E-Visionary - Michael O'Duffy

What are the main challenges facing the Irish tech sector?
Three immediately occur to me, early stage funding, achieving critical mass, and moving up the value chain.

First, a key feature of longer term success is the initiation of many new companies. The current climate is generating many new business ideas and many willing entrepreneurs. However funding for start-ups and early stage companies is wholly inadequate. This is despite the direct funding by Enterprise Ireland of 51 start-ups, the establishment of five new funds with Enterprise Ireland support to finance very early stage companies, and support from other sources such as the Business Innovation (BIC) Fund and Shannon Development.

Second, while a number of companies have reached a significant size and international presence, Ireland does not yet have a global technology company, such as Nokia is to Finland. This critical mass in terms of a global company and a significant number of major players has still eluded us. We are, fortunately, moving to critical mass in terms of numbers of technology companies, particularly regional clustering of certain industry sub-sectors.

Third, the emerging, and in the case of India the maturing, competition for technology skills from low cost countries, is being addressed by the strategy of moving up the value chain. It needs a major initiative to define and implement. Part of this must be the deeper role of university research brought to exploitation level in collaboration with industry.

Do we have the right technical skills in our workforce or do we need to shift focus?
We need to recognise that the re-emergence of the dot.com is the move to the use of the Internet as a mainstream platform; related skills become part of fundamental skills. We need to acquire further skills that develop intelligent systems, skills that exploit inventions in intelligent devices including the design of new devices. And we need skills to move us up the value chain including increased creativity and design capabilities, supported by expertise in application domains, business research, marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship.

What’s your favourite piece of technology?
Email must emerge as the major communications aid for its interactivity and its timing convenience. But I’m looking forward to the emergence and maturing of the combined PDA and mobile phone for convenient personal communication and efficient time management for those on the move. I’m also looking forward to the wide-spread use of smart cards, especially for the mundane applications associated with the home, while travelling, and at work.

What company do you most admire and why?
We have to have great admiration for Iona and its positioning in the minds of many of creating a substantial technology enterprise; they have captured the imagination and given the “we can do it” confidence. There are so many others that have given Ireland the clear signal that we can create international leadership positions applying novel business and technology models and a distinct business style. They include companies such as Ryanair (cost/price model), Superquinn (customer service model), CRH (acquisitions model), Smartforce now Skillsoft (corporate leasing model). They also include the many technology companies with such impressive technology breakthroughs and technology usage models, where some must inevitably surface to give Ireland its share of major world players.

What has been the most important technological breakthrough of our age?
Its got to be the advent of the Internet. It’s contributed so much to the global village, transforming how we do business, we interact as a society, we apply ourselves to knowledge including that of other cultures. It’s saved many lives in the wars in Yugoslavia and it can favourably so influence other areas of conflict.

Can you think of a company, large or small, that has used imagination in its e-business strategy?
A classic early example is Celtic Hampers, set up by DCU computing graduate Liavan Mallin. Others include the Fyffes initiative with WorldOfFruit in creating a European commodity market for fruit, BuildOnLine in providing builders with an online single-source materials supply service. And I’m impressed with the Abacus Communications manner of delivering their e-learning Doing Business in English.

If you had a dream bit of hardware or software, what would it do for you?
A really effective system to aid and simplify the ongoing prioritisation of day to day work for the busy executive. I’m willing to work with any worthwhile initiative that might achieve this.

What will we be using the Internet for ten years from now?
The Internet and telephone system will act as one virtual system and will be the major source for communication, commerce, and a primary vehicle for life long learning.

Name your favourite web sites?
I’m proud of the redesign work being done on the Centre for Software Engineering site www.cse.dcu.ie, and I’m impressed with the Enterprise Ireland site www.enterprise-ireland.com as being informative and well presented.

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