ComputerScope on 30 years of technology in Ireland

We are not as old a business in Ireland as TechPro and Mediateam with its 30-year pedigree back through ComputerScope. But having established ourselves here 23 years ago, we feel we have been around long enough to be an integral part of the ICT landscape. In fact, both organisations go back to a pre-Internet period that is just history to many, if not most, of our customers and readers today. Not that the technology was primitive. Far from it. BT was always at the leading edge of innovation and Ireland’s premier computing magazine covered the advances.

“Current smart networking technology and continuing investments in new cloud and network services and capabilities are all aimed at making it easier and more cost effective for customers to communicate, do business and expand locally and internationally,” Brendan McMorrow, market research and insight manager

BT began operating in the Republic of Ireland back in 1992, at a stage when the company had already become a global telecommunications and technology provider with operations and networks far beyond its home base in the UK. The world’s first 40m/bits commercial optical fibre link was already eight years old, illustrating the history of innovation that has characterised the story of BT since it began life as The Electric Telegraph Company in 1846.

Our business engagement in Ireland since then is well known, especially to the ICT community and readers of TechPro. From the start, we have been using our strength, experience and knowledge as a global service provider to serve and support international businesses operating across the island as well public and private sector indigenous organisations. This is what we do best — global strength, delivered locally.

BT has been an integrated all-island operation for some years now, with head offices in Dublin and Belfast and a team of almost 3,000 employees. We provide networked IT and related services to major enterprises and government including Ardagh, Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank, Kerry Group, and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, for which we operate the critical Emergency Call Answering Service (999/112). We are also a leader in wholesale network and telecoms services, supporting over 50 Irish-based communications providers such as Sky Ireland and Three Ireland.

As the corporate market has evolved over the past 23 years, we have seen great changes in how we have been asked to help and support our customers. From a network services perspective, we have seen how X.25 services, which for a long time supported our customers’ data requirements, have evolved into today’s converged data and communication IP networks.

BT has data centres north and south connected by a deep network presence throughout the island, which is in turn fully integrated into our market-leading global network and datacentre operations. Current smart networking technology and our continuing investments in new cloud and network services and capabilities are all aimed at making it easier and more cost effective for our customers to communicate and do business and expand locally and internationally.

Our BT Ireland staff and the company itself are active contributors to Irish community life, at both business and social levels. We took on the sponsorship of the BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition and competition 15 years ago and take great pride in its continuing growth and success. This year was the 51st and attracted over 2,000 entries from all over Ireland, the highest number of entries to date, illustrating the scale of the event and its importance in encouraging our young people to engage in the critical subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths.

Brendan McMorrow, market research and insight manager

We would much rather look forward than back, but in the context of the Irish ICT sector and our TechPro friends celebration, it’s nice to be 39 and looking forward to our 40th at the turn of the year. Arkphire can look back that far with the same company number and bank account — although a bank merger changed our branch.

“In managed services also, the client demands are at an ever higher level of sophistication because of the sheer mission-critical dependence on their ICT resources,” Paschal Naylor, MD

We started as Memorex Ireland, a manufacturing subsidiary of Memorex Telex, the US corporation that was the first to challenge IBM with a system clone. Our business has changed constantly, our ownership several times. Now we are a wholly Irish company which began trading as Arkphire in 2009 and last June celebrated the end of our financial year with sales of €30 million.

We have three main lines of business, IT Infrastructure Solutions, Managed Services and IT Product Procurement. The three divisions overlap mainly because they have grown organically over the years. Our most successful activity in recent years has been acting as procurement and infrastructure building agents for multinational ICT enterprises establishing operations in Ireland and Europe. We have acted for seven out of 10 of all such US companies investing in Ireland and more recently we have quite literally followed our clients throughout the EU, EMEA and latterly the Asia Pacific region. Our London office was set up in 2010 to support our UK client base and assist in the growth of activity in Europe.

Our contracts have ranged across the entire spectrum of requirements for a multinational setting up in a new geography. We have assisted in site choice, helped design and equip data centres and set up everything from networks and servers, PCs and software for users and a help desk function. Our client briefs have become as broad as “This is what we want to do in X location: make it happen, please.”
In parallel with that business, which usually has the obvious project characteristics with specific time scales, we have developed an ICT infrastructure consultancy and a portfolio of managed services. Our infrastructure services include design and implementation, from cloud and hybrid to networking and the complete data centre. Security and business continuity are key elements in today’s constantly evolving ICT environment.

In managed services also, the client demands are at an ever higher level of sophistication because of the sheer mission-critical dependence on their ICT resources. That is one of the key reasons why at Arkphire, we place such strong emphasis on certification and accreditation. Our clients realise that they get a superior quality service but in this competitive market—and especially with multinational clients — it is important to have the credentials as well as scoring high on their supplier quality assessments. It is often also an element in compliance and governance for those clients which have outsourced key functions to us.

Looking back, and particularly looking forward, the thing that springs to mind is change. The world is constantly evolving and of course in tandem with that, businesses are constantly evolving. When we rebranded as Arkphire in 2009, we aptly made our tagline ‘Managed IT Evolution’. Evolution is the dominant characteristic of our business and of the ICT sector in general as it transformed itself through the many challenging years. The challenge of change is constant — and it is the one we like to take on.

Paschal Naylor, managing director