Cork’s top IT companies join forces following International success

Leading Cork IT companies Digital Crew and Granite Consulting have joined forces following close collaboration and the international success of the project management software, TeamworkPM developed by the software development team at Digital Crew.

Digital Crew have signed a takeover agreement with Cork firm Granite Consulting who will take over the running of the web development side of the business following close collaboration between both companies over the last two years. Under the Agreement, Digital Crew will focus on its highly successful TeamworkPM business which has rapidly expanded over recent years while Granite Consulting will take over responsibility for all website development with the core website development team at Digital Crew joining the Granite Consulting business.

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We were delighted to attend the launch of of an exciting new partnership between the Irish Heritage Trust and Promethean today at Fota House. This will add new interactive learning technologies to the now 1 year old Fota Learning Zone which has been a huge success for Fota House at the team at The Irish Heritage Trust.

We were delighted to be asked to attend by our friends Jennifer and Kevin at the Trust and celebrate the great work they have carried at out at this wonderful Irish Historic Attraction in our hometown of Cork.
The speeches by Minister Jimmy Deenihan and especially Lord Puttnam were enjoyable and very thought provoking.

Below is the official Press Release released for this event.

Fota House, Arboretum and Gardens logo

Lord David Puttnam, a champion of digital education in the UK & Ireland, will be keynote speaker at Fota House. Wednesday, 24th August at 10am

Fota House, Co. Cork, August 2011: The Irish Heritage Trust is mark the first anniversary of Fota Learning Zone with the announcement of a dynamic new partnership with Promethean, a global leader in interactive learning technology. The Irish Heritage Trust will celebrate the anniversary of Fota Learning Zone during Heritage Week 2011 (August 20th-27th), with the launch of three new learning modules which tie in with the curriculum. One of these, ‘Politics or Parlour Maids’, will encourage students to analyse and decide which historical source tells us more about life in a big house: social or political. Lord David Puttnam, a champion of digital education in the UK and Ireland, will be keynote speaker on the day and the new learning module will be officially launched by Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht.

Under the partnership, Promethean has worked with the Irish Heritage Trust to develop educational resources to increase the interactive elements of the new modules. Promethean has created tailor made classroom materials such as downloadable lesson plans, as well as access to online workshops through Promethean Planet, the world’s leading interactive teacher’s resource site with over one million members. The Fota Learning zone will benefit from having a partner site on Promethean Planet to hold these resources, allowing students and teachers to access learning materials after their visit in the classroom and at home, and enabling Fota Learning Zone to enhance its visibility to Promethean Planet’s online community.

Promethean has also donated ActivExpression Learner Response Systems, handheld devices which enable students to work remotely and answer questions while on the go. These will enable students to learn interactively throughout the different rooms of Fota House.

Fota Learning Zone is a free digital resource for teachers and students based on Fota House & Gardens in Cork (www.fotalearningzone.ie). Funded with the aid of a grant of €28,000 from The Heritage Council in 2010, it is multidisciplinary in approach and has been designed to appeal to teachers and students of Transition Year and Leaving Certificate History, History & Appreciation of Art and English.

Jennifer McCrea, Learning & Access Officer with the Irish Heritage Trust, explains its appeal: “Teachers and students can enhance classroom-based learning by collecting and analysing on-site evidence via self-directed learning and project work. It enables students to learn in context in an historic house and helps them to understand abstract concepts on the curriculum. For example, Leaving Certificate students of English require a good understanding of the concept of cultural context and social setting. One way of comprehending this is to experience the living conditions and social rituals of landlords and servants first hand at Fota House. The Irish Heritage Trust has pioneered this unique method of engaging teenagers with heritage in a way that is real, rich and relevant.”

Ian Curtis, Head of Northern Europe at Promethean, said: “We were delighted to be contacted by the Irish Heritage Trust and asked to support Fota Learning Zone. Promethean Planet has grown to over one million members including over 14,000 in Ireland and our ActivInspire software has allowed the Irish Heritage Trust to create more interactive content and reach a wider audience. Having collaboratively built three modules which tie in with the Irish curriculum, more people can learn about Fota House and its heritage through the learning zone”.

“The ActivExpression devices Promethean has donated will enrich and enhance learning for students who visit Fota House. It will enable them to learn as they are walking around and ensure each student is able to take part in interactive learning.”

For further press information, contact: Evelyn Byrne, Irish Heritage Trust, evelyn@irishheritagetrust.ie

Promethean Press enquiries: Katie Eborall, Grayling PR (UK), katie.eborall@grayling.com

We are delighted to congratulate our clients, Eugene and Helena Hickey of Skeaghanore Duck, on being chosen to have their products chosen for inclusion in “The Royal Hamper”.

On her visit to the English Market in the centre of Cork City today, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth will be presented with a commemorative hamper. The hamper will be made up of iconic food produce collected from the market traders and will include West Cork Duck from our friends at Skeaghanore Duck near Ballydehob.

Conor spoke to Helena recently and she was deeply honoured that their Duck was chosen to be included in the hamper. The visit to Cork is a great opportunity to showcase the unique culture and products available in County Cork and at Granite we are delighted to offer our congratulations to Helena and Eugene.

We are realy delighted that one of our first clients, Atlantic Sea Kayaking in West Cork, was chosen by leading travel website TripAdvisor.com as one of the top ten most exciting alternatives worldwide to the typical tourist holiday. Jim truly is one of the good guys out there and it’s just brilliant news to see him included in the list. It gave everyone in the office a huge smile when we heard the news.

Some time back Jim and his lieutenants (Sally, Kathy, Maria take a bow) were ramping up their website and online marketing activity and we encouraged them to take TripAdvisor seriously and create a strategy to utilise all the goodwill and kind comments out there for Jim with the aim of driving new business especially from global markets.  Together it has beared fruit and it’s a massive endorsement for Jim’s business.  Well done Jim.

Granite target optimum visibility on TripAdvisor for our tourism clients as it consists of the biggest travel community on the planet and we are truly delighted with what the team at Atlantic Sea Kayaking have achieved.
TripAdvisor is the leading and most trusted content platform for tourists globally and it’s imperative that relevant business owners embrace Trip Advisor and tell tourists about their business and most importantly the experience clients will have. Any serious online marketing plan for a tourism related business must address TripAdvisor as a key target.

The Top ten list was recently published in a newsletter from TripAdvisor distributed to millions of subscribers.
The citation quoted by Trip Advisor in their newsletter was from a customer who had experienced
the “Glittering water and sky on a night kayak trip” with ASK. It was “One of the most amazing
things Iʼve ever experienced”.

TripAdvisor website’s alone have 40 million unique monthly visitors, 20 million members, and over 45 million reviews and opinions.

Some TripAdvisor Facts:

• 45 million reviews and opinions

• 40 million unique visitors in one month.

• TripAdvisor additionally features 20 million registered members

• TripAdvisor is now available in 20 languages, across 27 countries worldwide. In 2010 alone, TripAdvisor has launched new websites in eight markets globally – Turkey, Denmark, Mexico, Poland, Norway, Australia, Singapore and Thailand.

• TripAdvisor.co.uk site on its own boasts 4.5 million unique visitors per month.

• TripAdvisor through their Partnership Group have 100 contracted content partners – including jetBlue, Walt Disney World, Westin Hotels and Resorts, Visit London, Hertz, and AOL Travel – and over 14,000 unique websites have added a Trip Advisor self-service widget or badge.

Jim Kennedyʼs Atlantic Sea Kayaking (ASK) is West Corkʼs leading kayak tour guide, offering sea safaris, night paddles, foraging trips as well as courses and tuition.
Jim Kennedy is a Level 5 Irish and British Canoe Union sea kayak instructor. ASK is Irelandʼs premier sea kayaking company, it was established in 1995.
The company works with both novice and advanced kayakers in one of the most beautiful marine environments in the world.

“What an accolade to all the amazing and professional staff we are so lucky to have” said Jim
Kennedy, on hearing of the Newsletter. “And a very big thanks to all our friends who take the
trouble to sing our praises.”

• Visit Jim’s Atlantic Sea Kayaking Website

NMCIS is the commercial division of the National Maritime College of Ireland.

The service’s primary function is to promote and support all commercial activities of the college. The NMCI have a team of highly qualified instructors who deliver Offshore Courses, STCW Courses and Courses for the Maritime, Transport and Commodity Sectors.

Their Maritime courses are executed in €100m state of the art facilities and have STCW Certificates which are internationally recognised. The NMCI provide various Maritime Training Courses from Marine Fire Fighting and Personal Survival Techniques (PST) Courses, to Bridge Simulation and ECDIS Training. The college has OPITO approval for the BOSIET, FOET, and MIST Offshore Courses and also deliver the OPITO approved Helicopter Underwater Egress (HUET) & EBS Course.

We customized the existing West Cork Hotel facebook page to match the layout of the existing site.

Users were directed to this page instead of the facebook wall page once the user had “Liked” the page.

The customized page increased the number of click throughs from Facebook dramatically and proved to be a great success.

You know there are 100′s of thousands of people on Facebook every day but how do you sell your product to them?
How your company is presented on Facebook and the information you present to people is extremely important. When someone lands on your Facebook page it is very similar to a website, first impressions count. Do you have a beautiful landing page and is there relevant information that is currently up to date?

We can provide the following services

• Customized Landing Pages
• Embedded Product Catalogue Pages

Using FBML and FBJS it is possible to create pages using FBJS/AJAX/JSON to pull information from another live site

Remember you don’t have to have an existing website to create a great facebook page.

If you have an idea for a Facebook page or want to customize an existing page, why not contact us to discuss it further?

Examples

• West Cork Hotel Facebook Page
• The Premium Butcher Facebook Page

We created a large facebook application for one of our clients the West Cork Hotel.

This application allowed users to enter a free a competition for a free wedding. The app also allowed users to register and vote for their favorite couple in a free wedding competition in a later stage of the same competition.

The application recorded all users and also provided real time analysis of how to competition was going.

With over 8000 votes in the competition the application proved to be a great success.

Today marketing in relation to social network sites can be used in conjunction with a strong web marketing campaign to further promote your product or service. Through the development of facebook applications you can gather a large number of followers and provide these followers with relevant up to date data.

How your company is presented on Facebook and the information you present to people is extremely important. Are your posts relevant enough for people to share them and to make them click through? Do you require extra functionality for a competition or advert?

We can provide the following services

• FBML Design and Development
• FBJS Forms Development
• Embedded Product Catalogue Pages
• Application Development

Using FBML and FBJS it is possible to:

• Embed forms in Facebook that rely on FBJS/AJAX/JSON to send information
• Use animations that rely on the Facebook’s own Animation library

Remember you don’t have to have an existing website to create a great facebook application.

If you have an idea for a facebook application, why not contact us to discuss it further?

Examples

West Cork Hotel Facebook Application

The NSC provides cutting edge voice, data & conference services and houses the main carrier telecoms hub and internet co-location centre for SW Ireland. Located just off the main highways and 15 minutes from the International Airport, InterCity Rail Station and City Centre the NSC provides a multi tenanted, purpose built environment with community, flexibility and scalability in mind.

The National Software Centre is a landmark development in the context of Ireland and the EU, offering World Class Broadband Infrastructure and Third Generation Offices in Cork. The project is a privately led venture via a public private partnership. The fundamental thrust is to create a global footprint for knowledge based ventures through using innovative networking technologies

The NSC Campus was designed specifically for IT and service companies with flexibility and scalability in mind. The facility features best of breed security with 24×7 access to tenants. It operates a fresh Air Handling System and a Voice over IP Telephony System, with a centrally manned reception desk. The reception area is the first point of contact for visitors. It co-ordinates all postal/courier collections and deliveries. Telephone calls are answered in the tenants company name. The facility provides Virtual Offices and  Virtual Office Services.