dual academic and commercial roles, do you

CB: Do you sense that’s something that can be taught or supported in a reasonable timeframe.

If you take somewhere like San Diego, can we hope to replicate that. Or even look at what’s happening around Clerkenwell in London. They have taken a very traditional industry – bicycles

– and put huge innovation into that. There is massive idea generation taking place there to the extent that Tesco has opened an office with 50 people for its app development. Do you sense that we can create that culture?

GM: Of course we can. We have entry points for everyone from 3D Dojo, where we teach kids 10-18, through our undergrad in animation to masters CPD and PhD. Our first graduate won CGStudent of the year 2012. The judges were from Pixar, Dreamworks and Double Negative and he won the highest accolade in a world-wide competition. There is a talent and a desire here that just needs an opportunity and it will thrive.

PT: What is the role of FDI in spawning individuals who then go out and create their own businesses?

GM: FDI is as important as creating indigenous companies. I’m a product of FDI having worked for a US company in Dublin. I understand the benefits of work based learning. It’s challenging for indigenous companies to work on Game of Thrones as many have never experienced working at that scale. Even though the talent is there, it needs experience. FDI can create that experience and develop the understanding of the opportunity.

AD: A point that was missed in the corporation tax debate was the spin offs that increased FDI would bring. If you look at Dublin and the number of high-tech IT companies, a lot came out of the big FDI companies. Innovation is really hard to do, so how do you get it going?

I think we have to, to some extent, buy in the skills. I suspect you would really struggle to find innovative companies here where the management team either hadn’t worked abroad or had exposure to other large companies that did innovation very well.

PT: In the Republic of Ireland there are more people employed in indigenous Irish technology

DECEMBER 2013 57

PRIVATE BUSINESS ROUND TABLE SPONSORED BY PwC

companies now than in the FDI sector but when you map those companies most of them have their origin somewhere in the FDI sector.

CB: That’s very important for Northern Ireland. In a UK context, big companies aren’t going to create jobs. Most big companies are in big markets that are highly concentrated.

Telecoms is dominated by four people, the grocery market its four people, the banking market its four banks, those businesses are all contracting and trying to protect their margins by cutting people out. Jobs are going to come through small and medium sized companies. I think the government recognises that and the capital markets recognise that. If you look at the multiple of big companies like Vodafone, Tesco, BP, they are trading single digit PE multiples. If you look at smaller mid-growth companies they are trading on teens and in twenty multiples, so investors, big fund managers in houses that you might not think are interested – Blackrock, Fidelity, Henderson – they want to invest in those companies.

NC: Kenneth mentioned being in a fortunate position of having a funding pot to use to innovate. How good is the support network to get companies over those initial hurdles, to get them in a position where they actually can take something to a VC? In my experience working with the NI Science Park, there are loads of ideas out there, it’s getting them into commercial format where a lot of them fall down?

CW: People ask what’s your barrier to growth and our barrier to growth has always been access to finance. We are a company which is almost six years old, we’ve made profits from day one and we reinvest our profits into the company every year. The project at the moment we have invested our own money into it. A show might cost from £2m to £9m. For one show on our slate, we need £9m, we have the TV rights to a

very well known series of books, and at the other end we have another project which will cost £2.4m to produce. Do those numbers scare me?

Well they probably would have been a bit silly at one stage but now they don’t feel silly because we’ve proven ourselves. In kids TV everyone wants to know how do you create the next Peppa Pig. We’ve started to learn what the process is.

KM: But where does a £9m fund for your industry reside? Clive is there money out there?

CB: Well the financial crisis has re-priced debt versus equity. Lenders now require collateral, they now require equity to lend. So where do you get equity from? You don’t have to be a multi-billion pound company to get access to bank finance and to get access to capital markets. There is venture capital, there is private equity, there are high net-worth individuals and there are capital markets. A company we floated based in Preston was, in the fourth quarter of 2011, the only flotation on AIM and we raised £2.25m. We did a subsequent fundraise of £1m the year after and the market cap of that company is about £40m now. It’s trebled in value. So stock markets are open, capital markets are open, there are 35 IPOs on the go at the moment in London alone. There have been 50 healthcare IPOs in New York this summer alone, and they are not all Twitter. I would encourage entrepreneurs and business people in Northern Ireland just to explore the market.

AD: From a bank’s perspective, innovation or R&D is very difficult to fund, because by its nature the outcome is uncertain. If a business approaches a bank and says “I want to invest in a new production line, I’ve got an order book here and we need to deliver it”, that should be relatively easy to fund. However if a new business needs £1m to invest developing a brand new product, then that’s equity risk. Because banks dominated the funding scene six or seven

years ago, there is an under-developed equity market here, and innovation gets stifled because of it. The other point I would make is that innovation should be a means to an end, not an end in itself. If someone says “I spend £1m every year on R&D”, well that’s great, but what have you got to show for it? The real success of R&D is the outcomes it has produced for the business, in terms of sales and profits. You don’t measure the success of your R&D by how much you spend, you measure by the outcomes.

CW: I think the landscape’s changing. I did speak to our own bank when we were closing our financing for Driftwood Bay, I think we had a gap of about quarter of a million pounds and I asked if I could borrow that. It was just too hard for them to get their heads round it.

But it was very easy to get hold of the money.

There are a new breed of establishments who get it, people like Ingenious, who are in the entertainment industry and who are using EIS schemes in a very smart way. There are people who understand this is not a traditional industry and yes there are risks, but when you take a measured risk the return can be huge.

KM: I think there maybe is a need here to demystify the idea of public listing on AIM, show it’s not as prohibitive as it might first feel and it’s not just the preserve of the FTSE 350.

CB: Well it’s easier for us to raise a billion pounds than a million, which might sound crazy but it’s true. But at the same time the markets are open and private equity has changed. Private equity also got into casino banking and was living off financing. We are actually doing what private equity used to do which was investing in companies to grow. If you are a good company with decent management, proper structures, then the market is open for you and I think that is a message that needs to be got into Northern Ireland.

EM: But does the guy with the idea know where to go and find that capital? Or does the guy with the idea have his proposition properly tailored

58 DECEMBER 2013

PRIVATE BUSINESS ROUND TABLE SPONSORED BY PwC

as a huge surprise that PwC is investing millions of pounds into innovation around how we audit.

so that when they do go looking for it that the person they are pitching to gets it?

CB: I think it is a communication and education exercise. Going back to the very start there are undoubtedly some cultural issues in Northern Ireland with conservatism and drive, that’s why I am particularly interested in your young entrepreneurs because they will fail and fall over but they’re at an age where it doesn’t necessarily bring them down. Whereas when you’re 55 or 60 it can be a bigger issue. And also we were touching on the fact that it’s this is not a big place with not a lot of people in it, so if I’m tremendously capable in Omagh or in Enniskillen, what’s my capability to talk to someone who might be the same in Ballycastle.

GM: When I first came back from California I visited all the animation studios that I could within Northern Ireland and discovered that none of them talked to one another, which is not the case in either London or San Francisco.

It was because the access to capital was very slim.

They were working with very small budgets from Northern Ireland agencies and as soon as they got a client they would try and hold on to them. But then as soon as the agencies got any money the first place that they would go to would be to London. I advised them of my plans and asked them how we could collaborate and work together. They found that entirely alien.

So, I started an animation cluster and I was fortunate to be in the University, so I was able to put the university hat on and create a neutral space where people could meet over a pint of Guinness. 25 people turned up the first night and they started going across and talking to one another. They started to build up trust, to pass work to one another, started to find out what sort of resources and skill levels we each had.

We now have 250 members and now companies have formed out of it.

KM: It is easy to see innovation in what Greg and Colin do but we should remember that very traditional businesses innovate in different ways.

I run the audit business here and it might come

KW: For me it’s my people and customers who drive innovation. The Australian market is a prime example for my business. When I joined this division eight years ago we were waiting for our Australian distributors to take enough orders to build up a consolidated order with us. This would then be consolidated into a container with other orders they placed with other UK businesses. It would take approximately eight weeks to get to Australia and then once in Australia needed to be distributed to the shops.

This whole process could take up to four months. My sales manager in the region, and from Belfast, saw an opportunity to improve his sales. Being innovative with freight routes and working with his customers he can now provide a faster service of six days door to door and at a lower cost. It took him a while to make this happen but he got there through his customers being innovative with him.

GM: In my field, only 10% of the market for comics and graphic novels, is digital right now.

So there is a massive opportunity. There are people who still like paper, still like collectibles, there are a lot of hurdles to get over. At Inlifesize, we’re looking at how we can make a collectible experience for the digital environment. Our comics have turning pages and frayed edges, we have even got staples in the middle of the iPad so you know when you are in the middle of the comic. There is a big player in this space but their product looks like it’s from a CD Rom during the 80’s. Ours is a much superior reading experience but it’s how do we get the exposure for that and become a platform of choice.

AD: There are lots of examples of companies in what you would term traditional industries that are really innovative. I was in Wrightbus recently, you couldn’t get an older more established business, but when you see what they are doing with carbon-fibres, hybrid technology, creating a new bus for London, it all comes back to the management team. They have the right management team that see the value in innovation, know what their end customer is looking for, and work back from that. It’s culture again, and it goes right back to school. We are producing too many dentists and doctors and solicitors and accountants.

PT: Research suggests the graduate we take in today is going to have 12 to 15 different jobs and they are going to live to 100. They are going to have 15 different opportunities to fall over and pick themselves up. So we need to get people like Noel and Emma into those growth orientated sectors. Maybe part of the answer is that some of our people are sitting with you with a pint of Guinness to help when the conversation comes around to ‘how the hell do I get this from here to a proposition that can go to a funder’ and what might that funder look for? It’s incumbent on us to have a bit of skin on that game.

DECEMBER 2013 59

2IEP 0YGEW QIIXW Neal Lucas, Managing Director of the leading executive search and selection company Neal Lucas Recruitment, talks to the individuals behind some of Northern Ireland’s leading companies in this popular Ulster Business series.

This month, he talks to the CEO of one of NI’s smaller, yet thriving private businesses, Alpha Marketing.

What markets do you operate in and what is your position in those markets at the moment?

We are a provider of office furniture and interior design solutions currently operating in NI, ROI and GB. We are market leaders in NI, very strong in ROI but quite modest in GB. We have plans currently rolling out in ROI to grow our business into new markets.

How have your markets changed over the years and why did you target these?

Our markets have changed rapidly during the last number of years. In ROI during 2008 our market sector reduced by 45% within six months. This forced us to look at things differently and diversify to a certain extent relatively quickly. As a result we have a much stronger business today, despite the fact that trading conditions are still extremely different.

During 2009 we brought 1080 - our design, project and fit-out division - into the NI business structure, which in itself changed our capabilities dramatically, and as a result we have not only targeted a new audience of clients but also incorporate some different ways of delivering great solutions to all of our customer base. In GB we are currently reviewing how we do our business there, and have options on where we go next with it.

What process do you use for strategy formulation?

Depending on the level of strategy required, we look at things with the next 2 to 3 years in mind. Our industry changes so quickly now that

even three years can seem light years away! We have one main strategy meeting for the whole Group once per year, with localised business centre strategy sessions every six months. It is never ‘my’ strategy, but a team view of things.

What key attributes of your own leadership do you feel have been important in delivering on the strategy?

I firmly believe in customer care and good service, and this has been strongly carried through our strategy at every stage. Our entire business is focussed on our relationships with our customers, and we will not rest until the client is happy. I also ensure that I don’t always have the final say on customer facing issues, which means that I don’t have to be involved at every stage so that issues are sorted rapidly.

I am able to do this as I have a highly skilled team who work with me.

How do you manage risk in the organisation and how important is corporate governance to you?

We never go ‘gung-ho’ with big decisions – we will discuss amongst the various teams depending on the nature of the issue and come up with a strategy. In 2007 we employed a non-executive director for the first time in the history of the company, and he has instilled a major level of importance on corporate governance. To be honest I have personally learnt more in the last five years than I did in the previous 25 working for the company, and I have benefitted hugely as a result of practices we have employed.

Is there anything you would like to change about business in Northern Ireland market?

The 56 million dollar question!! I guess from our perspective we would like to see the whole corporation tax issue resolved so that we could start to see some of the inward investment coming to NI that we would be aware of in ROI. I know this is a weighty issue for Government, but we really need to kickstart the whole private sector and get away from the overdependence on public sector. We all know that we have some of the best employees in this part of the island, who have a great attitude to work and performance. This point would not be lost on inward investing companies.

FACTFILE Name: Paul Black Title: CEO Company: Alpha Marketing Established: 1972 No. of Employees: 87 Previous Jobs: Warehouse Op/Driver/Fitter/

Sales rep (all with Alpha Group) Hobbies: Avid follower of Ulster Rugby Proudest Moment in Career: Heading up the internal M&A team which brought two large competing businesses into the Group

www.neallucasrecruitment.com – Neal can be found on Facebook and followed on Twitter (@NealLucasRec)

Cross Border Trade

CROSS BORDER TRADE

Kilkeel gears up for re-invention The Co Down town of Kilkeel believes it can resolve the fishing vs offshore energy conundrum following the publication of a Blueprint for future economic development.

T

he sound one normally associates with Northern Ireland’s fishing ports is a whistling wind blowing through the derelict rigging of long abandoned fishing boats.

Yet new life is breathing along the County Down coastline and in particular in Kilkeel Harbour.

It may be thanks to the foresight of the commercial fishing community through the Anglo North Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation that the remaining fleets have adapted so successfully from white fish to shell fish that they can now legitimately claim the be the langoustine capital of Britain and Ireland. But the fishing port’s new opportunities will not be easy to exploit.

62 DECEMBER 2013

“Half the entire UK catch of langoustines comes into Kilkeel,” says David Hill, a Director of ANIFPO and a successful fleet owner. “The rebirth of Kilkeel’s fishing industry is something we treat with great sensitivity and care. It requires investment, a lot of knowledge and expertise and a shared respect for sustainability.”

Mr Hill’s long term view of the fishing sector is based on the need for an environmental commitment.

“We need to sustain these fisheries if we are to survive the next few generations and it is our collective belief in Kilkeel that sustainability is the key to reversing the town’s fortunes and re-introducing a job-creating industry,” he says.

And while the fishing sector dusts itself

down and gets back on its feet again Mr Hill, ANIFPO members and the organisation’s chief executive Alan McCulla, are now embarking on an even more turbulent journey. The relatively new phenomenon of offshore energy has now appeared off the Irish Sea coast. From Rathlin Island the whole way down to Arklow, the east coast of Ireland is within a few miles’ range of numerous development zones for offshore wind farms and tidal generation power plants.

These development zones have been determined by their proximity to coastline, reliability of wind speeds, depth, and distance from shipping lanes, areas of conservation, etc. And before any of these factors can be determined, someone who has boats and

CROSS BORDER TRADE

“OUR FISHING INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO FACE CHALLENGES AND WE NEED TO BE COMPETITIVE TO SURVIVE AND SUCCEED.”

David Hill (left) and Alan McCulla represent a new spirit of confidence in Kilkeel

knowledge of the sea and seabed in these areas must be appointed and contracted to undertake the survey work. Step forward Davey Hill and his fishermen.

“We have to tender for the work and compete with boat fleets from around the Irish Sea basin and beyond,” says Mr Hill. “And I’m pleased to say that we compete very successfully thanks to the quality of our boats and the expertise of the people who sail and work them.

“But we are also competitive because of the strategic position of Kilkeel itself,” he explains.

Alan McCulla says the co-operative approach taken by the businesses based in Kilkeel Harbour and the harbour managers, Northern Ireland Fishery Harbour Authority, part of

the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, has meant that the tension between the two key economic activities now at the heart of Kilkeel – fishing and offshore energy – is being managed effectively.

“Our primary concern is fishing, an activity which has been the lifeblood of Kilkeel for the last 150 years,” says Mr McCulla.

“But we would be bad business people if we ignored the opportunities provided by the emerging offshore energy sector. And this is where the challenge lies: ensuring both work in tandem, even if some of the development zones are in the middle of our fishing areas.”

To make the most of these opportunities, to generate interest and investment, and to ensure an acceptable outcome to the conflicting interests of fishing and offshore energy, twelve business leaders led by David Hill who established the first collaborative network in Kilkeel have just published a blueprint outlining the development and expansion of the harbour.

He believes the document will help focus the business and policy communities on the existing and potential commercial opportunities being presented.

“The re-emergence of Kilkeel as an important economic hub has been helped by the strong performance of the fishing sector and development of offshore renewable energy projects all around the Irish Sea and indeed beyond,” says Mr Hill.

“Thanks to both sectors, shipping traffic, marine business and demand for local expertise have created an upsurge in boat use and the knock-on effect has been to create a very busy harbour,” he adds.

“Kilkeel Collaborative Network represents all the businesses in the harbour and that includes fishermen, electricians, boat builders, plumbers, engineers and others who stand to gain from the new business opportunities presented by offshore energy developments as well as a strong fishing industry.”

The network says it now aims to build on its successes and to explore how best to use the resources, skills and knowledge provided by generations of fishing.

ANIFPO chief executive Alan McCulla says the network has taken shape quickly thanks to support from Invest NI. “Kilkeel faces stiff competition within the Irish Sea basin. Other ports along the Irish, Scottish, English and Welsh coasts are gearing up and investing in their infrastructures so as to position themselves as marine business grows,” he says.

“Our fishing industry continues to face challenges and we need to be competitive in order to survive and succeed and the network is the first step in achieving this success. I am delighted to see the recognition by many that the future of Kilkeel’s success lies within the fishing sector and the other industries around the harbour.”

The blueprint which outlines Kilkeel’s inward investment offer to potential investors and the policy community has been backed by former economy minister Sir Richard Needham, whose family connections with Kilkeel remain strong.

“Kilkeel is re-inventing itself as a successful fishing port and as a facilities base for all offshore services whether these be in renewable energy, cable laying or other marine-based work,” says Sir Richard.

“I am tremendously excited by the network‘s ambitions which parallel those of the Northern Ireland Fishery Harbour Authority and Invest NI and chime with the Kilkeel Development Association, as well as the local Chamber of Commerce.”

Mr Hill says the next steps will be to develop a working group representative of all the interests in Kilkeel.

“The long term strategy will be to develop the business, expand the harbour and regenerate the town so that we can stop the migration of young people out of this wonderful place and into the cities and beyond.”

FACT FILE Population 6,338 District Newry and Mourne County County Down Coordinates: 54.059°N 5.992°W

By Land 46 miles to Belfast 85 miles to Dublin

By Sea 50 miles to Isle of Man 60 miles to Holyhead

DECEMBER 2013 63

CROSS BORDER TRADE

Ireland’s bailout exit doesn’t mean stability, warns debt expert

T

he decision of Ireland’s government to opt for a “clean” exit from its bailout this month, offers no guarantee of stability in the banking sector, according to one all-island debt consultant.

Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny last

month said the country would exit its €85bn international bailout programme without seeking a precautionary credit line from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

The Irish government said it didn’t need a backstop owing to large state cash reserves and public finances which are under control amid a climate of historically-low Irish government bond yields.

“This is the latest in a series of steps to return Ireland to normal economic, budgetary and funding conditions,” said Mr Kenny.

But Conor Devine of GDP Partnership, which helps indebted businesses and individuals to negotiate solutions with their banks, said there’s still a lot of damage to repair in the financial sector.

“Only 48 hours after the party in Dublin of the news about exiting the bail out program with no credit line there was a special sitting at the high court in Dublin to bail out a credit union in Co Kildare. The cost to the taxpayer was a cool €54m at the stroke of a pen,” he said.

“I am not even convinced the Troika knows what a credit union is and with the recent statistics stating that 1 in 4 are in trouble, if I was Mr Kenny I wouldn’t being buying the Champagne anytime soon.”

Devine said many people are still being left with the equally unpleasant options of remaining in debt long term or bankruptcy because banks are still struggling.

“The reality is there are still huge holes in the banks’ balance sheets across the island, and our banks are not lending. We will not get sustained growth in the North or South until we have a stable banking structure. My concern is this is some way off,” he said.

“I have learned over the past five years to take a lot of what comes out of the media relating to banks with a pinch of salt as, day to day, we are meeting more and more people who are struggling to pay their monthly bills. Debt is the new cancer and the only way we will move forward is if people educate themselves on the solutions and how to deal with the debt problems facing the nation.”

Credit Unions ‘more relevant than ever’

N

ewry Credit Union has attracted more than 250 new members during its 50th anniversary year, showing, it believes, that credit unions are becoming even more

relevant.

The organisation now represents almost half of the population of Newry, with its membership currently standing at 18,450 people. Members receive a dividend of 1.75% on savings and an interest rebate of 20% on loans.

At its AGM, the credit union said it had advanced loans of close to £12m in the past year, at least half of which has gone back into the local economy for cars, vans, home improvements, special occasions and even house purchases.

Liam Quinn, President of Newry Credit Union said: “We are delighted to seen glimmers of hope for the economy starting to come through during our 50th Anniversary year. We started in 1963 with a shareholding of £15 which has over the last 50 years grown to a phenomenal £53m. Northern Ireland still has a way to go in helping individuals to access affordable, responsible credit and we are very much a part of that. It is staggering to see commercial organisations locally offering credit at rates of up to 2,961% and seeing that many people feel that this is the only option they have.

“We are just coming to the end of 50 years of responsible lending for the people of Newry and I think it is important to look forward to the next 50. People need to start financially planning for the future. We have seen in recent times that no one is recession proof and it is essential that people take responsibility for their finances.”

64 DECEMBER 2013

Brendan Jackson and Liam Quinn from Newry Credit Union

PEOPLE: YOUR MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE B

ased in Newry, Co. Down, BMM People Development is a leading training and coaching company working with private and public sector organisations across Ireland.

The company, which provides training, coaching and facilitation services, has an enviable client list ranging from multinationals like Allianz Insurance to SMEs such as The White Gallery, Co. Down.

Principal Breege McManus has over 13 years’ experience delivering bespoke solutions to businesses, from management and leadership development, to employee engagement and sales training.

As an associate with Harvest, Breege works with leading brands including Topaz, Cuisine de France, Fas, Allianz and eircom and through Pinpoint, delivers training to Brown Thomas.

GETTING PERSONAL Breege’s business mantra is to ‘get under the skin’ of the client. “For us one of the important aspects of client development is the diagnostic process. I work with each client personally to get under the skin of the organisation, prior to recommending a bespoke solution,” she explains.

“In that way, the outcome will clearly address specific business objectives and ensure that the investment has a proven return.”

As a highly skilled Trainer, Coach and Facilitator, Breege ensures that all interventions are highly experiential, learner centric and fit for purpose.

On a one-to-one basis, BMM People Development provides a range of services including CV development skills and interview skills and in recent weeks the firm has seen an uptake from students preparing for university entrance interviews.

BMM also works with individuals and SMEs to provide tailored personal, career and executive coaching.

Rachel Morgan (left) with Breege.

best investment of my time and money.

“It was evident very early on that Breege had a wealth of experience and I was confident that by the end of our six week programme I would have frameworks in place to help my business run efficiently – from finances, to customer strategies and ongoing monitoring techniques.

“What I particularly liked about Breege’s approach was that she always encouraged and challenged me to come up with the solutions rather than just give me the answers,” Rachel adds.

COACHING DIPLOMA BMM People Development also has a unique

alliance with Kingstown College, Dublin to deliver the Advanced Diploma in Personal and Executive Coaching in Northern Ireland from their Newry office.

As a former graduate of the course, BMM client Lucy Traynor of Lucy Traynor Consulting credits the course for increasing her confidence and dispelling self-doubt in advance of setting up her new business.

“Through the course, debilitating selfdoubt turned into sheer determination, confidence and contentment and I have been promoting this course and Breege’s talents to friends, ex-colleagues and indeed clients and would love to work with her again.”

VALUABLE INVESTMENT Case in point is Rachel Morgan, Proprietor of The White Gallery. A former freelance PR consultant, Rachel engaged BMM People Development for executive coaching in support of her new business venture, The White Gallery bridal boutique.

Rachel says: “The one-to-one sessions that I’ve had with Breege to date have been the

Breege is an accredited member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), The British Psychological Society (BPS), The European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and is a TAP partner.

The next Advanced Diploma in Personal and Executive Coaching takes place in Newry at the end of January.

For more information on BMM People Development or the course please visit www.bmmpeople.com or contact Breege McManus on T: +44 (0) 7740 288424 ROI : +353 (0) 87 2414545

CROSS BORDER TRADE

Spotlight on Newry and Armagh

By Martin McGreevy, Senior Surveyor, Advisory, Osborne King Commercial Property Consultants

I

t is positive to note that in the latter half of 2013, the Northern Irish property market has started to witness the first tentative signs of confidence returning to the market. As such, it is important that both Newry and Armagh continue to capitalise on their commercial potential as their close proximity to the border offers easy access to an all-Ireland market.

In order to highlight this potentially lucrative market, Inter Trade Ireland reported in July 2013 that cross-border trade is presently valued at £2bn and accounts for two thirds of small business exports from Northern Ireland.

Additionally, the body has also estimated the all-island Public Procurement market to be valued at £16bn, which offers a wealth of opportunity to companies benefitting from a border location.

In an attempt to optimise this potential, the Department for Social Development has launched a number of schemes within the Newry area in an effort to support local businesses and encourage further investment within the city.

One such project is the regeneration of the Merchant Quay and Newry Canal area, which commenced in October 2013. This £2.5m scheme, of which the Department of Social Development is providing £2.03m, will comprise the replacement of the existing canal boundary wall with a new decorative maritime railing and the removal of car park spaces on the canalside to facilitate the provision of a new wider-paved pathway. New decorative street lighting, additional street furniture and foliage will also be placed throughout the area and it is hoped that these works will connect the Newry

66 DECEMBER 2013

Canal area to the recently completed public realm schemes in Hill Street and Monaghan Street.

Furthermore, despite the controversy surrounding and subsequent faltering of the proposed Narrow Water Bridge venture, Newry received a welcome boost earlier this year when planning was secured for a 107,000 sq.ft. extension to The Quays Shopping Centre. This was further complemented in August 2013, when Environment Minister Mark H Durkan granted approval for a new 120-bed hotel and 22,000 sq.ft. of office development on Downshire Road.

There is no doubt that these proposals will rejuvenate Newry City, although due to the continuing uncertainty in the debt market there is some debate as to when these projects will commence. However, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership’s acquisition of the Tesco Extra Store in Newry in September 2013 indicates that institutional investors are prepared to invest in the region.

Armagh is also keen to attract inward investment and a greater number of visitors especially as the Northern Ireland Tourism Board acknowledges that the city has a significant role to play in terms of “tourism geography.” The £5m Armagh City Centre Regeneration Scheme has been a huge success leading subsequently to the Department for Social Development announcing an additional public realm scheme in June 2013 to the College Street area.

Furthermore, plans to redevelop part of Armagh’s historic Mall West site moved a step closer in June 2013, as preferred developer

Drumragh Property submitted plans for an ambitious £3 million retail complex. Viewed as a key commercial location between The Mall and Market Square, Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland is hopeful that works will commence in 2014.

Perhaps more notable is the news that planning permission was granted in May 2013 for the £23 million re-development of Armagh Gaol, an enterprise between Trevor Osborne Property Group in partnership with Armagh City & District Council and The Prince’s Regeneration Trust. The combined private and public venture will see the renovation of the historic Grade B+ listed building to provide a 4* hotel and spa, seven retail units and 32 apartments.

Unfortunately, despite these positive examples, Armagh has continued to struggle as a retail destination. One of the main reasons behind this is that Armagh experiences significant retail leakage to the neighbouring cities of Craigavon and Newry and it is imperative that civic and business leaders address this issue as a matter of priority.

There is no doubt that Newry and Armagh are endeavouring to attract inward investment and maximise the potential of increased tourism and cross-border trade. It is vital that these cities continue to receive the support necessary in order to ensure that continued growth is achievable, especially now that some signs of confidence are re-emerging.

Martin McGreevy can be contacted on email: martin.mcgreevy@osborneking.com

CROSS BORDER TRADE

Mauds ‘scoops’ all-island food award

L

ife is ‘sweet’ for Mauds Ice Cream which has won a top Irish food prize and revealed it had a record breaking summer thanks to a combination of sizzling sunshine, a re-brand and its reputation for delicious taste.

The Carrickfergus-based independent business which has been making ice cream for more than 30 years ‘scooped’ top prize in the prestigious 6th Annual Blas nahEireann National Irish Food Awards for its ‘coolest’flavour Poor Bear’s Delight. The 100% real dairy ice cream which contains homemade honeycomb left the opposition in ‘the cold’ and wowed more than 60 judges in blind taste tests with its creamy, crunchy mixture.’

David Wilson, a partner at Mauds, said ice-cream lovers made a ‘beeline’ for Poor Bear’s Delight this summer: “We are really delighted to see our flagship flavour win this award. It’s so pleasing to know that the judges enjoyed our Poor Bear’s Delight every bit as much as our customers do. Just over half of all our sales come from ‘ Bear’s relight, so our team puts a lot of effort into making it consistently delicious. For example, we personallyhandcraft all the honeycomb according to a recipe that was developed over 30 years ago by our in-house sugar boiler Jackie. It’s important to get it just right so that it achieves the perfect balance between gooey and

crunchy when it is added to the ice cream.”

Thanks to a sharp new rebrand and some amazing sunny weather in June, July and August of 2013, this summer became Mauds busiest on record. During these three months along with making their fresh dairy ice cream from whole Irish milk and cream, the dedicated team were busier than ever, spending 12

hours a day, seven days a week crafting the delicious honeycomb by hand.

This extra effort and hard work is all worth it for the team at Mauds whose loyal customer base and expansive network of fans increasingly regard the unique flavourand texture of Mauds Ice Cream as a taste of their childhood.

‘Hello Newry’ making an impact

‘H

ello Newry’ is the brand new identity for Newry’s Hill Street and Monaghan Street in the city’s Cathedral and Creamery Quarters. Funded by the Department of Social Development and supported by Newry and Mourne District Council and Newry City Centre Management the project is part of a £300,000 Newry Revitalisation initiative. This included improved streetscapes, a shop frontage scheme and a marketing campaign. With leaflets, street signage, an online presence, on-street activities and branded shopping bags amongst some of the elements of the marketing campaign ‘Hello Newry’ has become a real feature of the city centre.

Newry’s Cathedral and Creamery Quarters offer a bright and vibrant location for businesses to locate with an array of independent boutiques, shops, restaurants, cafés and bars. Since the ‘Hello Newry’ project was launched earlier this year there have been a number of new retail outlets opened in the city centre creating jobs and adding to the offering for shoppers.

Newry’s Cathedral and Creamery Quarters are the ideal location if you are looking for a friendly, hassle free shopping experience to find the perfect gift, have a great night out or pick up what you need for entertaining at home this Christmas. With five hours parking for £1 in selected DRD car parks, on-street parking, free parking in a number of sites, public transport via train or bus less than one hour from Belfast and even closer from other cities and towns there are plenty of options for getting into the heart of Newry.

Check out www.newry.com for further information. Make sure to come and say ‘Hello Newry’ this festive season – you won’t be disappointed.

DECEMBER 2013 67

CROSS BORDER TRADE

Cross-Border Relations: How Inheritance Tax has Changed

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here were important changes introduced earlier this year that impact on inheritance tax (IHT) in situations of cross-border relations between spouses, i.e. where one spouse is domiciled in the UK and one is not so domiciled. (Any reference to spouses in this article refers to partners to a marriage and partners of a civil partnership and references to ‘marriage’ include both marriage and civil partnership.)

What is domicile and why is it important?

IHT applies to individuals. If the individual is domiciled in the UK then IHT applies to the individual’s worldwide assets.

Domicile is a very British concept. While many tax jurisdictions rely solely on residence and ordinary residence to determine the extent to which an individual is liable to tax, the UK has the additional status of domicile.

Domicile should not be confused with nationality or indeed residency, although both can indicate where an individual is domiciled.

Broadly speaking, domicile is where an individual’s permanent home is or where he feels he belongs.

There is a further concept of ‘deemed domicile’ which is based on residence in the UK and if an individual is ‘deemed domiciled’ for IHT purposes then IHT operates in the same way as if the individual was domiciled.

How does IHT work for transfers between spouses?

Transfers between spouses are normally exempt from IHT. However, when a transfer is made from a UK domiciled individual to a non-UK domiciled individual, the spouse exemption is limited. Until 6 April 2013, that limit had been set at ÂŁ55,000. This is a lifetime limit and applies to lifetime transfers made by a UK domiciled spouse to their non-domiciled spouse that become chargeable as a result of death and

68 DECEMBER 2013

Aileen Paterson

any transfers to a non-domiciled spouse made on death. The balance of the estate is then subject to IHT at 40% (after the available IHT Nil Rate Band, currently ÂŁ325,000, and any exemptions or reliefs).

The rationale for the restriction is to prevent UK domiciled spouses being able to transfer assets offshore to a non-UK domiciled spouse who can then remove such assets from the IHT net.

What has changed?

On 6 April 2013, new rules came into force in relation to the IHT treatment of non-UK domiciled spouses. These rules were brought in following EC criticism that the previous rules were discriminatory.

The new rules make two changes to the IHT treatment of ‘mixed domiciled marriages’:

t 5IF MJNJU PO TQPVTF FYFNQUJPO IBT CFFO increased from ÂŁ55,000 to the value of the IHT Nil Rate Band. t /PO 6, EPNJDJMFE TQPVTFT DBO FMFDU UP CF treated as UK domiciled for IHT purposes to entitle them and their spouse to benefit from the unlimited spouse exemption.

An election will be irrevocable whilst the individual concerned is tax resident in the UK. This prevents the individual electing to be treated as UK domiciled for IHT purposes in order to qualify for the unlimited spouse exemption and then reverting to non-UK domiciled status to restore the beneficial IHT treatment in respect of their non-UK sited assets.

However, an election will cease to have effect if the individual ceases to be resident in the UK for four consecutive tax years.

It should be noted that the election only relates to an individual’s treatment for IHT purposes. It shall have no effect in relation to the remittance basis of taxation for income tax and capital gains tax purposes.

Remaining non-UK domiciled for IHT purposes may still be attractive for individuals if the combined benefits of an increased IHT spouse exemption and escaping a charge to IHT on worldwide assets outweigh the perceived advantage of an unlimited spouse exemption.

Married couples should consider whether it would be beneficial for the non-domiciled spouse to make the election. There is scope for the election to be made not just during the lifetime of the non-domiciled spouse but also within two years of their death. This is a complex area and it is recommended that professional advice is sought from a suitably qualified solicitor and tax adviser.

Aileen Paterson is Principal at BDO Northern Ireland and can be contacted on tel: 028 9043 9009 or email: aileen.paterson@bdo.co.uk

Harnessing the power of the diaspora New York-based business woman Anita Sands believes there are big opportunities for Irish firms in North America and is passionate about helping them to achieve success, she tells Ulster Business.

A

nita Sands believes the diaspora and in particular the network of Irish expats and those with Irish lineage in North America is a powerful thing.

A recognised technology leader, public speaker and advocate for the advancement of women, Sands says almost every career move she has made has happened through her association with someone from the Irish diaspora.

It’s a huge statement from someone who has such an impressive CV. Recently appointed to the board of directors of Symantec, the world’s largest cyber security company, she was until recently Chief Operating Officer of UBS Wealth Management Americas. Her career in financial services previously saw her appointed the youngest ever senior vice president at the Royal Bank of Canada.

A native of Co Louth, Sands holds a Ph.D. in Atomic and Molecular Physics, a 1st Class Honours degree in Physics and Applied Mathematics from QUB and was a Fulbright Scholar at Carnegie Mellon University where she graduated with highest distinction with a Masters in Public Policy and Management.

“Whether I was living in Pittsburgh or living

70 DECEMBER 2013

in Toronto or living here in New York, the Irish community is a family, a network of friends and acquaintances you can develop almost immediately,” she says.

“In my case, every job I’ve gotten since I graduated from Carnegie Mellon has been the result of an Irish person or a member of the Irish diaspora, or an Irish American or Irish Canadian. For me the diaspora has been an incredibly powerful and influential force in my life and that’s why I am committed to doing the same for some of the younger folks we’re seeing coming to work here,” she adds.

Sands believes that as part of a global economy Irish and Northern Irish companies need to seize the opportunities afforded by diaspora connections.

“The world is more international now.

We’re all going to be finding ourselves dealing with international businesses back at home or working abroad for companies. But the great thing about being Irish is that there are Irish people everywhere. When you are Irish you have this incredibly cultural identity that precedes you anywhere in the world. It is a very positive thing to have.”

Praising the investment and progress that has been made in Belfast since she left 13 years ago, the New York based executive feels Northern Ireland is coming into its own. She also thinks the focus on sectors such as financial technology and advanced materials will pay dividends.

“I’m incredibly optimistic about the next few years. Particularly as someone in the tech sector, I think the next five years will be more exciting and disruptive than the last 25,” she said.

“I have a strong belief that every industry is going to be underpinned by technology to a much greater extent than ever before.

Northern Ireland has traditionally been strong in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing and the opportunities in that space are going to be massive.”

As well as the Irish diaspora, Sands’ other main interest is the advancement of women, an interest which goes back to her days studying in Belfast.

“When I was at Queen’s University studying Physics I was definitely in the minority, both at the undergraduate level and particularly at graduate level. So from those days on I’ve just felt incredibly committed to the advancement of women and seeing a better representation of women in traditionally male fields. In my case it is Science, Maths and Technology,” she explains.

“The issue is not the pipeline of women who are starting out it is somehow what happens to them later when numbers start to drop off.

Although in my field, we just simply don’t have enough girls taking an interest in computer science or maths,” she adds.

“Overall I think companies and countries and the economy will be better off when we have all parts of the labour force participating and contributing to the economy to the best of their abilities.”

Her main advice to young people, both men and women, at the start of their careers is to find a good mentor.

“There are people who have been through what you’re going through who have forged a path ahead. Find them and build relationships with people who can help you and be open to learning. I did, and many of them were Irish people,” she says.

“Also, asking for what you need is a really critical skill to develop early on. Thirdly, be authentic in every way possible. Truly knowing yourself is critical if you are going to be able to successfully lead and manage other people.”

Outsourcing & Services

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Your call is important to us…

After a series of announcements of new jobs at firms specialising in outsourced customer services, Ulster Business looks at what makes Northern Ireland such a popular destination for these companies.

T

here was a time shortly before the recession took hold when the prevailing view was that Northern Ireland’s politicians and economic development agency should not be focusing on bringing call centre jobs to the province.

It was time, the commentators argued, to start bringing in higher value jobs that offered people a real career, not just low level positions answering the phones.

While few would argue that we still need to bring a greater number of higher value jobs into Northern Ireland, the perceived wisdom on call centre companies – which prefer to be known as contact or customer service centres – appears to have changed.

72 DECEMBER 2013

As the recession hit and Invest NI launched its Jobs Fund, the agency was honest in its assessment that we were not in a position to turn our noses up at contact centre roles. With the economy in its worst tailspin for decades, jobs were jobs and they were happy to have them here rather than somewhere else.

But now, even as the economy looks to be picking up again, it seems clear that these sorts of jobs look set to play a big part in the mix of employment opportunities available in Northern Ireland.

Last month BT became the latest big name company to make a jobs announcement when it unveiled plans to create 165 roles at a new BT Flex customer contact centre in Belfast.

The new customer contact centre builds on the success of the first BT Flex centre which opened in Belfast in December 2012, creating over 100 jobs. The multi skilled advisors at the centre support BT’s service campaigns and its operations across the UK. That announcement followed hard on the heels of the news that US-owned Stream International is in the process of hiring 1,000 people in Belfast following its acquisition of LBM Direct Marketing.

First Minister Peter Robinson described both investments as “important wins” for Belfast and in highlighting that they could have gone elsewhere, firmly signalled that the Executive very much wants them in Northern Ireland.

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PEOPLE INDUSTRY So having established that the government most definitely wants them here, what is it that makes Northern Ireland an attractive place for contact centres.

Outsourcing giants Teleperformance, Capita, Firstsource and Concentrix also have sites here, while financial services firms including Lloyds Banking Group and Santander have long had call centre operations in the province.

The obvious answer would be grants, costs and availability of staff. Northern Ireland wages are lower than other parts of the UK while we have a sizable workforce under 25 educated to a decent level who want to fill the roles. And Invest NI offers generous financial assistance for training and skills development.

But contact centre operators who spoke to Ulster Business said it is about much more than that.

Alistair Niederer, Teleperformance’s CEO for the UK and Ireland says the attitude of the people and their ability to adapt quickly is what has kept his company, which is based in Bangor, here for 15 years.

“That’s important because we run some of the really important lines for government and private enterprise where we need to skill up quickly and get numbers in, for example in adverse weather or during pandemic situations.

For our general customers the adaptability is key.

The attitude people display on the phone, their ability to learn, their good grace and humour,” he said.

“Northern Ireland ranks right up there with the best because the empathy people create in conversations, whether on voice or social media, is really important to help understand what the issue or question raised be a customer. That’s why we’re seeing a big shift back on shore from business.”

While India remains the call centre capital of the world, the Teleperformance executive says many client companies now want an onshore (UK/Ireland) presence in order to better relate to their customers. Neiderer says that today his firm’s employees perform key customer service functions for massive brands.

“There is a huge advantage to be gained from having that local culture, the onshore culture.

People now understand that customer contact is so critical. It is well worth paying for,” he explains.

“We’re looking to expand the business here.

We’re a growing business, we run offshore, we run nearshore and for those clients who require it Invest NI provides the opportunity to make it cost effective here to get quality.”

Indian-owned contact centre company Firstsource, which has sites in Belfast and Derry, is also after quality people.

Iain Regan, executive vice president at

Alistair Niederer

Firstsource, told Ulster Business that having won a recent contract for a UK bank which Firstsource will service in Belfast, the business expects to develop further opportunities here in the banking, insurance, utilities and telecommunications sectors.

“The fundamentals are still solid. We get great support from Invest NI, from the politicians, from the communities. And we have the ability to attract and retain talent,” he said.

“Our core demographic is the under 25s.

Attrition is high in contact centres traditionally but we try to give good opportunities for people to have career in customer service, give them the chance and ability to be promoted. We are a results focused business and our Northern Ireland sites are among the best in the UK for talent recruitment and retention.”

Regan said Firstsource clients often want a mix of offshore, nearshore and onshore centres.

“We call it rightshoring,” he said. “Certain customers want some functions closer to home and we have eight centres in the UK and Ireland if that’s the case. But we’re agnostic about location – we have off and onshore. Essentially we find a solution that will fit customers. The offshore industry is very much still growing.”

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES With that in mind Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness emphasised that winning contracts like the BT Flex centre is a real positive for Northern Ireland and continuing to create the conditions for companies to create job opportunities in the sector is important.

“This additional investment by BT reinforces the message delivered at the recent Investment Conference, that this is a good place to do business. The 165 new jobs will deliver total annual salaries of over £3m and

provide career and training opportunities to local people within the dynamic, growing telecommunications sector,” he said.

Colm O’Neill CEO, BT Northern Ireland said it was positive that BT Group had chosen to expand further in Belfast.

“BT currently employs over 2,300 people across Northern Ireland with over 1,000 of those jobs as a direct result of inward investment. Our new centre will help us focus on improving customer experience across all of BT’s functions and, as an innovative model of contact centre support we’re delighted that Northern Ireland is once again leading the way.”

Stream, which operates more than 55 contact centres around the world said its staff at its new Loughview facility would “represent some of the region’s leading brand names in telecommunications, utilities and financial services”.

“Our new Loughview facility is a showcase location for Stream globally. It is a beautiful facility in an amazing location with advanced technology behind the scenes to help provide the stability and reliability that our clients expect,” said CEO Kathy Marinello.

“Most importantly, we see this as a place that will attract exceptional people – individuals who want to build careers with a global enterprise while representing great companies.

We are committed to providing a caring environment where people get the support, training and development opportunities that they need to discover and reach their potential.”

In the current climate, when so many of our young people need a foot on the first run of the jobs ladder, it is hard to argue with that.

DECEMBER 2013 73

OUTSOURCING & SERVICES

Why cloud servers are going to shape the future for SMBs M

anaged IT services will quickly become the norm for small and medium sized businesses (SMB) just as they have for large companies, according to one leading IT provider in Belfast.

Steven Goldblatt, Managing Director of Leaf, says that as the world moves towards new flexible ways of working, he is already seeing SMB customers move away from housing hardware and servers on site towards cloudbased, managed IT services.

Goldblatt estimates that only 8%-10% of Northern Ireland’s SMB businesses have so far transitioned to cloud servers, but he expects that to change.

“What we were delivering in 2010 and 2011 is already changing in 2013. The ability to have access to all your emails or all your documents or spreadsheets and being able to communicate was where the journey started. We’re very much at the place now where we are delivering servers in the cloud,” he explains.

“Why do you need to keep on refreshing hardware, that’s becoming a big conversation topic, particularly in the SMB market because they see this depreciating asset lying in the corner consuming power, taking up space. That’s one of the biggest changes we are delivering, virtual servers,” he adds.

The Leaf managing director says that the cloud services market “is going to grow and it is going to grow faster than people think” noting that tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Dell, IBM and HP all see cloud and managed provision of services as their future.

“We’re now a wholesale line provider on the Openreach network. The simple reason is that as technology moves, as online services, data services, cloud, whatever we want to call it grows, the most important thing will be managed internet services.”

Leaf has come a long way since starting up in a garage with two servers a decade ago, when it delivered IT services to a small number of clients.

The company has featured in the Deloitte Fast 50 list of the fastest growing tech companies on the island of Ireland since 2010, ranking 34th this year. Having registered growth of 30% in its most recent financial year it hopes to feature on the list again in 2014.

Leaf is also held in high regard by its major

76 DECEMBER 2013

vendor partners, being awarded the all-island accolade of Microsoft’s cloud partner of the year in 2012 and its SMB Partner of the year in 2013.

That recognition is expected to help fuel further growth, particularly in the Republic of Ireland, where it already has a satellite office in Dublin. The island’s improved road infrastructure has, says Goldblatt, opened up Ireland as a market place it can service easily.

“In the South what differentiates us is the recognition we have for the work we’re doing.

The fact that the largest vendor – Microsoft – has recognised our skills for the whole of Ireland, not only as cloud partner but small and medium business partner. We are getting business in Dublin, in Louth, in Donegal, in Meath. The focus is to grow the Dublin office in future, without taking our eye off the ball in Northern Ireland,” he says.

Leaf ’s typical customer has 30-50 staff and its focus is firmly on the SMB market comprising companies of up to 250 people. As a company with 25 staff – which is expected to rise to over 30 by the end of 2014 – Goldblatt says Leaf can

relate to its clients’ needs.

“We use the relationships with vendors to deliver technology and advanced solutions into our customers – things that actually work - and put them on the right road for where technology is heading. It has to make them more productive. We’ll ensure we’ve tested a product ourselves, within our own business before we deliver it into a customer. If we can improve productivity 5% or 10% it can have a huge impact on their bottom line,” he explains.

“The small business owner is much more educated about IT than they were five years ago. If you’re just coming to refresh their server, they are asking about data centres and Office 365. Resilience and stability is very important,” Steven adds.

“Business owners have also realised there are other ways of working than sitting in an office at a desk all day. There are flexible working arrangements. So we’ve got to be able to deliver data and information no matter where the employee is, whether they are at home, abroad or just working on a mobile. The 9 to 5 business day has gone. That’s where cloud comes in.”

OUTSOURCING & SERVICES

C2k and Capita host lesson for UAE ‘smart’ learning team

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epresentatives from the United Arab Emirates visited Belfast as part of the ‘Mohammed bin Rashid Smart Learning Programme’, to learn how ICT is impacting on teaching and learning, and its wider implications for society. Focusing on the £170m ‘Education Network for Northern Ireland’ initiative, the first and largest education cloud of its type in Europe, the UAE team met with schools, specialists from C2k (Classroom 2000) and servicedelivery partner, Capita Managed IT Solutions, to discuss the latest technology and the project’s pioneering vision for the future of education. The visit was part of UAE Vision 2021 - a cultural heritage programme which aims to help Emiratis inclusively, skilfully and creatively shape the UAE’s future. Pictured at a briefing meeting are (from l-r): Mohammed Gheyarth, Director General of the Mohammed bin Rashid Smart Learning Programme (MBRSLP), John Chambers, Director, Capita Managed IT Solutions; Owen Lynch, former Chief Executive of BECTA and a Fellow of Education Impact.

DECEMBER 2013 77

AWARDS

Launching the 2014 NI Impact Awards for responsible business are (Front row) Damien McAuley, Invest NI; Kieran Harding, Business in the Community; Rosemary Lundy, Arthur Cox; Tony Dunlea, Electric Ireland and Sonia Armstrong, Ulster Business. (Back row) Tony Wilcox, Danske Bank; Catherine Mason, Translink; Davy Elliott, AES; Des Brown, firmus energy; Ciaran McCallion, Allen & Overy and Brendan Miskelly, PwC.

Responsible businesses urged to enter 2014 NI Impact Awards I s your business a great employer, an environmental champion or a role model for others when it comes to putting something back into society? If so, now’s the time to enter Business in the Community’s 2014 Responsible Business Awards.

There are two processes that run at the same time and both are open to companies in Northern Ireland. The Responsible Business Awards is a UK-wide process that is open to companies from anywhere in the UK and which leads to the award of a Big Tick for all those shortlisted. The NI Impact Awards is a regional process open only to companies in Northern Ireland.

The NI Impact Awards are sponsored for the fifth year by Electric Ireland and held again in association with Ulster Business magazine. These annual awards are open to Northern Ireland firms of all sizes and from all sectors and include eight categories in 2014, as outlined on the page opposite.

Chair of Business in the Community NI, Roy Adair, said: “This year, we have launched

80 DECEMBER 2013

our awards a little earlier than usual, allowing businesses a little bit more time to gather their evidence and submit their application.

“These are exciting times for businesses here. The economy is starting to pick up which is a positive sign, yet even through all of the difficulties in recent years, companies here have continued to do the right thing and be a force for good in our society. I am continually impressed by the commitment of organisations to go beyond the norm and impact positively on their people, the planet and the places where they operate.

“Business in the Community has gone from strength to strength, with over 260 businesses now in membership and CORE, our new Standard for Responsible Business just launched, so we’ve plenty to shout about.

“Our Awards celebrate companies and individuals here who realise just how important their actions are to our society and I’d encourage all businesses to put themselves forward for recognition and to inspire other companies by sharing their stories.”

Ken McKervey, Commercial Manager of long-term Awards sponsor, Electric Ireland commented: “Our commitment to Northern Ireland and to businesses across Ireland remains constant. We are delighted to continue our relationship with Business in the Community in terms of sponsoring the NI Impact Awards for a further three years. For us, it’s extremely important to inspire and encourage businesses to keep on doing the right thing. What’s great about Northern Ireland is that due to the large number of small to medium sized businesses, even small actions can reap huge rewards.

“These awards are the perfect vehicle for businesses to learn from one another and find ways to strengthen the economy together. I wish every company entering much success and I look forward to meeting the winners at the Gala Dinner in June at Belfast Waterfront Hall.”

Applicants can apply online now at www.bitcni.org.uk and must submit their entries by Friday 21 February.

Winners will receive their awards at a gala event on Thursday 5 June.

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Media Partner

HOW RESPONSIBLE IS YOUR COMPANY? – THE 2014 NI IMPACT AWARD CATEGORIES How has your business performed this year? Is corporate responsibility on your boardroom agenda and how are you acting with your PEOPLE, the PLANET and the PLACES in which you operate? Inspiring case studies of previous winners are available online at www.bitcni.org.uk

NI RESPONSIBLE COMPANY OF THE YEAR

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For the company that best demonstrates its commitment to responsible business practice, with positive impacts across its people, the planet and the places where it operates. *Please note that in 2014, entry to this category is open only to those companies that have achieved CORE. To find out more, contact Business in the Community or visit our website.

2013 winner: McLaughlin & Harvey

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT For the organisation that best demonstrates significant improvements in resource management, leading to reduced environmental impact and greater sustainability.

2013 winner: Ballyrashane Co-operative

BUSINESS & BIODIVERSITY For the organisation that best demonstrates significant commitment and contribution to protecting and enhancing biodiversity in Northern Ireland through an initiative or its activities.

2013 winner: McLaughlin & Harvey

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE For the organisation that best demonstrates excellence in motivating and developing employees in an inclusive workplace which offers opportunities for all.

2013 winner: Firstsource

EMPLOYABILITY CHAMPION **NEW FOR 2014** For the organisation that best supports unemployed people by addressing employment across Northern Ireland through a wide range of initiatives.

COMMUNITY IMPACT For the organisation that best demonstrates a positive impact on communities by addressing local issues and investing people, resources, time, finance and expertise in improving people’s lives.

2013 winner: George Best Belfast City Airport

EDUCATION PARTNER For the organisation that best demonstrates how its actions have helped raise the aspirations and achievements of young people (aged 4-19) through a solid business education partnership.

2013 winner: Equiniti ICS

COMMUNITY LEADER ** NOMINATION AWARD** For an individual from the voluntary and community sector who has excelled in local leadership and their engagement and partnership with the business sector for the benefit of society.

2013 winner: Kerry Anthony, CEO of Depaul, nominated by Jury’s Inn

For more information visit www.bitcni.org.uk or call 028 9046 0606.

Applications to the NI Impact Awards can be made online at www.bitcni.org.uk and for the UK Responsible Business Awards at www.bitc.org.uk/awards. Entries for both close on Friday 21 February with the gala awards ceremony taking place in Belfast Waterfront Hall on Thursday 5 June.

DECEMBER 2013 81

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

Prince’s Trust recognise exceptional achievement of young people

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he outstanding achievements of disadvantaged young people from across Northern Ireland were recognised at The Prince’s Trust & Samsung Celebrate Success Awards, now in their tenth year.

An audience of 300 people attended the prestigious awards ceremony at The MAC where seven category winners supported by The Trust, were applauded for succeeding against the odds, improving their chances in life and having a positive impact on their local communities.

The list of inspirational young people congratulated included Brendan O’Kane, who was crowned winner of the Samsung Young Achiever of the Year Award while Matthew Drysdale won the Ulster Bank Enterprise Award.

Also winners at The Prince’s Trust & Samsung Celebrate Success Awards were Susie Cuthill, who was selected as Titanic Quarter Ltd Young Ambassador, Cavan White, who picked up the HSBC Breakthrough Award and Sean Mullan, who won the Devenish Nutrition Flying Start Award.

Finally Heather Wilson took the ShredBank Educational Achiever Award while a group of young people from North Belfast scooped the Moy Park Community Impact Award.

Speaking at the Awards, Ian Jeffers, Director of The Prince’s Trust in Northern Ireland said: “These awards are just one way we demonstrate that with a bit of support and encouragement we can inspire thousands of local young people to choose a positive path through life.

“This year over 3,800 young people will take part in Prince’s Trust programmes in Northern Ireland. At least three out of every four will go on to employment, education or training. We can only continue to deliver this great work with the loyal support of our volunteer mentors, supporters, funders, delivery partners and staff.

“I would also like to recognise our sponsors for this year’s event and thank them all for making it such a success. The young people that have won an award and those that are taking control of their lives are our inspiration.”

Eamonn Holmes, Prince’s Trust Ambassador and compere at the event, said: “This is the first time I have attended The Prince’s Trust Celebrate Success Awards and I can honestly say it has been one of the most inspirational evenings I have had the pleasure of hosting.

“Each one of the 21 finalists has overcome unbelievable obstacles and challenges to turn their lives around with the help of the Trust. It just goes to show what can be achieved when the right support is given at the right time to help young people who feel that they have run out of options. Huge congratulations to all of them for the courage and determination they have shown at such a young age.”

The Prince’s Trust & Samsung Celebrate Success Awards honour the achievements of disadvantaged young people supported by The Trust who have succeeded against the odds, improved their chances in life and had a positive impact on their local community.

1 2

3

For more information on The Prince’s Trust please contact Arlene Creighton on email: arlene.creighton@princes-trust.org.uk or tel: 028 9089 5019

1. Brendan O’Kane with Alan Cardie of Samsung and Eamonn Holmes.

2. Sara Neilson, Prince’s Trust and Glen Cinnamon, Lidl.

3. Sean Mullan with Ann Hamilton, Devenish Nutrition and Sir Nigel Hamilton, Chairman of The Prince’s Trust in Northern Ireland.

4. James Greer and Sylvie Brando from Ulster Business, Bryan and Poppy Dunlop, Chris McVeigh and Stephen Cruise, Ulster Bank.

82 DECEMBER 2013

4

Executive Motoring

By Pat Burns

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MOTORING

New Honda Diesel designed for frugality

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n exciting new chapter in the history of Honda diesels has begun with the arrival of the brand’s hotly anticipated 1.6-litre i-DTEC engine. This is the first engine to be launched in Europe under Honda’s flagship Earth Dreams Technology environmental programme and offers customers an outstanding balance of high fuel economy, low emissions and exciting performance.

The new engine made its debut in the British built Civic and will also be making its way into the new CR-V SUV. The all-new powerplant has been developed exclusively for Europe, and tested extensively on a variety of roads across the continent. As with the Civic itself, the engine has been built at Honda’s state-of-the-art factory in Swindon.

This new engine catapults the Civic into the competitive corporate market, offering a ‘no compromise’ vehicle for the corporate customer.

With a class-leading combination of fuel economy and performance, the new fuel-sipping Civic 1.6 i-DTEC keeps running costs low by emitting only 94 g/km meaning free road tax and with 78.5mpg on the combined cycle, it’s longer between fill ups. Combine this with a pokey 120 PS to maintain driver enjoyment and Honda’s acknowledged reputation for reliability, it’s a car which is expected to catch the eye of company car fleet managers and user choosers.

The 1.6 i-DTEC unit features a 6-speed manual gearbox and in the Civic offers a maximum power output of 120PS at 4,000rpm while maximum torque is 300Nm at 2,000rpm. The new variant will be available in three generously equipped trim levels. Prices will start at a very competitive £19,400 for the SE model, £20,595 for the ES and £23,175 for the top-of-the-range EX. The specification for this trio of new variants will be identical to the equivalent 2.2-litre i-DTEC cars, but with the addition of new 16-inch alloy wheels. The 1.6 i-DTEC EX has also been enhanced with several desirable convenience features including front and rear parking sensors, an auto-dimming rear view mirror and DAB digital radio.

84 DECEMBER 2013

MOTORING

Get the quattro

A

udi has just launched an all new 300PS S3 quattro that combines outstanding performance with efficiency and comes complete with all the high-tech equipment Audi has to offer.

The all new four-cylinder two litre TFSI unit delivers 380 Nm of torque between 1,800 and 5,500 rpm while maximum power arrives at 5,500 rpm, with the engine red lining at 6,800 rpm.

The S3 delivers impressive performance. The sprint from zero to 62mph is completed in 5.1 seconds and top speed is electronically governed at 155mph. Combined fuel economy stands at a surprising 40.4mpg, corresponding to CO2 emissions of 162g/km.

The powerful four-cylinder engine features two balancer shafts rotating at twice the speed of the crankshaft for impressive smoothness, and with the help of an electromechanical sound actuator at the bulkhead this refinement is complemented by a suitably sporting engine note. The exhaust system also includes a sound flap that opens at certain engine speed ranges to give the S3 an even more purposeful sound.

The 2.0 TFSI boasts groundbreaking solutions in many fields of technology. One of these is the additional use of indirect injection. It supplements the FSI direct petrol injection at part load to reduce consumption and particulate emissions. FSI injection, which works at pressures up to 200 bar, is used when starting and at higher engine rpm.

86 DECEMBER 2013

The larger turbocharger is also a new development. It achieves a maximum boost pressure of up to 1.2 bar for even more spontaneous engine response while the 2.0 TFSI engine has been designed specifically for use in the new Audi S3 with revisions to pistons, cylinder head and crankcase.

The new S3 is equipped as standard with a manual six-speed transmission with a lightweight magnesium case. The optional S tronic transmission boasts high efficiency and a tall sixth gear. The lower gears are short in the interest of performance, as is also the case with the manual transmission.

Quattro permanent all-wheel drive is an integral component of the powertrain. It gives the new top model in the A3 series a decisive edge over its two-wheel-drive competition. The Audi S3 can accelerate earlier and more safely when exiting a corner, and remains stable and composed under all conditions, particularly in the rain and snow.

The new Audi S3 responds quickly and accurately to steering input, and can take all types of corners at high speed and with little body movement. Its handling is precise, safe and virtually neutral.

One reason for this performance is the finely balanced distribution of the axle loads.

The front axle has been shifted forward 52 millimetres compared with the previous model.

The new 2.0 TFSI is 5 kilograms lighter than the previous engine and is installed tilted

backward by 12 degrees.

Another innovation in the Audi S3 is progressive steering. The steering rack is geared in such a way that the ratio varies. For the driver, the result is a pleasantly smooth character when driving straight ahead and fittingly rapid response in tight corners.

The powerful electric motor providing the servo boost complements the character of the steering system, decreasing its output as speed increases. It consumes no energy when driving straight ahead and thus helps to further reduce fuel consumption. The progressive steering works closely together with various systems on board the new S3, such as the standard rest recommendation and the optional Audi active lane assist and park assist systems.

The brakes of the new S3 match the performance and feel of the new car. The pedal feel is firm but progressive with massive 340mm discs on the front.

Audi drive select is standard in the new Audi S3. It incorporates the characteristics of the electronic accelerator, the boost of the progressive steering and the shift points of the optional S tronic. The driver determines with the push of a button whether these systems operate in comfort, auto, dynamic, efficiency or individual mode. In individual mode, drivers can compose their own preferred profile within certain limits.

The S3 is a superbly engineered car, able to cover the worst of Ulster roads with safety and precision.

On the road pricing starts at ÂŁ30,640.

Better Than New from PMG Autocare Cars are more than transport, PMG Autocare is more than car cleaning.

A

s motoring enthusiasts, cars mean a little more to us than just transport. They can be a reflection of our character, a status symbol for our hard work or a companion for our daily grind. They can also be the first thing that represents your business before you even set foot through a customer’s door.

At PMG Autocare, owner Pete Gilchrist understands this all too well. As an avid car enthusiast himself, he identified the need for a specialist vehicle cleaning service and four years ago PMG Autocare was born.

The business leaned on his vast experience preparing used vehicles and also prepping cars for Concours de Elegance competitions.

There is much more to cleaning a car than just a quick wash and a polish. At PMG Autocare cars are cleansed, revived and restored to better than new condition.

Using hand picked and the finest quality products, the detailing process is quite a bit more lengthy than your average “valet”.

It removes all bonded contaminations through an in depth three stage decontamination process. Paintwork is revived with a skilled machine polish, removing small scratches, repairing stone chips and drastically improving the depth of the paintwork’s lustre.

Wheels are removed, thoroughly cleaned and protected with specialist wheel sealants to keep them at their best, all year round. Interiors are steam cleaned, leather is treated and fed and all surrounding plastics are left a clean matt finish, just as the manufacturer intended when they built your car.

After every process, each part of your vehicle is protected with various waxes and protective coatings, so maintenance is easy and the impression lasts the test of time.

That is only a small insight to the involved experience each vehicle gets treated to. PMG Autocare have worked on everything from Fiestas to Ferraris. Each car gets treated with the same top class attention to detail, regardless of the brand.

If you’re left in any doubt, they welcome any questions and love nothing more than chatting with other car enthusiasts.

Contact Pete directly on 07905 125 450 or visit www.pmgautocare.co.uk

detailing / valeting / stone chips / scratch repair

MOTORING

Mid-life revisions for current 5 Series

T

he current, sixth-generation BMW 5 Series is the most successful in the model’s 41-year history, with more than one million versions of the Saloon alone sold in just over three years. To maintain the model’s market dominance, all models – Saloon, Touring and Gran Turismo – have recently benefitted from a package of revisions.

All versions of the 5 Series are more fuelefficient building on EU6 emissions capability that is far ahead of the legislative requirement of September 2014.

The 184hp version of the 2.0-litre diesel engine in the 5 Series Saloon now has CO2 emissions of 119g/km for both manual and automatic transmissions, matching the figures of the former Efficient Dynamics model, which is discontinued as a result. The 520d has aerodynamic additions to the wheel arches, under-body panelling and front apron which lowers its drag co-efficient (Cd) to 0.25 to enhance fuel efficiency. All 5 Series diesel models now benefit from either a NOx Storage Catalyst or an SCR catalytic converter with urea injection, which allows them to meet EU6

88 DECEMBER 2013

emissions targets a year ahead of the scheduled introduction.

The 5 Series Saloon and Touring have been subtly modified to give their sporting characters a sharper edge. There are additional contour lines around the BMW kidney grille and a re-structured lower air intake. All variants of the 5 Series have Xenon headlights as standard and Adaptive LED lights are now optional.

The door mirrors of all 5 Series models now incorporate indicator repeaters with the Saloon and Touring having new-style tail lights with slender, elegant LED light strips.

The network of intelligent Connected Drive technologies has been expanded in the new 5 Series range to advance the safety, connectivity and convenience of both drivers and passengers.

The BMW Business Navigation system becomes standard on all new 5 Series Saloon and Touring models.

Advances are also seen in optional safety systems. The new Driving Assistant delivers a tailored combination of camera-based driver assistance systems that significantly reduce the risk of potential collisions at both high and

low speeds. The system’s attributes include a Lane Departure Warning, Front-end Collision warning and pedestrian recognition with pro-active, autonomous braking to radically improve reaction times in all manner of driving conditions.

The 5 Series family also features the BMW full colour Head-up Display, which now displays telephone contacts and entertainment details, such as track listings, conveniently projected directly into the driver’s field of vision.

The optional BMW Night Vision with pedestrian recognition also evolves to include the industry leading Dynamic Light Spot. This advanced system uses a thermal imaging camera to detect heat emitting objects and, in addition to acoustically alerting the driver of potential hazards, the fog light beam is directed to clearly illuminate the object ahead to maximise the reaction speeds of the driver.

The new 5 Series range starts from £31,530 OTR for the 520d SE Saloon, £33,855 OTR for the 520d SE Touring costs and at £37,605 OTR for a 520d SE Gran Turismo.

SUBSCRIPTION OFFER Dine FREE at Malmaison with Ulster Business

Malmaison Brasserie on Victoria Street provides a perfect setting for business lunch or dinner. The surroundings are unique and stylish and can offer allocated booths to you and your clients for seclusion to conduct your meeting. Coupled with iconic dishes prepared with a modern twist and served with passion and personality as well as a mouth watering wine list, you will certainly impress your guests.

Malmaison use local ingredients carefully selected and prepared by Head Chef Stephen Jeffers. This infusion of

bistro classics with locally inspired cooking, creates a very memorable dining experience.

As a business destination, Malmaison Belfast also offers two stylish meeting rooms with wow-factor as standard. Your meeting or private event should be pure theatre with absolutely no dramas. Our team are dedicated to providing amazing hospitality and putting the show back into your business. For more information or to make an enquiry, please call Julie Lynch on 028 9022 0204 or email: jlynch@malmaison.com.

✄ Title:

Subscribe online at www.ulsterbusiness.com quoting ‘Malmaison Offer’ or complete and return this form and a cheque for £27.50 (made payable to GREER PUBLICATIONS) to: Malmaison Offer, Greer Publications, 5b Edgewater Business Park, Belfast Harbour Estate, Belfast BT3 9JQ.

Surname:

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

First Name:

1. A lunch voucher will be posted to subscribers on receipt of full subscription fee.

Position:

2. The voucher will entitle two guests to a three-course set lunch

Delivery Address:

3. The offer excludes all drinks and beverages.

Monday to Friday.

4. Advance booking is required.

5. Bookings cannot be made during the month of December.

6. This offer is only applicable to new Ulster Business subscribers.

Postcode: Contact Number: Email:

Signature: Date:

APPOINTMENTS

VICKI HASSAN

RICHARD STACK

CHERELLE McILFATRICK

VICKI HASSAN has been appointed Senior Manager, Sales at DANSKE BANK. This is a leadership role with responsibility for the management, sales and customer service of a number of branches in the North Antrim area. Vicki joins Danske Bank after a 23 year career at Ulster Bank, most recently as Head of Retail Business Improvement.

RICHARD STACK has been appointed Corporate Banking Manager at DANSKE BANK. In his role, Richard will be managing a portfolio of Danske Bank corporate customers and developing new to bank business relationships. He joins Danske Bank from First Trust Bank where he worked in the business banking team.

CHERELLE McILFATRICK has been appointed Account Executive for OUTSOURCE, the Antrim-based provider of IT and telecoms solutions. Cherelle, from Ballymoney, joined Outsource two years ago and previously worked for Habitat for Humanity.

DIANA ATCHISON

EMER O’KANE

BRONAGH MAGEE

DIANA ATCHISON has been appointed Business Development Manager at CORE SYSTEMS. Diana, who has been with the company for five years, will manage key accounts, partners and relationships, driving business development and marketing into new and existing markets.

EMER G CANE has joined CORE SYSTEMS as a Marketing Assistant. Emer will conduct market research, manage the website, devise and execute a digital strategy, organise exhibitions and support the Business Development Manager.

She joins Core Systems from Qwizdom UK. BRONAGH MAGEE `Yk Z][ge] Fgjl`]jf Aj]dYf\ k ^ajkl :EO Product Genius at :9N9JA9F :EO& Previously a trained Apple Kh][aYdakl Yl l`] 9hhd] klgj] af :]d^Ykl k Na[lgjaY KimYj]$ :jgfY_` k jgd] ak lg mh\Yl] f]o Yf\ ]paklaf_ [mklge]jk gf l`] dYl]kl :EO hjg\m[lk Yf\ l][`fgdg_a]k&

MAUREEN EDMONDSON

KENNETH MORTON

COLIN PATTON

MAUREEN EDMONDSON has been appointed as the new Chairman of G>;GE K 9<NAKGJQ ;GEEALL== >GJ FGJL@=JF IRELAND& L`] 9;FA Y\nak]k gf Ykh][lk g^ G^[ge k ogjc l`Yl Yj] particularly relevant for Northern Ireland. Maureen has worked in the food industry for much of her career and has held a number of roles in the public sector.

KENNETH MORTON has joined LEAF as Infrastructure Consultant ^jge FAL=;& @] `Yk )( q]Yjk ]ph]ja]f[] af l`] A;L af\mkljq& Kenneth will be responsible for implementing and assisting Infrastructure Projects for new and existing clients, as well as acting as a point of escalation for the Technical Team.

The role of Technical Team Leader at LEAF has been filled by COLIN PATTON, who has joined from an industry competitor.

He has worked in the ICT industry for 13 years. Colin will be responsible for the day to day running of the Support Desk, liaising with customers and scheduling of onsite work.

90 DECEMBER 2013

APPOINTMENTS

PAUL McILWRATH has recently been appointed Fresh Foods Category Planner for HENDERSON WHOLESALE, part of the Henderson Group. Paul, who joined from Kerry Foods, will be responsible for the development and maintenance of fresh food space and ranges.

PAUL McILWRATH

ARLENE Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;CONNOR

OWEN WILLIAMS

CHRISTINE WHELAN

RONAN GOURLEY

FINBAR HAUGHEY

DEREK DICKIE

LESLEY ANN CUNNAH

DAVID McADAMS

MCE has appointed ARLENE G ;ONNOR as a Client Manager to their expanding Public Affairs team. Arlene joins MCE from the British Medical Association Northern Ireland and has a number g^ q]Yjk ]ph]ja]f[] af _gn]jfe]fl j]dYlagfk Yf\ dgZZqaf_& Land, waste and water consultant ASHFIELD has promoted OWEN WILLIAMS to the role of director of operations in Belfast. He will provide independent environmental liability advice and project management services across key sectors of transportation, banking and commercial property.

CHRISTINE WHELAN has been appointed Field Sales Manager

by KESTREL FOODS, with responsibility for strategic planning and overseeing the growth of symbol group and convenience store customers in Ireland. Christine has wide experience from within the FMCG sector, working previously with Jacobs Biscuits and Cuisine de France.

RONAN GOURLEY has been appointed Sales Manager for Health and Leisure by KESTREL FOODS, with responsibility for the \]n]dghe]fl Yf\ _jgol` g^ l`] Zmkaf]kk f]o 9[la%KfY[c ZjYf\& JgfYf Zjaf_k lg C]klj]d >gg\k ), q]Yjk kYd]k ]ph]ja]f[] af l`] sport and food sectors, most recently with Nike and Cadbury.

FINBAR HAUGHEY has been appointed as Technical Sales Manager for Lisburn based company ANDREW INGREDIENTS. Finbar has 25 years experience in production, operations and f]o hjg\m[l \]n]dghe]fl oal` kge] g^ Fgjl`]jf Aj]dYf\ k o]dd known organisations including WD Irwins.

DEREK DICKIE has been appointed Sales Executive at the DONNELLY GROUP$ Fgjl`]jf Aj]dYf\ k dYj_]kl af\]h]f\]fl n]`a[d] j]lYad]j& Oal` gn]j *- q]Yjk ]ph]ja]f[] af l`] eglgjaf_ af\mkljq$ Derek will specialise in selling new and used vehicles of all eYc]k Yf\ eg\]dk ^jge l`] ?jgmh k E) [gehd]p af <mf_Yffgf& LESLEY ANN CUNNAH has been appointed Volkswagen Brand Manager at the <GFF=DDQ ?JGMH K Volkswagen dealership af =_daflgf& Oal` gn]j ), q]Yjk ]ph]ja]f[] af l`] eglgjaf_ industry, Lesley Ann will be responsible for increasing NgdckoY_]f k eYjc]l k`Yj]& DAVID McADAMS has been appointed Corporate Sales Executive at the <GFF=DDQ ?JGMH K Honda dealership in Belfast. With gn]j 0 q]Yjk [mklge]j k]jna[] ]ph]ja]f[]$ Yf\ [mjj]fldq [gehd]laf_ l`] ;gjhgjYl] >Ykl KlYjl hjg_jYee] oal` @gf\Y$ David will manage existing and create new corporate accounts for the Boucher Road site.

DECEMBER 2013 91

PHOTOCALL

1. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers joins Seamus O’Prey and Thomas McMahon at the new City Business Hub. Ms Villiers was in Belfast City Centre to show her support to businesses and traders.

2. A Belfast-based start-up that uses music to help schools develop entrepreneurial talent in their students has become one of the first local recipients of finance from the Start-Up Loans scheme administered

by Enterprise NI. Pictured are John D’Arcy, chair of Enterprise Northern Ireland, Chris Hughes, founder of Enterprise Factor and Jordan O’Keefe, a Derry~Londonderry finalist from Britain’s Got Talent in 2013.

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3. Leading figures in the hospitality industry inspired students at Ulster Business School at the first fYOUture conference at the Belfast campus of the University of Ulster. Speaker Roisin McKee, Director of People 1st in Northern Ireland (centre), joined students Amy Junkin (left) and Claire Calvert, from the organising committee, to do some future gazing.

4. Barclays has announced the launch of a new dedicated Agricultural team for Northern Ireland as it continues to invest and expand its local business. Pictured left to right are: Julie Gillespie, Area Manager for Agriculture in Northern Ireland, and Agricultural Relationship Managers Dean Richardson and Caroline Doyle.

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5. Pictured at the NI Chamber of Commerce’s President’s Banquet are Paul Smith (Celador); Simon Hamilton (Finance Minister); Colm O’Neill (BT) and Mark Nodder (NI Chamber of Commerce).

5 92 DECEMBER 2013

PHOTOCALL

6. Some of Belfast’s top lawyers have been giving their razors a rest in an effort to raise cash for the annual ‘Movember’ charity effort. Among those joining the Tughans moustachegrowing campaign were; David Jones, Fearghal O’Loan, John McGuckian, David Mawhinney and Paddy Connolly.

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7. AIB Group (UK), which owns First Trust Bank has announced new members are joining its board. Pictured are Steve Reid, Managing Director, AIB Group (UK) with Margaret Butler and Sir Bruce Robinson.

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8. Itradein.com Ltd, has been named on this year’s ‘Silicon Valley Comes 2 The UK’ (SVC2UK) 100 Club list; a list compromising of companies in the UK which are believed to have the potential to reach £100m in revenue within three to five years. Itradein.com was founded by brothers Gerry and Adrian O’Reilly with the aim of changing the way in which trade takes place in the global food & drinks industry.

9. Congratulating SERC students on their fantastic achievement at World Skills UK national competitions are Permanent Secretary Mr Derek Baker and Beth Porter, SERC Governing Member and Chair of the Education Committee.

10. During November, Arts & Business NI’s Business Thinking Rewired Breakfast Series held at James Street South showed how looking at business issues through the lens of culture can create amazing, meaningful business transformation.

Pictured are Dr Joanne Stuart, Chair, Arts & Business NI; Natalie Melton, The New Craftsman; Mark Miller, AES; Nick Livingston, Arts Council; Mary Trainor-Nagele, Arts & Business NI and Andrew Neill, Herbert Smith Freehillls.

10 DECEMBER 2013 93

PHOTOCALL

11. At a recent awards event are John D’Arcy, Chairman of Enterprise Northern Ireland; Arlene Foster, Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister; Gordon Gough, Chief Executive of Enterprise Northern Ireland and Melody Hossaini, social entrepreneur and former contestant on The Apprentice.

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12. The British Irish Chamber of Commerce has launched its 2014 conference, which will take place in the Titanic Centre in Belfast on 13th February.

Details of a number of the keynote business speakers were announced at a launch event, which took place at the city centre offices of the conference’s primary sponsor, HSBC. 13. Costa Coffee has announced plans to open three new stores at the Kennedy Centre, Belfast, Lisburn Omniplex and Holywood Exchange creating up to 40 new jobs, with additional seasonal staff, over the next few months.

The announcement was made

by Dervla Arthurs, Marketing Manager for Costa Ireland.

14. Construction contractor Gilbert-Ash has completed a prestigious contract worth £5.75m at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Grade 1 listed building (FCO) in Whitehall, London. Pictured is Ray Hutchinson, Gilbert-Ash and Mariangela Spinillo, the Language Centre Manager at the Foreign Commonwealth Office.

15. Director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Avila Kilmurray, Strategic Advisor of Giving Northern Ireland, Sandara Kelso-Robb, Belfast Lord Mayor Máirtín O Muilleoir and The Funding Network founder Fred Mulder are pictured at a Dragon’s Den style event which raised more than £25,000 for charity.

94 DECEMBER 2013

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PHOTOCALL

16. Action Renewables, is calling on local companies who are forging ahead with sustainability practices to enter the organisation’s 2014 awards scheme. Pictured at the launch of the Awards at the new Belfast Seahorse sculpture is ‘Green Goddess’ Collette O’Neill and Andrew Ryan from Awards sponsors, Tughans Solicitors.

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17. In a bid to boost its competitiveness and product range, a local manufacturing company has joined forces with their Further Education College which it said will allow them to explore new product design possibilities, enter new markets and streamline their production processes. SERC Principal and Chief Executive Ken Webb and Paul McCartan from Motorsport Trailers are pictured examining the comprehensive 3D CAD drawing which SERC have produced for the company.

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18. Courier company, UniBaggage. com run by Paul Stewart has beaten off stiff competition from across the UK and Ireland to be crowned best Micro Business in the prestigious Smarta 100 – awards celebrating the most resourceful, inspiring and disruptive small businesses in the UK.

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19. Northern Ireland Tourist Board Market Manager (ROI) Fiona Cunningham proudly displays the Best Tourist Board award that NITB won for the third consecutive year at the annual Blue Insurances Travel Media Awards in Dublin.

20. Belfast-based telecoms firm Connect Telecom is set to create nine new jobs and expand into Scotland after securing financing from the Growth Loan Fund.

Pictured are Robin Brown and Matthew Brown, Directors of Connect Telecom, with David McCurley, Senior Investment Manager at WhiteRock Capital Partners.

DECEMBER 2013 95

PHOTOCALL

21. Steve McDonagh, Laura Longridge, Caitriona Henry and from GM Marketing ‘breaking free’ from the depths of Crumlin Road Gaol at the launch of Free’ist, an innovative new sugar free range!

22. Belfast law firm Tughans has renewed its partnership with the Chartered Accountants Ulster Society for 2013 -2014. Announcing the partnership were Anna Beggan from Tughans and Darren McDowell, the society’s chairman.

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23. Audit and advisory firm Baker Tilly Mooney Moore has been named Northern Ireland’s Independent Firm of the Year at the British Accountancy Awards. Tax Partner Anne Fitzpatrick received the award at a Tower of London ceremony.

24. Germinal Seeds NI is the new name for Northern Ireland grass and forage seed wholesaler Samuel McCausland Ltd, the company has announced.

Established in Belfast in 1825, the business is changing its name to more strategically align with parent company Germinal Holdings. Pictured is William Gilbert of Germinal Holdings.

25. Kingspan Environmental has launched a new oil level monitoring device which enables consumers to accurately observe tank oil levels via their smart phone, text or email no matter where they are in the world. Watchman Anywhere was launched by Kingspan Environmental Commercial Director, Charles Burns and Ulster players Ruan Pienaar, Stephen Ferris and Rory Best.

96 DECEMBER 2013

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18 Boucher Way, Belfast BT12 6RE www.agnewcorporate.co.uk

SPORT

Circuit to be a flagship event T

op motorsport event the Circuit of Ireland is back, significantly enhanced for 2014 with the iconic rally to be one of twelve that will feature in next year’s revamped FIA European Rally Championship calendar.

Scheduled to take place during its traditional Easter Week-end slot on 18-19 April, the Circuit of Ireland Rally is making its return to the ERC roster of top events after a lengthy absence.

The Circuit of Ireland will be the only UK and Ireland based round in the Championship.

Route details will be outlined early next year but it’s anticipated that the action packed two-day rally will include some of Northern Ireland’s top tourism landmarks in counties Down and Antrim as well as locations in Belfast.

Broadcast by Eurosport, the 2014 Circuit of Ireland Rally is expected to attract in excess of 10 million viewers globally as well as thousands of spectators and team officials who will accompany the international competitors.

Global Eurosport television viewers for the 2012 event reached almost 9 million The Circuit of Ireland was first held in 1931 and is one of the world’s oldest rallies after Rallye Monte-Carlo. Event director Bobby Willis said he was thrilled that the locally organised rally will be back at the premium end of the international rally arena in 2014.

“The Circuit of Ireland Rally has always attracted high profile competitors and our inclusion in the 2014 ERC programme will help draw some of the best in the sport to Northern Ireland,” he said.

It is estimated the event will generate over £1m for the local economy, with over 90% of what is generated staying in Ireland, and Bobby told Ulster Business it will appeal to more than just the die-hard rally fans.

“We’re trying to make it a real event. NI needs events and the market that I’m aiming for is not just the rallying and motorsport people.

I’m more interested in getting people who might otherwise be going shopping or doing DIY. We’re very lucky that the brand name Circuit of Ireland is one of the biggest Irish brands, let alone sporting brands,” he said.

“We had a special stage in Lisburn last year and even in the rain we got 12,000 people.

Those are not just rally people, those are people coming to see an event. The place was buzzing.”

He also believes that, allied with the Giro d’Italia coming here next year, the Circuit provides another great opportunity to showcase Northern Ireland’s spectacular landscapes to the world – and a great sponsorship opportunity for companies with both an Irish and international presence.

“It is maybe not in the same league as the Giro d’Italia, but that aside it is very big and a step up from last year. The botton line is we are

98 DECEMBER 2013

going to have two and a half hours of positive television images beamed around the world. It is going into America through the Discovery Channel, it is going right around the world.

We got nine million viewers last year and I am sure we’re looking at 15 million for 2014. That’s what Northern Ireland needs,” he said.

Bobby is himself well known in the rally world. Having first taken up rallying in 1972 he had a successful motorsport career as a co-driver, earning an international reputation with over 100 stints in the Rally World Championship, the Middle East Rally Championship and the Cross-Country World Cup. His business Rallymaps has been supplying ordnance survey maps to the major teams who came over to compete in the Circuit of Ireland since then and he has also developed maps for

the UK round of World Rally Championship for the past 40 years. The company now prepares maps using advanced mapping technology and delivers high res geographic data to anywhere in the world for rallies throughout the globe.

Over the years Bobby has built up excellent relationships with major teams and managers who compete in the World Championship, European Championship and leading British rallies and he says the Circuit – which he has co-ordinated since 2009 – provides a chance to give something back to the sport.

“I’ve been able to use my experience, my contacts, etc to help bring the rally back out of the doldrums,” he says. “But I also have a great management team who meet every week and are going to be involved in making this work. It is not just the Bobby Willis show.”

Celebrating the Circuit’s return to the top are rally driver Marty McCormack and event director Bobby Willis

That’s about the only answer you won’t get from Agnew Fleet Manager.

From reduced paperwork to bespoke reporting – we have the solution.

Want to know how to save time, money and take control of managing your fleet?

Then Agnew Fleet Manager is the answer. It brings everything you need together – all at the touch of a button.

Pair this with our competitive rentals and find out how Agnew Corporate is the complete fleet solution.

Call us on: 028 9038 6600 Take control today - we’d be happy to give you a full demonstration of how Agnew Fleet Manager could benefit you.

18 Boucher Way, Belfast BT12 6RE www.agnewcorporate.co.u www.agnewcorporate.co.uk

TECHNOLOGY

The Gadget

Guide

Technology journalist Adam Maguire reviews some recently released and soon to be available gadgets.

REVIEW: PLAYSTATION 4

S

ony were quick to capitalise on Microsoft’s mis-steps when it first unveiled the Playstation 4 - now it has to deliver on all of that promise.

The specs sheet for Sony’s latest home gaming console is suitably impressive. Added features - such as the touch-sensitive controller - also offer plenty of potential for fresh and unique styles of gaming.

However, these details do not always guarantee success. Power is no guarantee of success and new gaming tools can easily end up being pointless gimmicks. What the PS4 has going for it, however, is a very gamer-focused approach.

The launch titles are varied and most importantly they put the PS4’s power to good use. Sony has also kept the sharing rights simple, allowing people to trade-in old games as before.

What could seal the deal for many, though, is the price tag. Coming in considerably cheaper than the Xbox One - without any corners being cut to achieve that - may make it first choice for those looking to enter the next generation of gaming.

The Playstation 4 is available from most electronics shops for £349

REVIEW: SONY XPERIA Z1

S

ony has struggled to keep a pace in the smartphone wars, but the Xperia Z signalled its ability to play with the big boys. Its successor is now looking to build on its success.

Much like other Android phone makers, Sony is firmly of the belief that bigger is better. As a result the Z1 boasts a 5” screen, giving users plenty of real estate to play with.

This is both a blessing and a curse. It makes the device great for watching video, browsing the internet and looking at images but it also makes it somewhat cumbersome in the hand and pocket.

That aside, the device offers a powerful processer and impressive camera - all packed into an incredibly slim (and waterproof ) body.

This is certainly another step up for Sony and a real contender in the smartphone wars once you get over its unwieldy width.

The Sony Xperia Z1 is available sim free for £492

100 DECEMBER 2013

TECHNOLOGY

PREVIEW: NIKE FUELBAND SE

W

earable computing is seen by many to be the next great market for tech companies though one of the leaders in the field has its expertise in a far more analogue world.

Nike’s Fuelband - launched in early 2012 - was a simple wrist-device that logged a user’s movements so they could see how active they are being each day. The logic behind this is that, by making the user aware of how much they move, they will be more inclined to avoid a sedentary lifestyle.

With the launch of the Fuelband SE, Nike aims to build on that concept, adding more nuance and detail so that users can better manage their day-to-day activities.

For a start the SE is more precise in its logging of movements, allowing users to specify what kind of activities they are undertaking. They can also set themselves daily targets, or even create challenges amongst friends.

The Fuelband is of niche appeal appeal but it has certainly shown potential show sh own n po p tenttiaal fo fforr we wearable electronics. T The model he SSE E mo m dell is ssure uree to ur continue that tha hatt positive posi po siti siti tive v momentum. mom mentu tu um. m The Nike Nike k Fuelband SE will wil illl be b available ava vaail i ab a le Nikke. e com from Nike.com

PREVIEW: LOGITECH POWERSHELL

A

dding physical controls to Apple’s iPhone, the Logitech Powershell aims to turn the mobile device into a fullyfledged games machine.

Even though it is a mobile at heart, the iPhone has become a significant force in mobile gaming.

However its reliance on a touchscreen, as opposed to physical controls, has made it less-than-ideal for many types of games.

Logitech hopes to address this with its Powershell.

Ultimately acting as an elaborate case, the iPhone clips into the shell, surrounding the screen with the kind of buttons you’d expect tto see on the likes of a Nintendo DS. The Powershell also has a built-in battery, meaning users can play on for that bit longer.

The idea of a controller adaptor takes away somewhat from the casual nature of phone-based gaming and at its price it’s also hard tto see this being something a user picks up on a whim. Then again, ffew would have bet on Apple making a hugely successful gaming device back in 2007, so you never know what might happen.

The Logitech Powershell will launch in December priced £89.99.

REVIEW: WATCHMAN ANYWHERE

B

uy this for a loved one this Christmas and make sure they never run out of heating oil again! This smart gadget, produced by Kingspan Environmental, allows the half a million oil tanks in Northern Ireland to alert their owner when they need re-filled.

The Watchman Anywhere remote oil monitoring device is simply attached to the top of the tank whether it is steel, plastic, single skin or bunded, and uses ultrasound techniques to measure the current levels. The amount of oil in the tank can then be viewed instantly and easily through the free app.

The real time app access, through tablets and smartphones, makes this gadget particularly appealing to those who have holiday homes and want to make sure they’re not arriving to a cold house, the elderly whose relatives can keep an eye on their oil levels, or simply the person who already has everything else!

Watchman Anywhere can be purchased at www.watchmananywhere.com

OFFER: RRP - £130 (Ulster Business readers can receive a special 15% discount off Watchman Anywhere when they enter the promotional code ‘UlsterBWA’ at the checkout.)

DECEMBER 2013 101

BUSINESS TRAVELLER

Business Books

Stephanie Wilson, Vice President, Firstsource Solutions H often do you travel, where to and why?

How I travel every week and it is usually a ccombination of travel in the UK, Republic of IIreland, US and India. The reasons for travel are tto meet with clients, visit Firstsource operational ccentres and review performance or to attend meetings with senior management. m W What are the three things you couldn’t do without when travelling on business? w Other than a phone, I always take my Kindle, O ggym kit, ipod, plus my passport!

H Have you found a good way to work while yyou are on the move?

IIt is always difficult to work on the move, but yyou just have to be focused and use every bit oof time that is available. It helps to be very oorganised and make sure you stick to a schedule so that planned calls are not happening when you are going through security!

What would be your top tips for anyone embarking on a job that involves a lot of travel?

Good organisation and planning, extra time for travelling to airports (having missed a couple of flights lately), small suitcases and the minimum amount of toiletries and make-up that you can manage! A second passport can be very helpful if visas are regularly required for visits as well.

What’s your favourite App for passing the time?

Sadly, the highly addictive Candy Crush.

What do you enjoy most about working internationally?

Learning with different cultures is very interesting and meeting really talented people across the world often in very different industries is great too. The biggest challenges are losing time travelling and also being away from home so much.

What’s your favourite city in the world and where has disappointed you?

I don’t really have a favourite city, but ones that stay in my mind are Sydney and Mumbai – for different reasons. The worst experiences are always the delays or re-routing due to poor weather or other reasons, which inevitably always happen just before you are due to go home and relax for the weekend.

What do you look for in a good hotel when away on business?

Free wi-fi is something every hotel should provide these days and I get quite annoyed when hotels charge for this. A good gym and a clean hotel with decent room service are also high on my list.

What’s the best airline you’ve flown with and best hotel you’ve stayed in?

The best airline has to be British Airways – the crew are always so nice and helpful especially after a long haul trip, returning home. I’ve been lucky enough to stay in many nice hotels around the world, but the best hotels are those with fantastic staff, who make you feel welcome and are helpful all the time – whether it is a small family run hotel or a large chain.

Indian hotels have to be amongst the best for their service.

102 DECEMBER 2013

MAKING IT HAPPEN

by Iain Martin (Simon and Schuster) When RBS collapsed and had to be bailed out by the taxpayer in the financial crisis of October 2008 it played a leading role in tipping Britain into its deepest economic downturn in seven decades. How on earth had a small Scottish bank grown so quickly to become a global financial giant that could do such immense damage when it collapsed? From the birth of the Royal Bank in 18th century Scotland, to the manic expansion under Fred Goodwin in the middle of a mad boom and culminating in the epoch-defining collapse, Making It Happen is the full, extraordinary story.

REMOTE

by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (Vermilion) For too long our lives have been dominated by the ‘under one roof ’ Industrial Revolution model of work. That era is now over. The technology to work remotely and to avoid the daily grind of commuting and meetings has finally come of age, and bestselling authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson are the masters of making it work. They will convince you that working remotely increases productivity and innovation, and it will also teach you how to get it right - whether you are a manager, working solo or one of a team.

DOGFIGHT

by Brad Stone (HarperCollins) The rise of iPhones, smartphones and tablets has changed the world. At the centre of this are Apple and Google, two companies who have steamrolled the competition.

In the age of the Android and the iPad, these corporations are locked in a battle that will play out beyond the marketplace, in the courts and on screens around the world. ‘Dogfight’ is not just a story about what devices are going to replace our TVs, phones, laptops, and music players. It’s about who will control what we see on those devices and where that content will come from. This is the future of media, entertainment, communication and information around the globe.

All titles are available at easons. To win copies of the featured books go the Ulster Business facebook page.

TRAVEL & TOURISM

30 Years of the ‘Best’ at Belfast City Airport I

t was the year that Michael Jackson’s video for ‘Thriller’ first aired, the year that saw the first release of Microsoft Word and the year James Dyson produced his first prototype vacuum cleaner.

Locally, 1983 was also the year in which the first commercial flights landed and took off from Belfast Harbour Airport, or as we now know it, George Best Belfast City Airport.

This year the airport is also celebrating its 30 year partnership with leading regional airline Flybe which began operating its regional routes from the city in 1983.

Brian Ambrose, Chief Executive of Belfast City Airport, said: “Some of our first passengers may remember having to pass through the old Nissen hut, which acted as a purpose built security facility, before entering the terminal building.

“Thanks to continued private investment from our shareholders we now have a modern terminal with state of the art facilities, all under the one roof these days I might add, to enhance the experience of every passenger that comes through our doors.

“Flybe, which was then known as Jersey European and is now our largest and longest serving airline, was one of the first airlines to recognise the huge potential of our ideal location, just minutes from Belfast City Centre.

“Since those early days we now have an extensive route network that is continually developing to best serve the needs of our passengers, both business and leisure, through our airline partners Aer Lingus, British Airways, CityWing and of course Flybe.

“I am delighted that our growth in the last 30 years has allowed us to become a major employer in Belfast and to develop a strong relationship with our local community, having donated over £100,000 to local community groups and projects.

“Each year we handle around 2.5 million passengers and now as the only direct link between Northern Ireland and Heathrow we expect this year to be one of the busiest yet.

“On behalf of all at Belfast City Airport, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our airline partners and passengers that have been part of our incredible journey over the last 30 years and I look forward to next 30!”

Andrea Hayes, Regional Commercial Manager Flybe, added: “Flybe was one of the first airlines to fly out of the City Airport and has been providing vital business and leisure links between Belfast and the rest of the UK for 30 years. During that time Flybe’s business has increased in Northern Ireland despite the continued tough economic challenges faced by the aviation industry.

“Birmingham is one of our longest standing destinations, now moving into its 28th year of daily flights. Southampton, with a decade of service, has become a popular gateway to the South of England whilst, since 2004, flights to Exeter have opened up the South West.

“Over the last four years passengers from Northern Ireland have also benefited from connections to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland through Edinburgh and Glasgow with Flybe’s franchise partner, Loganair; and there is a wealth of onward connections available through Manchester Airport’s growing status as Flybe’s regional hub.

“On behalf of Flybe we look forward to continuing to serve Northern Ireland passengers for the next thirty years.”

1980’s

1990’s

Today

DECEMBER 2013 103

CLASSIFIEDS

TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED ADVERT CONTACT ULSTER BUSINESS ON 028 9078 3200

104 DECEMBER 2013

TOTAL FLEET MANAGEMENT ANY VEHICLE, ANY MANUFACTURER

Business Diary

January 2014

For more information and to book visit www.womeninbusinessni.com/events DATE EVENT

VENUE

CONTACT

14 January 14.00 - 16.30

Arts Masterclass, Evaluating Impact Organiser: Arts & Business NI

Ulster Bank 11-16 Donegall Square East Belfast Cost: Free

Email: tom.bamford@artsandbusinessni.org.uk or T: 028 9073 5151. Further information: www.artsandbusinessni.org.uk/events

17-19 January 10.00 - 16.00 (3 days)

Business Accelerator Bootcamp Organiser: Connections Plus

Ramada Encore Hotel, Talbot Street Belfast

Anne McAllister Email: anne@annemca.com Further information: www.annemca.com

22 January 09.30 - 12.30

Voices Heard Organiser: Women in Business Cost: £10 + VAT for members, £25 + VAT for non-members

Parliament Building, Stormont Belfast

For more information or to book Email: laura@womeninbusinessni.com www.womeninbusinessni.com

29 January 07.45 - 10.30

Public Procurement Conference Organiser: CBI/CPD This event would be of interest to suppliers of goods/services to the public sector

Hilton Hotel Belfast Cost: Free

For more information or to book Email: anthea.savage@cbi.org.uk Further information: www.cbi.org.uk/ni

30 January 08.30 - 10.30

Digitising my Business and Social Media Masterclass Organiser: Women in Business Speaker: Dr Sinclair Stockman, Executive Director of DNI 2020

Science Park Belfast Cost: Free for members or £30 + VAT for non-members

For more information or to book Email: laura@womeninbusinessni.com www.womeninbusinessni.com

31 January 10.00 - 16.00

Advanced Diploma in Personal and Executive Coaching 12 workshops over 4 months Organiser: BMM People Development

The Bath House, Canal Quay Newry

For more information or to book Email: breege@bmmpeople.com or T: Breege McManus on 07740 288424 Further information: www.bmmpeople.com

If you would like to promote an event or conference please contact Sonia Armstrong (soniaarmstrong@greerpublications.com)

People in Business What is your most hated business expression or cliché?

“Thinking outside the box” has got to be the most annoying and overused term or “giving 110%” when 100% is everything.

If you hadn’t been in business what would you have liked to have done?

A pilot - I was always fascinated by aeroplanes and the technical wizardry behind them.

How important is money to you?

They say money makes the world go around but when you have more than you need you soon realise it doesn’t equal happiness.

What’s the most treasured possession in your office?

Outside my telephone and pc, my TV - it has built in Skype, which I use to speak to my daughter in Chicago.

What are you currently reading?

FACTFILE NAME & JOB TITLE: Gary Irvine, Principal Search Consultant, 4C Executive Search and Owner Chairman, Diamond Recruitment Group CA REER: Established Diamond Recruitment Group in 1989 – now NI’s largest locally-owned recruitment agency and 4C in 2013 FAMIL Y: Married to Pauline with three children, Jenna, Ross and Sarah INTERESTS: Running, training, squash, fishing

Alex Ferguson’s autobiography – he knew his industry inside out and his man management skills were second to none.

What has been your toughest challenge?

Managing a business through the worst economic downturn our generation has known and being brave enough to believe we would come through it leaner and fitter.

What do you worry about?

What was your first paying job?

As a sales advisor for BT, which taught me how to interact with the public and developed my communication skills.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever done?

and fitness fits in around work Mon-Fri but certainly not at weekends.

What do you consider your best business decision or idea?

Worrying is a negative word and I have witnessed what it can do to people, so I try to avoid it where possible.

What advice would you give to the 18-year-old you?

Weeding at a local garden nursery while at school – very hard, monotonous work for very little money!

Employing an MD to manage Diamond Recruitment Group – freeing me up to think much more strategically and pursue 4C Executive Search.

What do you like most and least about your current role?

Who or what has been your biggest influence or inspiration?

Which person, living or dead, would you like to have met, and why?

I love the thrill of successfully placing a candidate in a business critical role. Getting the work/life balance right is difficult at present.

My belief in God and the Christian faith is without doubt my biggest source of strength, hope and inspiration.

CS Lewis, a gifted Christian story writer - to discuss his thoughts on Sigmund Freud, a renowned writer and Jewish Atheist.

Do you have any “golden rules” in life?

Are you switched on 24 hours or is there Honesty, integrity and professionalism are a time when you switch your phone off? three ‘pillars’ which will always stand by you.

What do you think you’ll be doing in ten years time?

Think about where you want to be five years from now and ensure you have a plan to get there.

Hopefully having more freedom to enjoy time with my family – maybe even grandchildren by then!

When you are self employed you never fully switch off, your work becomes a big part of who you are.

Never over promise, but always over-deliver.

What would you regard as a “cardinal sin” for anyone doing business with you?

How do you want to be remembered?

Has your personal life suffered because of your career?

I work largely on a basis of trust, taking people at face value. Break that trust and it is unlikely we will ever do business again.

From a business perspective, for being Northern Ireland’s most respected and trusted Executive Search Consultant.

Probably fair to say that family, social life