Local Industry and ICSE
Window on the World
Issue 0
Local Industry and ICSE
By Kevin Ryan
Limerick is the centre of the Shannon region - located in what is sometimes called - to the surprise of Americans - the Mid-West. Unusually, in such a centralised country as Ireland, this region has its own state development agency - Shannon Development. Over the past 30 years they have pioneered many innovations, many centred on Shannon Airport, such as the world's first Duty Free shop, a tax free export zone and, around the University, the National Technological Park. Financial and other incentives have been used to attract foreign direct investment and to promote indigenous industry. They have been very successful in attracting such majors as Tellabs, Analog Devices and DELL all of whom have their European Headquarters in the region. The development of the University of Limerick over the past 25 years has been a major factor in this success. With a technological focus from the outset - it had a degree in electronics as far back as 1973 - and an extensive co-operative education programme, UL is tightly connected to the industry in the region, in the rest of Ireland and elsewhere. More recently there has been an increase in locally owned start-ups - some arising directly from university research, others being developed by UL graduates. The vast majority of these have been in the IT sector. A major news item this week was the sale of one such indigenous company - Software Architects International - to the Claris Corporation for a figure believed to be around $40m.
In summary, the Shannon region is now the number two location, after Dublin, for IT activity in Ireland. A corporate forum called ShannonSoft works to bring software companies together on topics of common interest and was up and running before 'First Tuesday' came to Ireland. Many local companies are among the ICSE2000 sponsors who have helped make this conference viable for us all. These include DELL, Tellabs, QAD, Analog Devices, Ashling Microsystems as well as Shannon Development itself.
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Caroline Kehoe