Eircom NI has marked the completion of the implementation phase of the Network NI project for the Northern Ireland Civil Service with a visit to their Belfast headquarters by Finance Minister Sammy Wilson.
The Finance Minister congratulated eircom NI on the successful roll-out across 300 sites of the £70m, six-year project, which will replace all existing NICS data networks with a single supplier-managed next generation network.
Finance Minister Sammy Wilson enjoys a demonstration of eircom NI’s state of the art telepresence video conferencing facility.
Network NI - arguably the most significant public sector communications project of recent years - underpins the overall local government reform programme, using modern technology to improve information access, integration and management.
Mr Wilson commented: “This has been a hugely important and influential project which has established a modern and efficient network infrastructure to support and meet the growing business needs of the NI Civil Service and those of its key reform projects such as Records NI, HR Connect and Account NI.”
The General Manager of eircom NI, Darren Lemon, said that the Network NI milestone demonstrated that eircom was more than capable of delivering the largest and most strategically important communications projects in the north.
eircom has been operating and investing in Northern Ireland for several years now and plans to double its current staff of 30 and grow market share considerably over the next two years.
“We are a standalone Northern Ireland business, but have strong technical back-up and ongoing support from our parent company, which is Ireland’s largest telecommunications provider,” said Darren.
“We have invested significantly in our NI operation to put in place world class experts, service operations and infrastructure, and we now represent a dynamic and robust telecommunications alternative for the local market.”
Darren said organisations recognised it was imperative to increase their productivity and, given the changing nature of doing business, with employees working across sites, offices and teams, optimisation of the communications infrastructure was the one sure way of boosting output.
“Unified Communications is a really powerful tool which can dramatically reduce time wastage and improve workplace collaboration,” he explained. “Put simply, it involves retaining all existing channels available to the information worker, but making them available through a single access point.”
With the NICS contract successfully through the first milestone, eircom NI will be targeting upcoming business from other parts of the local public sector environment - including education, local government, criminal justice and health - as well as pushing into the private sector.
Potential customers are likely to be at the upper end of the business scale with a number of sites around Northern Ireland. Or, of course, those with sites north and south of the border, such as current eircom NI customers: Musgrave Group, Davy and KPMG. With new private sector targets clearly in mind, the eircom team has been busy analysing the northern marketplace.
“We’re talking to potential customers, looking at their drivers and what they need from a communications provider,” continued Darren. “The common thread emerging is the need to achieve greater efficiency and, as economic volatility continues, optimising the input/output ratio will be the absolute driving force.”
While visiting eircom NI’s headquarters at Forsythe House, near Lanyon Place, the Finance Minister also had an opportunity to experience one of the most advanced Telepresence suites in the country.
“Telepresence represents the next generation in conferencing technology,” said Darren. “It’s the sort of technology which will deliver major advantages to a lot of customers out there, enabling individuals or teams to achieve important visual connection without being physically present - it takes the video conference to a more ‘life like’ level.
“Even internally at eircom, it is reducing the need for north-south travel and on a broader level it means we can play our part in the green agenda by reducing our levels of international travel.
“Ultimately, it’s a top-end illustration of what can be achieved in the name of efficient and effective communications - showing how an organisation can make communications less about where the worker is and more about getting the connecting channels right.”
As a business at the forefront of the communications technology revolution, eircom is particularly keen to play its part in encouraging and supporting Northern Ireland’s aspiring business tycoons. This year, it is sponsoring the eircom Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 awards, run by Advantage NI and Invest NI.
The competition is open to those aged 16-30 who have been running their own business for less than two years, and offers a total prize fund of £16,000, including a top cash prize of £5,000, as well as free publicity and mentoring support.
Darren said: “Economic times are challenging, but adversity also brings opportunity. So now, more than ever, Northern Ireland needs to encourage entrepreneurial behaviour among fledgling innovators with the talent and ability to fuel our future economic growth.
“Thanks to the ingenuity and drive of our young entrepreneurs, Northern Ireland has become a key player in various sectors throughout the global marketplace. They are, quite literally, the lifeblood of our future well-being.
“eircom want to do our part to encourage that spirit of innovation, so I can think of no better investment than to support Young Entrepreneur 2009’s search for the budding business people of today who will become the role models of tomorrow.”