Contact: Frans Van Cauwelaert
WHPR
353 1 669 0030

Ireland’s top 50 fastest growing technology companies have now been identified and will travel to Belfast later this month to compete in the annual Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards, sponsored in association with InterTradeIreland.  Now in its sixth successful year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 event will be held in Northern Ireland for the very first time, on 24 November, 2005.   

This year’s final listing sees eight new companies join the final Fast 50 with 35 companies representing the Republic of Ireland at the final Awards ceremony.  The 50 fastest growth companies from the ICT sector in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will be unveiled at the awards night, in ranking order according to their percentage turnover growth in the period 2000 to 2004. 

Established players such as Conduit, Stockbyte and System Solutions will compete with fast-emerging companies such as Directski.com, Digiweb and Puca Technologies for the overall title of fastest growth technology company for 2005.  A special Rising Stars category award will also be presented to the company that has demonstrated the fastest growth over the past three years.

David O’Flanagan, Partner with Deloitte said: “We are delighted to host the awards ceremony in Belfast for the first time.  We are truly living in exciting times and the emerging political, economic and business landscape can only but be good news for technology companies based in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Performance indicators from this year’s Fast 50 companies list are very positive, with average turnover growth of around 522.5 per cent over a five year period, representing an impressive average increase of 189.5 per cent on last year.”

Commenting on the wider aspect of the Fast 50 Programme, Liam Nellis, Chief Executive , InterTradeIreland said,
“We are confident that this competition will showcase local technology enterprises who have maximised the benefits of operating right across Ireland.  To be a winner means real business opportunities for those companies in Ireland, but will also equip those same businesses to make a real impact on the global market.”

He added “Competition is key to the development of the Island economy, in recognising this InterTradeIreland is delighted to be giving its support for the fifth year running to such a prestigious event. The Rising Star category is especially exciting and we will certainly be keeping a close eye on the progress of those companies to see where they are placed in the Fast 50 line up in years to come.”

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Notes to Editor:

*** The listing of companies is purely on an alphabetical basis and is no
 indication of where the companies are placed in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50.

Technology Fast 50 Programme:
The Fast 50 programme originated in San Jose, the centre of California’s famous Silicon Valley in 1995.  Since then it has successfully expanded across the US and to other countries throughout the world.

To qualify for the Deloitte Technology Programme a company must have been:

1. In business for minimum of three years.
2. Considered a technology company – defined as:
• Producing technology
• Manufacturing a technology-related product
• Technologically intensive or uses unique technology in problem-solving
• Devoting a high percentage of effort to research and development of technology.

3. Have its parent company located in Ireland.

Deloitte, Ireland’s fastest-growing professional services firm, provides a full range of services:

• Assurance and Advisory Services
• Company Secretarial and Legal Services
• EBusiness Consulting
• Financial Advisory Services
• Management Consulting
• Pensions Services
• Taxation Services

Deloitte provides these services through 850 people located in four Irish cities – Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick.  Known as an employer of choice for innovative human resources programmes, Deloitte has been recognised as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by Fortune magazine for four consecutive years.  We are dedicated to helping our clients and our people excel.

Deloitte is part of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the world’s leading professional services firms, with more than 92,000 people in over 130 countries.

InterTradeIreland
InterTradeIreland, the Trade and Business Development Body, was established as one of the North/South implementation bodies under the British-Irish Agreement Act 1999.  Uniquely, InterTradeIreland has a joint mandate from both jurisdictions to bring North/South trade and business development into the mainstreams of government policies north and south of the border.