‘‘TCAS Online is a full browser-enabled software application. It is designed with the end user in mind and ease of use is of primary importance,” said Barry Murphy, chief executive, TCAS Online.

‘‘It is unique in the way that it can be configured to handle complex financial analysis without the need for the user to have any real accounting knowledge. Income and charge analysis are delivered through the click of a button with no further intervention required by the users or the finance personnel.”

TCAS Online employs 20 staff. It is projecting revenues of €500,000 for the current financial year. As part of Enterprise Ireland’s high potential start-up unit, TCAS Online has secured a feasibility grant of €13,000 to assist in identifying new markets. It hopes to raise BES and seed capital funding of €250,000 in the coming months.

Tora uses quantitative and qualitative methodologies to help companies launch new products in the marketplace. These include concept screening, packaging design and pricing.

Niall Harbison, founder of Simply Zesty, said the deal with Tora would enable the company to add a new level of measurement to its social media offering.

The company specialises in IT training and is a fully registered and authorised training provider for Fás, Microsoft, ECDL and Advanced ECDL. It also provides training in Sage, Autocad, Publisher, Project and TAS.

‘‘This partnership is a really powerful combination, bringing together two organisations that understand the demands of the education environment.

Our ActivClassroom solutions have been developed by and for teachers, and have proven significantly raise achievement levels,” said Graham Byrne, head of Ireland and Scotland businesses, Promethean. Net Communications employs 22 staff and has annual revenues of €4 million.

Dublin firm VigiTrust has partnered with Comply Guard Networks, a US provider of network security services, to launch compliance software for the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Under the terms of the deal, agreed in March, the companies have jointly launched a Merchant Compliance Portal (MCP) aimed at merchant aggregators who need to ensure compliance with PCI DSS.

The MCP combines ComplyGuard’s integrated PCI DSS approved scanning service with VigiTrust’s security assessment tool and security e-learning capabilities.

It has already been rolled out to 2,500 merchants in the US, Britain and Ireland, including government departments, gyms, shops, restaurants and insurance companies. Mathieu Gorge, chief executive of VigiTrust, said the deal was worth €500,000 to the company.

‘‘In order to validate compliance with PCI DSS, level three and four merchants need IP scanning, e-learning, policies and procedures and access to a self-assessment questionnaire [SAQ],” said Gorge.

‘‘The deal is a good fit as ComplyGuard provides scanning, which we do not have, and we provide training through e-learning, policies and procedures and the SAQ, which ComplyGuard does not have.”

Gorge described the deal as a major boost for VigiTrust, which opened an office in New York two years ago.’ ‘This deal is a major win for VigiTrust in the US, not only in dollar terms, but as a strategic breakthrough. It enables us to offer a complete compliance solution to merchant aggregators, such as payment service providers and trade associations, as well as mid-size corporations, and also provides us with an additional US-based partner for our merchant compliance portal,” he said.

Established in 2003, VigiTrust launched an e-learning security portfolio (eSEC) in 2007.I t now has more than 30 eSEC modules, in areas including security basics, secure coding and secure printing.

It launched its security accreditation management system for PCIDSS in late 2008.

The deal follows a similar contract, secured last year, to deploy the system to support the banking activities of the South African Post Office.

Land Bank will use FTI Star to manage its financing and loan book.

FTI has been active in South Africa since 2006, initially working for the National Treasury to benchmark treasury operations in 15 state-owned enterprises, including South African Airways, National Housing Finance Corporation, National Roads Authority, Export Credit Insurance Company, Road Accident Fund and Eskom.

‘‘South Africa has escaped better than most economies from the financial markets collapse,” said Eddie Fogarty, managing director of FTI.

‘‘Prospects for more business are excellent. We are delighted with this further success, especially having beaten competition from the biggest systems companies worldwide.”

Founded in 1988, FTI provides treasury management systems, consultancy and training services to corporate clients, banks and finance ministries.

The firm specialises in treasury, including cash management, debt, financing, foreign exchange and risk management.

Its clients include the Central Bank in Iceland and the Romanian Finance Ministry, which uses FTI Star to manage sovereign debt.

FTI employs 25 staff and has annual revenues of over €3.5million.

Tescodiets.com has more than a million visits per week.

It offers rich media and interactive applications, including webinars and video testimonials.

Servecentric’s managed hosting solution aims to enhance the quality and reliability of the site by cutting down on time delays and other latency related issues.

Servecentric will also provide round-the-clock technical support, monitoring and security services.’ ‘With membership numbers increasing, we realised our IT infrastructure was critical to facilitate growth,” said Denis Finnegan, IT manager, Tesco Diets.

‘‘Tesco Diets is experiencing incredible growth due to our very active and vocal membership community endorsing our services.

We constantly strive to provide a secure and fully functional website that brings like-minded people together, offering them a professional and personal weight loss programme.

‘‘Servecentric has become a true IT partner, working with us to deliver the appropriate solution with a focus on the long-term business objectives of the company,” he said.

Established in 2002, Servecentric has 20 staff at its headquarters in Dublin. According to the most recent available accounts for the company, it had revenues of €12.9 million in the year ended December 31, 2008.

‘‘I tried to buy one in Seattle when I was there about 15 days ago, but they were sold out, so I decided to wait till it came to Europe,” said Julien Boidin, 28, who works for Microsoft Corp in Paris and has an iPhone and a Mac computer. ‘‘I live in Normandy and commute for four hours a day. I needed something for the train ride.”

Following the sale of a million of the devices in less than a month of its April 3 debut in the US, the iPad is now available in Australia, Canada, Japan and six European countries.

The maker of the iPhone and iPod, which last week became the world’s most valuable technology firm, may sell eight million iPads this year, according to the Royal Bank of Canada.

‘‘The thing with Apple is that it’s not just a piece of technology, it’s actually the whole experience,” said Rahul Koduri, 22, an engineering student in Sydney, who arrived at 2am to be first in line. ‘‘They just fit into your lifestyle so well. There’s no other product that does it.”

The company, based in Cupertino, California, delayed the release of iPads outside the US after underestimating demand at home. In Europe, the iPad initially will be available in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Britain. The device went on sale in Belfast last Friday, but will not be on sale in the Republic until July.

Apple is betting the iPad, which starts at €499 in mainland Europe – more than the $499 it sells for in the US, to reflect higher Vat – will entice enough consumers willing to pay a premium over low-cost notebooks. Rivals such as Microsoft have, however, failed to turn tablet computers into popular consumer devices.

‘‘I don’t really need it, but I want it,” said Jake Lee, 17, a student who camped overnight outside the Apple store on Regent Street, London. ‘‘I wanted to be one of the first people to get the iPad in Britain.”

Countries outside the US are likely to account for 43 per cent, or 3.5 million units, of iPad shipments this year, according to Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC in Toronto. The US will probably be the biggest market with 4.7 million, followed by France with 805,000 and Britain with 585,000, according to the report.

The iPad has a 9.7-inch touchscreen display that lets users view books, magazines, video, play games and surf the internet.

‘‘I’m going to use it for the internet, e-mail, video and controlling the other Macs at home,” said Andy Parkinson, 51, a communications engineer who bought his iPad in London. ‘‘I think it is a big hit here.

It already looks very good.”

German companies such as Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer, may equip thousands of sales reps with the devices as away to improve consultations and speed contract signings, according to weekly magazine Wirtschafts Woche.

Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, said the company sold a million iPads in 28 days, compared with the 74 days the iPhone took to reach that mark. Apple said this month that demand continued to exceed supply.

‘‘I’m buying it for my friend in Malta because it’s not available there yet,” said Isma Lanani, standing in line at the Louvre. ‘‘He manages a hotel there, but this is for his personal use. He’s Apple crazy.” Some British customers said they don’t expect such a huge rush for iPads as in the US.

‘‘Americans are very good at hyping these things up; perhaps British people are a bit more wary,” said Emily Dexter, 22, who works for a television production company. ‘‘I’m not going to buy one – I can’t afford it.”

The iPad will spur a six-fold increase in industry-wide shipments of tablet computers to 398 million by2 014, research firm IDC said this month. Shipments worldwide will rise to 46 million from 7.6 million this year, according to the Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC.

Last Wednesday, Apple became the most valuable technology firm in the world, after its market value hit $222.1 billion, higher than Microsoft’s $219.2 billion, on the optimistic belief it could keep adding customers for its iPhone, Macintosh computer and iPad. The shares gained 3.8 per cent yesterday to reach $253.35 in Nasdaq trading.

Last month, Jobs said second quarter profit almost doubled and sales soared 49 per cent on demand for the iPhone. The results don’t yet include the iPad, which went on sale after the close of the period for the company.

The iPad’s first wave of reviews praised its ability to deliver digital books and video quickly, and said it measured up well against other devices, including Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader.

‘‘To all those people who don’t think they need one, I just want to say, ‘You just wait and see’,” said Toru Iijima,39, an information technology professional in Tokyo.

‘‘This is great for people who don’t like computers. I want to get one for my grandparents and my child.”

It is a promising start to the paywall concept, though many observers still think will never gain genuine traction.

Meanwhile, the Belfast based Irish News has turned its paywall into an extra business opportunity, by selling the technology package behind it to other news publishers.

Costs for the service start from £465. Paywalls are largely an issue for the ‘quality’ press which, it appears, is becoming a rare commodity.

A story sometimes comes along that exposes any editorial overlap between tabloid and broadsheet – and Ronan Keating’s marriage has proved one.

Naturally it all proved far too great a temptation for the tabloid press to resist. And there was plenty of justification here: these are high profile, attractive people, frequently photographed together, who have gone so far as to sign up for family advertising deals – they are perfect tabloid fodder.

What has been more interesting on this occasion is the behaviour of the so called ‘middle market’ press and the broadsheets and their handling of the story.

The Daily Mail – technically a mid-market – pretty much led the way on the Ronan Keating story, being faster than the red-tops to report seamier details.

Meanwhile, the Irish Independent dropped all claims to any higher moral ground with daily front-page picture-led updates on the unfurling ‘events’ around the marriage.

The Irish Times did not ignore the Keating story, but it has – to date – produced just two stories about the matter – one from its online edition on the day the news of the separation broke, and one from its newspaper edition from the following day.

The article was the top story online for the day. To the Irish Times’ credit, it managed to restrain itself from taking the story further, which may have cost it sales.

Still, if editorial priorities mark the distinction between red top and quality press, the Irish Times just about managed to emerge from this as Ireland’s only proper daily broadsheet.

S3, a Dublin software and semiconductor firm, expects revenues to rise this year and may raise fresh funding after launching a new product for cable television operators.

The firm’s new product, StormTest, is a suite of software that automates the testing and analysis of television set-top boxes.

John O’Brien, chief executive of S3, said that pay-TV operators were spending more than €2 billion a year maintaining set-top boxes in subscribers ‘homes, and Storm Test was designed to lower the costs of the process. S3 has already won ten deals for the product, with customers in India, China, Europe, the US and Brazil, according to O’Brien.

‘‘You are talking about average deal sizes of perhaps €250,000 over the lifetime of the product. It will save operators a lot of time and money,” he said.

O’Brien declined to comment on S3’s revenue levels, but said that he expected revenues this year to exceed 2009 levels. Its most-recently filed accounts showed that turnover dropped from €24 million in 2007 to €23.5 million in 2008.

‘‘All companies have gone through a rough period in the recession. The digital TV space is very strong for us.

The number of digital TV subscribers is constantly increasing, even during the recession. Semiconductors went through a severe recession in 2008 and 2009, but we are beginning to see a pick up now,” said O’Brien.

S3,which is owned by management and ACT Venture Capital in Dublin, has six design centres and sales offices around the world. The company is funding its product development from its own profits and a €10 million investment by ACT in 2006.

Earlier this year, S3 was one of 12 Irish firms that was selected for a ‘Tech Tour’. The tour involved 30 British and Irish firms pitching to an audience of international venture capitalists and industry figures with €10 billion at their disposal.

O’Brien said that the company did not have immediate plans to raise more venture capital funding, but the TechTour was useful for building future contacts. ‘‘The main reason for us to go to TechTour was increase the profile of the company.

Maybe at some point in the future, when we want to raise capital, then we’ve made the connections,” he said.

The other Irish companies selected for Tech Tour included Tas Group, New Bay, Car Trawler, HeyStaks Technologies, Clavis Technology, CloudSplit and Kore Virtual Machines. Four firms from the North, Andor, Aepona, HeartSine and Lagan Technologies, also took part.

The IDA has spent the past year tempting EA to open its first base in Ireland, and is supporting the investment.

For Barry O’Leary, chief executive of the IDA, the technology sector is a bright spot in an otherwise difficult investment environment, with internet firm Webroot also announcing a move into Ireland last week.

It is creating 50 jobs at an international HQ in Dublin.

‘‘The technology sector and related areas are in growth mode,” said O’Leary, who had to tackle bad news in recent days, as news broke of planned layoffs at big-name firms including Covidien and Pfizer.

Against that grim backdrop, O’Leary pointed to a list of tech firms that were expanding.

These firms include Facebook, which has hired 100 people in Dublin; eBay and PayPal, which are recruiting 350 extra staff; and Japanese gaming firm Gala, which is adding 100 more jobs. Other expanding technology firms range from household names such as SAP and LinkedIn, to lesser-known firms like Bentley Systems and Maxim.

A recent announcement by IBM, that it would set up abase in Dublin to research ‘smart cities’ was ‘‘one of the most exciting in years’’, said O’Leary.

There is also expansion in the related telecoms sector, with Telefonica, the parent of O2, creating 100 jobs through a €25 million investment in a ‘people services centre’ in Dublin.

‘‘Telefonica is a particularly good one to get,” O’Leary said.

‘‘Up to now, its involvement in Ireland was through O2, but it will now carry out international activities in Ireland for the first time. It is a really good brand name for our marketing worldwide.”

The good news for the IDA, and the Irish economy, is that the technology sector seems to be weathering the economic storm quite well. Even as the fallout from the property bust has spread to retailing and other sectors, tech firms have quietly gone about their business.

The Sunday Business Post last week revealed that internet giant Google was creating 200 jobs in Dublin, bringing its workforce in Ireland to about 1,800. Apple has also been expanding, hiring 500 more staff in Cork over the past six months.

Irish tech companies are also bucking the trend, attracting investment and buyers, despite the downturn. According to NCB Corporate Finance, seven major IT deals were concluded in the first quarter of this year, including the €22 million buyout of Irish Business Systems by Xerox and the $20 million takeover of Donegal firm Iontas.

Tech companies are still springing up around the country, including many set up by people who had lost their jobs elsewhere. The level of employment in the wider technology sector is up and insolvencies in the area are falling, according to accountants FGS. So what is the sector’s secret?

According to Paul Kerley, chief executive of Norkom, it comes down to one word: maturity.

Norkom had a near death experience after the dotcom bubble burst ten years ago, and Kerley had to completely rebuild his firm. It floated on the junior markets in Dublin and London in 2006, and is now valued at about €135 million.

The share price of the firm, which makes anti-fraud software for banks, rose over the past year while the majority of stocks were under fire.

‘‘We have been here before, with the dotcom crash. We have learned how to survive a crisis and build a resilient business model,” said Kerley, who founded Norkom in 1998.

He said that the dotcom crash took out a lot of the weaker companies in the sector, leaving mainly strong businesses with solid business plans.

‘‘The crash weeded out a lot of the poorer technology companies. It is institutional change,” he said. ‘‘It is happening with the banks now – the bad banks are getting taken out.”

Serial entrepreneur Dylan Collins, who has built and sold a number of gaming companies, said he expected a surge in the number of technology related businesses over the coming years. Collins, the founder and chief executive of Jolt Online Gaming, said it was cheaper and easier than ever to set up an internet or technology business.

‘‘Technology has reached the stage where it is far cheaper to establish an online shop than an actual physical shop, and you have a much bigger potential market,” he said. ‘‘Open a shop and your market is the street. Open a virtual store and your market is the world.”

Collins knows the merits of international expansion – he sold a majority stake in Jolt to GameStop, the world’s largest video game retailer, and one of his computer games has been branded on a Nascar race car.

His business is very different to Kerley’s Norkom, but what unites them – and Ireland’s other technology companies – is their reliance on innovation and international focus. For a government that is pinning its hopes on exports and a so called ‘smart economy’, this is a highly attractive combination.

‘‘Ireland’s economic recovery will be export-led, and information communications technology will be one of the most significant sectors in driving that effort,” the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation said in a recent statement. The department estimated that the indigenous software sector generated annual sales of €1.4 billion, most of which are exports.

The Irish Software Association (ISA) estimated that Irish based ICT companies accounted for €20 billion in revenue terms. Of this, 36 per cent went to Britain and 33 per cent to the US, insulating the sector from the Irish recession.

‘‘The tech sector is surviving because it is global and because it is export-orientated,” said Sean Gallagher, the Dragons’ Den star and founder of Smarthomes, which puts high tech cabling into houses.

Gallagher has invested in a range of companies and said that technology companies had one big advantage: ‘‘They are not reliant on the domestic market.” Greg Turley, founder of Cartrawler, agreed. The Irish company makes booking software for the car-hire sector. It employs 71 people in Ireland, but generates almost all of its business abroad.

‘‘In this sphere, you can be a global company from Ireland,” Turley said.

Many technology firms have also avoided the worst of the credit crunch because, even in the boom times, there was relatively little money going into the sector. During the boom years, banks preferred to fund property deals, rather than risky software ventures.

Instead, technology companies secured money from informed investors and venture capitalists, which has proved a blessing, according to Gallagher, who recently resigned from Smarthomes to concentrate on his other investments.

‘‘Banks give a loan, and then ask for interest payments. VCs make an investment and then they provide expertise and guidance. Companies who get venture capital funding do better and grow faster,” he said.

One of the venture capitalists to have ploughed significant sums of money into young Irish technology and life sciences companies is Niall Olden, the managing partner of Kernel Capital in Cork.

Olden said that more technology companies had received investment in the first five months of this year than in the past two years combined.

‘‘New companies are getting new money. It is a good time to be in the technology industry,” said Olden, whose firm has invested in 35 companies. They include Intune Networks, an Irish firm that has claimed to have solved issues of internet speed and quality.

‘‘There was a misconception out there that tech and life sciences companies were risky.

But, in fact, you are backing value and investing in a god idea. I would prefer to invest in intellectual property [rather] than physical property,” said Olden, who said he expected the sector to grow significantly.

The IDA has identified areas such as cloud computing, services innovation and so called clean technologies as sources of future jobs, while the government intends to increase the supports to the sector.

‘‘The government will ensure that the mix of incentives, direct supports and advice are available to support the smart economy effort,” the Department of Enterprise said.

Enterprise Ireland has placed a particular emphasis on developing indigenous software firms. Of the 73 companies recently selected by the development agency as high potential start-ups, 61 per cent are software or technology companies.

Mike Fitzgerald, chief executive of Altobridge, said that Enterprise Ireland ‘‘really stepped up to the plate’’ for young tech firms.

Altobridge has spent seven years developing technology that slashes the cost of providing mobile phone coverage in isolated locations.

‘‘A lot of guys like ourselves are leaning heavily on EI to get into overseas markets,” said Fitzgerald, who last week opened an office in Jakarta. ‘‘They perform a great function and are one of the reasons for the strength of the sector. The banks stepped out, and they stepped in.”

That will be a welcome boost for the government. The battle for jobs continues, but as EA and its new Star Wars game have shown, at least the force is strong in one sector.