By Stephen McKinley
While websites wobble and companies crash, Irish internet usage continues apace.
The Irish Internet Association has conducted a survey that shows that numbers logging on has increased, and of the 15 most popular websites, all but one have seen big increases in traffic in recent months.
The increase averaged out at about 40 percent more than last year. All companies surveyed said that they expected traffic to increase dramatically in the year ahead despite a slowdown in corporate technology spending.
According to ENN.ie, the cost of internet access and the slow connection speeds available for residential internet users were identified as the main barriers to continued internet usage growth by respondents.
Baydon buys
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Baydon Solutions, an Irish software company, has followed Riverdeep’s lead by buying into the U.S. market.
The company has acquired Human Dynamics for $3 million in cash and stock.
Baydon has been developing training support software for the financial market. Its software helps cut the costs of training by up to 40 percent, the company claims.
With its main market in the U.S., Baydon is also looking to raise another $4 million to accelerate its sales and marketing in the U.S. Human Dynamics has been a Baydon partner here for three years, and has 30 staff members. The takeover will see job creation in Baydon’s Dublin HQ, perhaps as many as 30 new jobs.
"This is a good value deal for Baydon. HDI has a strong customer base in the US and we want to accelerate growth of our business there," said John Hughes, managing director of Baydon Solutions.
Baydon’s product, Assistware, resides on a user’s workstation as a support bubble icon. When needed, users click on the icon, and are given exact information on troubleshooting a problem or query.
"We have developed a technology that gives employees what they need when they need it," Hughes said.
Gardening news
Electricnews reports that a new Irish website is helping gardeners with questions unique to the Emerald Isle.
Garden.ie was set up by RTE broadcaster and gardening expert Gerry Daly.
"The idea behind Garden.ie is to provide people with an easily remembered access point for Irish gardening on the web," Daly said. "Once they go onto Garden.ie they can find whatever they want. We aim to be a clearing house for garden information of all kinds."
Daly is to offer an on-line question and answer service on the site.
The site offers a large range of information on growing plants, designing gardens from scratch, finding specific plants for sale or even gardens to visit around the country.
Navan elation
Navan Mining, the Irish exploration company, has reported "spectacular results" from its gold drilling program in Bulgaria.
"The Krumovgrad prospect continues to exceed our expectations. The recent drill results confirm the high-grade nature of Ada Tepe [the mining region in Bulgaria]," said Navan chief executive Brian Calver.
In a statement this morning, the company said the current phase of drilling will be extended into the summer months.
The deposit remains open ended and appears to be expanding in potential as the step-out drilling progresses. It is expected that drilling on the nearby Synap prospect will start in June, it said.
Trenching and drilling continues and it is expected that further results will be published monthly, the statement said.
Jobs down at Dell
Two hundred jobs are to go at Dell’s plant in Limerick, but the company plans to achieve this by voluntary buyouts rather than through layoffs.
The plan is part of what the company described as its "aggressive management of operating expenses."
Dell’s 4,500 staff in Limerick are the only employees affected. The firm’s 1,200 employees in Bray and Cherrywood, Dublin, will remain untouched.
Pat Casey, Dell’s human resources vice-president, said the decision was a measure of the changing world environment of unit price reductions and there was pressure on the cost base.
"It is the first time we have had to do this in 10 years in Limerick," he said.
Dell recently launched a price war against other PC and computer manufacturers that is eating into its own profits and it announced the first layoffs in its history in February. Up to 4,000 layoffs are being made, mostly in Texas where the firm is headquartered. But two weeks ago, Dell was stating that its 9,000 employees in the EMEA would be unaffected by the cuts.