A round-up of other technology stories in brief.
Orange wins iPhone deal
Apple has announced that Orange, the mobile arm of France Telecom, has won the contract to sell Apple's iPhone in France.
In order to comply with French law, Apple will have to make available a version of the combined phone, MP3 player and internet access device that will work with other network operators. Up to now, Apple has been able to buck the mobile industry's norms by negotiating deals that give it a cut of its operator partners' revenues.
The version of the iPhone working with Orange will retail for €399 and goes on sale on November 29th. No price has been given for the unlocked version, which is likely to prove popular with Christmas shoppers visiting France.
Firms' €350m software spend
Large Irish organisations will invest more than €350 million in software this year, with 42 per cent of the spend being directed towards infrastructure software. Other areas of investment include security (20 per cent), applications (19 per cent), software maintenance (15 per cent) and anti-virus software (4 per cent).
The biggest spenders will be in financial services (€88 million), government (€74 million), manufacturing (€69 million), semi-state (€55m), retail and wholesale (€49 million) and communications (€40 million).
The data is included in a survey conducted by iReach on behalf of SAS to measure the levels of understanding and use of business intelligence software in Ireland. While 88 per cent of respondents stated they utilised it in their organisations, usage levels varied immensely.
File tracking software plan
Off-site document and computer media storage specialists Data & Records Management has introduced Warenet 2, onsite records management software for its Irish customers.
The company says it enables customers to track files as they move through the organisation using their existing IT infrastructure.
ISA urges small firm supports
The Irish Software Association this week launched its pre-budget submission which calls for changes to public procurement processes so that small Irish software firms are not precluded from applying.
"Unnecessarily restrictive tendering requirements, unique to Ireland, prevent indigenous firms from even being considered," said ISA chairman Pat Brazel.
"The extent of the problem is highlighted by the many Irish companies who successfully secure business in other countries' public sectors and get nothing at home."
€650,000 in BES funding raised
CustomerMinds.com, a new software firm which provides a service to manage and track marketing campaigns, has raised €650,000 in business expansion scheme (BES) funding.
The company was founded at the beginning of the year by Jonny Parkes and Mike McMahon, formerly senior executives at Electric Paper, which was sold to e-learning group Thirdforce for €15.5 million in 2003.
Only 150 take up audit offer
Just 150 out of a possible 1,000 companies have taken up the offer of a full technology audit and consultancy which is being offered through the Government's Tech-Check scheme. Small firms are charged €150 for the service which actually costs about five or six times more.
The Government has committed €2 million a year to fund it for the next three years and it is being administered by the city and county enterprise boards. A major advertising campaign is now being put in place to encourage take-up.
www.techcheck.ie
