1956

IBM In Ireland

fIve decadeS of InnovatIon

2006

“this business of ours has a future, it has a past of which

we are all proud, but it has a future that will extend beyond your lifetime and mine.”T.J Watson Sr., IBM CEO, 1926.

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IBM In Ireland: tranSlatIng technology Into value

Michael P. daly

Country General Manager, IBM Ireland

2006 marks a very important milestone for IBM Ireland as we celebrate our 50th anniversary. IBM is the longest established IT multinational in Ireland. Since we started operations with just three employees working from a room in the Shelbourne Hotel, we have grown to be one of the largest employers in the country with over 3,000 full-time employees.

In the Ireland of �956 Seán T. O’Kelly was President, and Ronnie Delaney won a gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics. In IBM, Thomas J. Watson Jr. had just taken over the reins of the company from his father, and vacuum tubes were the predominant technology in computing. In the 50 years since then both Ireland and IBM have changed dramatically. IBM Ireland has grown to occupy a key position in Irish industry and has helped many of the country’s leading businesses, large and small, to benefit from IT.

Over the years, the technologies have certainly changed, from punch cards and typewriters, mainframes and PCs, to the latest advanced servers and middleware. What remains the same is that at IBM, we strive to lead in the invention, development and manufacture of the industry’s most advanced information technologies. We translate these into value for our customers, helping businesses innovate through our professional solutions, services and consulting businesses.

We would like to thank all of our Irish customers as well as our employees, business partners, suppliers, the Government and the IDA for their support over the last 50 years. We look forward to IBM Ireland continuing to play a leading role in the development of Irish business and the economy for many more years.

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We have come a long way since derek overend,

ray girault and Margaret fitzgerald set up their office in a room at the Shelbourne hotel

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today, IBM employs more than 3,000 people in Ireland. over the next few pages, we’ll share some

of the highlights of the past 50 years with you.

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September 1956IBM opens its offices in Dublin.

1956Parts of Ireland still have no electricity.

Sean T. O’Kelly is President; Ronnie

Delaney wins Ireland’s first Gold medal

for 24 years at the Melbourne Olympics.

1961

IBM Ireland hQ moves to 28 fitzwilliam Place.

1961IBM introduces the

‘Selectric Typewriter’

an electric typewriter

which uses a golfball-

shaped typing element

rather than type bars

or movable carriages.

1964IBM launches the System/ 360, which fortune magazine dubs “IBM’s $5 billion gamble”. IBM chairman thomas J Watson Jr. (below) calls it the most important product announcement in IBM’s history. one of the first orders is from cIe.

IBM computers help speed the processing and transmission of event results at the Winter and Summer olympics.

1968IBM Ireland installs a

reservations system

for Aer Lingus. It is

probably the most

advanced data-

processing application

in Ireland at the time.

IBM Ireland has 200

employees.

1970IBM introduces the System/370 to replace the

S/360. Also introduced is the IBM Copier, the

company’s entry into the photocopy business.

15 february 1971Decimalisation occurs.

1957IBM announces the

model 709 computer,

and makes FORTRAN

scientific programming

language available

to customers.

1969IBM Ireland moves HQ from Fitzwilliam Place to

Burlington Road and opens a Cork Office.

1971IBM Chairman Thomas J Watson Jr. retires.

IBM computers help guide apollo 14&15 moon landings.

1956Thomas J. Watson,

Jr. takes the reins of

the company from

his father Thomas

J. Watson, Sr., the

founder of IBM.There

are 72,504 IBM

employees worldwide.

1969Shamrock Rovers win

the FAI Cup for the

sixth successive time.

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NASA

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1972IBM Ireland starts a

local procurement

programme and

purchases over £1m

worth of components

in the first year.

1973Ireland, UK and

Denmark enter the

European Economic

Community (EEC).

1974IBM Ireland donates

a Blood Cell Separator

to Our Lady’s Hospital

in Crumlin.

IBM Ireland staff at the offices in Burlington road, dublin 4.

1970sThe first IBM

supermarket checkout

station is introduced

using glass prisms,

lenses and a laser to

read product prices.

Bank customers begin

making withdrawals,

transfers and other

account inquiries via

the IBM Consumer

Transaction Facility,

an early form of

today’s Automatic

Teller Machines.

1975enterprise, the first uS Space Shuttle, debuts carrying flight computers and hardware built by IBM federal Systems division.

1981the personal computer is already established, but the launch of the IBM Pc is an overnight sensation. It appears on the cover of Time in 1982 as the ‘Machine’ of the year.

1980IBM Ireland sets up an international

software development centre, one of only four in europe. It’s a step that

proves critical in marketing Ireland as a location for software development.

1982The first IBM 3081

to arrive in Ireland is

installed at the Bank

of Ireland Computer

Centre in Cabinteely.

1983IBM Ireland

Information Services

Limited (IISL) is

created to research,

develop and export

IBM software

around Europe.

1984The IBM PC launches

in Ireland. The target

of 420 sales by year

end is achieved.

IBM Ireland installs the

first Irish laser scanner

system in L&N’s new

supermarket in Cork.

1972IBM introduces a new version of the logo. designed by Paul rand, horizontal stripes suggest “speed and dynamism”.

1974IBM develops its non-

US business into two

new operating units

IBM EMEA and IBM AP.

Announces Systems

Network Architecture

(SNA), a networking

protocol for computing

systems.

1981IBM Ireland celebrates 25 years.

1978Munster defeat the

All Blacks at Thomond

Park, Limerick.

1982Ireland win the triple crown for the first time since 1949.

1984President Reagan

visits Ireland.

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1985Sales & Services moves to Oldbrook House.

The Customer Support Centre occupies half

of the existing space.

IBM Ireland sponsors EARN computer network

at UCC and UCD, donating PCs, telecoms

equipment and training.

Bank of Ireland computer centre becomes home to an IBM 3084. It is the largest system ever installed in Ireland at the time.

1985 IBM introduces the major elements of its

token-ring local area network for sharing

computers, printers, files and devices in

buildings or complexes.

1986

IISl moves to Mount Street and develops the first online version of IBM hr opinion Survey.

1987IBM Ireland installs

Telecom Eireann’s

call logging project. It

is the first of its kind

for Europe.

IISL sponsors

Student Research

Scholarships.

1987IBM announces the

PS/2, IBM’s first PC

equipped with the

Intel 80386 processor,

and 3.5” floppy

drives standard.

1991IBM locates its

European Treasury

Centre operations

in Dublin.

1986IBM fellows gerd K. Binnig and heinrich rohrer of the IBM Zurich research laboratory win the 1986 nobel Prize in physics for their work in scanning tunneling microscopy.

1988IBM announces

the AS/400

mid-range system.

1988‘Planet Earth’ broadcast on RTE1

sponsored by IBM Ireland.

the class of 1988: new IBM Ireland staff at oldbrook house.

1989IBM introduces

Business Recovery

Services, an offer-

ing that enables a

business to continue

operations in the event

of an unplanned

outage or disaster.

IBM Corporation

celebrates 75 years

and sets itself the

goal of being a

totally “market

driven” company.

1989IBM Ireland launches

a new international

fulfilment process

directly delivering

products from over-

seas from orders

taken in Ireland.

1985Ryanair starts trading.

1988Ireland qualifies for the euro ‘88 championships in germany.

Dublin City begins its millennium celebrations.

1987Stephen Roche wins

the Tour de France.

1992Michael carruth wins Ireland’s first gold

medal in 36 years at the Barcelona olympics.

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19931993 louis v. gerstner Jr. arrives as IBM’s chairman and ceo.

1995IBM acquires

Lotus Development

Corporation and IBM

Software is born.

1995The National Gallery

of Ireland gains a

new IBM interactive

touch screen

computer system.

lotus’ large Irish operation swells the IBM Ireland employee numbers to 1,200.

develoPIng World-claSS SoftWare

Since its inception, IBM Software Group in Ireland has carried out a wide range of business functions includ-ing: development, product support, and the creation of model-based solutions. The Dublin Software Laboratory is located at the IBM Technology Campus and continues to build on a proud history of innovation to provide prod-ucts that increase customer productivity.

When IBM launched its Workplace offering, the Dublin Laboratory played a key role in contributing to the vision, innovation and architecture at the core of this product family. IBM Workplace is a family of products, technolo-gies and solutions that transform the way people work. It creates adaptive work environments that can be custom-ised based on each user’s unique role in the organisation and it enables people to make more informed decisions, faster. Researchers in Trinity College Dublin recently utilised an IBM Workplace solution to enhance their authoring and publication of research papers.

Over the years the Dublin Software Laboratory has built expertise in a variety of areas including e-Learning, rapid application development tools, industry solutions for bank-ing and insurance, and the growing area of unstructured information management.

In keeping with IBM’s heritage as an innovative company, the Laboratory’s re-search team is actively involved in many professional organisations and standards bodies. It also has excellent relationships with Irish academia. The Laboratory is an IBM Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) fostering innovation by facilitat-

ing the connections between colleges, clients and IBM. The Laboratory aims to bridge the gap between industry’s requirements and the potentially innovative discoveries of the Irish academic community. The growing number of pat-ent applications filed and the increasing output of technical articles and books from the software team are a measure of their innovation and expertise.

Over the past few years the Laboratory has successfully run IBM’s Extreme Blue Programme. This is IBM’s premier internship programme for high-potential students pursuing computer science and business degrees. In the course of �2 weeks, working as a team with the support and mentor-ing of IBM technical leaders, they are challenged to take a new business or technology idea from initial thoughts to a working prototype. Many of the projects developed under Extreme Blue have filed patent applications.

Through its close relations with commercial clients, software research and academia, IBM software businesses in Ireland are creating a vital link for the continued success of IBM and its customers. It’s a good time to be an innovator in Dublin.

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our InternatIonal MISSIonS

In �996 IBM announced the development of the IBM Technology Campus on a �00 acre site in Mulhuddart. Its portfolio has since evolved from a manufacturing base to include the ever-expanding IT Services market plus Research & Development in Software and Integrated Supply Chain (ISC). IBM businesses operating on the Campus now include; ISC Systems Group, Global Procurement, IT Services, IBM Software, Business Continuity Services & Recovery Services, and IBM Wireless & RFID Centre of Excellence.

The ISC Systems Group is involved in the manufacturing assembly of the IBM eServer range and delivering hardware and software products to our clients across Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas.

The ibm.com Sales Centre opened in �996 at Ballycoolin, Dublin, just 9� days after it was first announced. This Centre combines the functions of a typical call centre with the power of the Internet, creating a dynamic direct sales channel for IBM clients. The Centre has become one of IBM’s leading European ‘dot.com’ centres, attracting employees from almost 20 different countries to work in its dynamic and vibrant environment. It provides a fast and easy access to IBM products, solutions and business expertise for IBM clients throughout 29 countries in �2 languages.

The Ballycoolin location is also home to IBM Dublin Integrated Delivery Centre (IDC) which delivers excellence in effective IT support such as help desk, operations and technical server sup-port, to IBM clients across Europe. It has transformed the way we deliver operational IT service to our clients, by providing server and network operations management, call centre and service management in five languages via the phone, email or web.

Established in �99�, the IBM International Treasury Centre was originally set up as a shared service centre to manage IBM’s treasury operations in Europe. Its role has now expanded to be-come IBM’s global “internal bank” providing deposit, loan and foreign exchange facilities to nearly 200 IBM entities in over 50 countries worldwide. The other main activi-ties of the centre are provision of centralised cash management and cash forecasting services, optimisation of IBM’s cash outside the US, centralised payments solution for Europe, balance sheet management and treasury risk management. It is the largest IBM treasury facility outside the US and is a key centre to ensure that IBM has cash to operate efficiently on a day-to-day basis in each country.

In 2005 IBM acquired the Irish company Equitant, now IBM Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO), a global business provider that focuses on the management and optimisation of the order-to-cash cycle for large companies. It has offices in Ireland and North America and serves clients globally. IBM BTO expands IBM’s capabilities in Finance and Administration (F&A) transformation services, and ena-bles IBM to meet growing client demand for improved performance and greater benefits in the area of order-to-cash processing.

1996William Burgess, country general Manager of IBM Ireland, announces horIZon 2000 strategy which focuses on quality and growth of IBM in Ireland.

1996IBM announces DB2

Universal Database.

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1996a $350m investment in the IBM technology campus dublin is announced

IBM’s new helpcentre (left) opens in Ballycoolin - 98 days after it’s announced. It has since evolved into the ibm.com Sales centre, northeast and Southwest europe, combining a call centre with the power of the web, creating a dynamic direct sales, service and support channel for IBM customers across europe.

1996Ireland wins eurovision Song contest for the seventh time

InnovatIon – What MaKeS you SPecIal?

Is encouraging innovation in your company more than a gesture? Do your people share ideas? Do you have collaborative projects in the works? With other companies? With other industries?

At IBM we are aligned around a single, focused business model: innovation. Sam Palmisano, our Chairman & CEO, says that “innovation is the intersection between invention and insight.” We set a lot of store by the number of patents we create year-on-year and also by the business insights we bring to our clients. Innovation happens when these two things – invention and insight – come together into a solution that creates value for a client.

this is what we mean when we talk about “innovation that matters.”We mean bringing together all of the capabilities to a business today in unique ways in order to create real customer value and differentiation. We mean treating innovation as a continuous process that enhances business performance, not a means in itself.

for us, innovation is a business model, an organising principle. Our fidelity to this model has enabled IBM to remain a leader in our industry through multiple eras. Understanding our business model and its consequences for our client relationships, workforce strategy, management systems and economics is key to understanding why, and how, we have transformed ourselves over the past few years. And this, in turn, is the basis for our opti-

mism about our ability to capture innovation and the most attractive marketplace opportunities now emerging for our clients.

today, we go further to help our clients innovate – we are an innovator’s innovator. IBM in Ireland has, through the last 50 years, demonstrated that we can help businesses of every size, across industries, in both the private and public sec-tors, not just large enterprises. With markets now becoming more global and interconnected, at IBM we have developed capabilities and solutions specifically designed to help small and medium-sized compa-nies to compete globally and benefit more fully from their innovations.

We think it’s very important for people in all kinds of industries and all kinds of sizes to think about how they can become more innovative. There are benefits to be made, costs to be saved, new proc-esses that make your business more efficient, or allow you to branch out in new ways. For IBMers, “Innovation that matters – for our company and for the world” is both a value and a value proposition.

We think innovation has to be part of your life.

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1998IBM Global Research Award is

made to University College Dublin

lou gerstner announces “reinventing education grant” for Ireland

1999IBM research announces “Blue gene” supercomputer

our SuPPort of educatIon & reSearch

reinventing educationIBM launched its Reinventing Education flagship programme in order to encourage long-last-ing partnerships between IBM and schools worldwide. The aim is to harness IBM’s research ca-pabilities to develop solutions in partnership with educators, and to harness IBM’s leading-edge

consultancy expertise to work with schools and implement change where it is needed.

More than $�5m has since been invested in edu-cation partnerships around the world – including a $�m investment in Ireland’s school system. In Ireland, Reinventing Education is now in its eighth year, as a partnership with the Department of Education & Science through the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE).

KidSmart early learningIBM has extended the Reinventing Education programme to put technology into the hands of three-to-six year-olds. Since the KidSmart Early Learning programme was introduced in Ireland, almost �00 computers in child friendly housings and appropriate software have been placed within primary schools in Ireland. Placing KidSmart units mostly within areas of significant disadvantage helps widen children’s level of access to technology. Volunteers from IBM provide local management, technical sup-port and basic IT training to staff.

Supporting researchAt IBM the foundation of our innovation is a wide array of scientific disciplines, award-win-ning researchers and global labs. In Ireland, IBM is expanding beyond the boundaries of our labs to include challenging ideas from our colleagues in academic and research centres, as well as from our clients. We regularly pub-lish papers with them and also foster collabo-rative relationships through fellowships, grants, shared research programs, and student competitions. Over the past few years IBM in Ireland has increased its level of partnerships with academic departments in software, hard-ware and business services. We are actively involved through:

IBM Shared university research (Sur)IBM awards universities promoting research in areas of mutual interest. Two major proposals in Ireland that received funding include:• Collaborative research in On Demand Supply

Chain Management, with University College Dublin (UCD) Smurfit School of Business

• Provision of five IBM xSeries servers to Trinity College Dublin (TCD) Centre for High Per-formance Computing for Linux applications. The departments involved at TCD include; Biochemistry, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Microbiology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Physics, and the Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing.

1997call centre in Ballycoolin takes its 1,000,000th call

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1999Technology Campus

achieves ISO 14001

Environmental

Management

Certifi cate.

IBM “Wired for

Learning” schools

project goes live

around Ireland.

dublin sales & support centre offi cially opens.

our SuPPort of educatIon & reSearch

1999The last sunset

of the millennium

in Ireland occurs

at 4.41 pm at

Dursey Head in

west Cork.

Science foundation Ireland (SfI) Principal Investigator ProgrammeIBM in Ireland supports research proposals made by Irish universities for this programme in the Information and Communications Technology fi elds. Extensive collaborative work between UCD, Dublin City University (DCU) and IBM Dublin Software Laboratory in ‘Adaptive Information Computing’ has resulted in Four Principal Investigator SFI awards.

Phd fellowship ProgrammeIBM awards funding to exceptional PhD stu-dents in science, engineering, e-commerce, nanotechnology and computational sciences. Three Electronic Engineering and Computer Applications PhD Fellowship awards were recently made to students in Ireland.

IBM centre for advanced Studies (caS) at the dublin Software laboratoryCAS Dublin enables collaboration among academia, industry, government and IBM research & development labs. Since 200�, nine academics from Irish universities have been working an average of one-day-a-week at the Dublin Software Laboratory. Collabora-tive research projects range from information extraction, information retrieval, large scale visualisation techniques, adaptive e-learning systems, performance issues in enterprise systems, machine trans-lation. Project results include: pub-lished research papers, prototypes and new product directions.

IBM CAS programme co-sponsors seven Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRC-SET) PhD Fellowships.

IBM eclipse Innovation grant A competition for undergraduates that encour-ages the active use of the Eclipse open source software for academic curricula and research. Students are mentored by leading software development experts from IBM Dublin Software Laboratory. Signifi cant awards are made for leading edge projects.

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2002

Sam Palmisano is announced as the new ceo for IBM.

IBM acquires PwC Consulting.

Now integrated as IBM Business

Consulting Services, this gives

IBM an unmatched capability to

help customers solve their busi-

ness issues and to exploit world-

class technology for improved

business performance.

2000Ireland IT Services

expands onto the

Technology Campus

with the Global Web

Architecture (GWA).

2000IBM introduces the eServer and powers the Sydney olympic games web site – receiving 11.3 billion hits.

2001Lotus & Informix

integration projects

are completed,

inaugurating a new

period of technological

innovation.

The IBM eServer

p690 pioneers an

innovative system-

on-a-chip design

our coMMItMent to the coMMunIty

Corporate philanthropy is one thing, but few community initiatives have more impact than the myriad individual contributions made by IBM employees in communities across Ireland – acting as advisers to charities, supporting local schools, running workshops and training sessions, and acting as mentors to young people.

In late 2003, this spirit was formalised with an On Demand Community volun-teering programme. This encouraged all IBM employees to offer their time and expertise to make a significant dif-ference to charities, non-profit-making groups and local schools.

2002the euro is introduced.

Ireland qualify for the knockout

stages of the World Cup.

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our coMMItMent to the coMMunIty 2003Centre for Advanced Studies

accreditation is awarded to the

Dublin Software Laboratory.

Extreme Blue programme

launches at Dublin Software

Laboratory.

World’s fastest production computer, the IBM z-990, manufactured at the technology campus.

The worldwide move was a response to the requests from many groups and organisations who were keener to have a skilled IBM professional (or IBM retiree) working with them on a voluntary basis than merely receiving cash or donated equipment. The target was to have more than 25,000 IBM volunteers worldwide by 2005; this was far exceeded when more than 60,000 employees and retirees had registered by the end of 2005.

The portfolio of solutions for schools includes free equipment and soft-ware to help promote mathematics and science, plus programmes that have already driven positive change in schools. (See “Our support of educa-tion & research”). IBM also provides advice on how to help agencies with technology planning and business acu-men. Volunteers may also be able eli-gible for grants of IBM equipment and discounted technology for the schools and agencies they are helping.

Special focus is given to disadvantaged areas, enabling people to overcome “the digital divide” that threatens to leave some communities behind, while the rest of Ireland moves forward into the networked future.

2003the Special olympics World Summer games are hosted in Ireland.

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2005IBM Ireland creates ICHEC Research Supercomputer.

IT Services Ireland, Business Continuity & Recovery

Services expands its round-the-clock disaster recovery

support for IBM clients in Ireland with new mission-

critical centre located at the Technology Campus.

IBM acquires Equitant and creates IBM BTO, a

global business transformation outsourcing provider

that focuses on the management and optimisation

of the order-to-cash cycle for large companies. The

company has offices in Ireland and North America

and serves clients globally.

IBM technology campus dublin hosts the european extreme Blue eXPo IBM’s incubator for talent, technology and business innova-tion, for the first time. this annual event challenges technical and business student intern project teams, along with their mentors, to “start something big” by developing new high-growth businesses that starts with a promising idea, market or technology.

2004IBM Integrated Supply chain (ISc) Systems group opens the on demand Supply chain centre at university college dublin.

IBM Software Group (SWG) announces IBM Workplace, the next

generation of Lotus Technology, is to be developed in Dublin.

IBM announces a €22m investment to significantly develop its Irish

R&D software facility and create a world-class knowledge facility.

2004IBM earns more U.S. patents than any other

company for the twelfth consecutive year.

lenovo acquires IBM’s Personal computing division (right).

IBM, along with representatives of the world’s leading science, educa-tion and philanthropic organisations, launches World community grid (below) – a global humanitarian effort that applies the unused comput-ing power of individual and business computers to help address the world’s most difficult health and social problems.

2006IBM announces the opening of a Wireless and rfId (radio frequency identification) centre of excellence, at the technology campus. the dublin centre complements a network of IBM rfId centers worldwide where clients can get hands-on experience with product tagging, supply chain integra-tion, logistics management and asset tracking before going into production.

2004Ireland takes over the

presidency of the EU.

Ireland wins the

Triple Crown.

2005Cork officially

becomes the European

City of Culture.

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our PeoPle – our valueS

With employees from over 60 countries work-ing at IBM in Ireland, we are a company where inclusiveness remains a way of life and our values as IBMers shape everything we do. Having a shared set of values helps us make decisions and in the process, makes our company great. But their real influence occurs when we apply these values to our personal work, our interactions with one another and the wider community.

In 2003, IBM employees worldwide jammed online over a period of �2 hours on our global intranet. Collectively, we defined our guiding beliefs for how we relate to each other, to our clients, our partners, our investors and the public at large. We determined that our ac-tions will be driven by:• Dedication to every client’s success• Innovation that matters — for our

company and for the world• Trust and personal responsibility in

all relationships

In today’s world, where everyone is so inter-connected and interdependent, it is simply essential that we work for each other’s suc-cess. In Ireland, IBMers are constantly finding ways to make our values come to life, using them as the basis for discussions about how we can grow our business and innovate faster.

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OUR CLIENTS

aer lInguS: faStPaSSAl

amy

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“You’d be surprised how many Irish people fly IBM”, ran the headline of a �960’s IBM advertisement, which celebrated the introduc-tion of the most advanced airline booking system in the world at Aer Lingus. “Combin-ing a world famous Irish company, aiding its efficiency and reinforcing the reputation of the nation abroad”, was an acknowledgement of a shared know-how between IBM and Aer Lingus. For the past 50 years, IBM and Aer Lingus have been co-operating together, rising to the challenge of reducing and managing the complexity of air travel and transportation. IBM has enabled Aer Lingus to concentrate on its most important mission: to make air travel ap-pear simple and efficient for passengers, while making processes run faster and smoother.

During this time of working together, IBM and Aer Lingus have an increasing recogni-tion that their relationship is geared towards innovation. To simplify any process takes real understanding. To successfully implement new processes takes strategic planning, business re-engineering and change-management skills. It’s the combination of these skills with sophisticated technology that is revolutionising the airline industry. By providing Aer Lingus with business consulting services and the latest technological infrastructures, IBM allows Aer Lingus to adapt and respond to the chal-lenges it faces in an on demand world.

More recently IBM have worked with Aer Lingus to transform the check-in operation at Dublin Airport by implementing the new self check-in service called FastPass. While many airlines have self check-in solutions, the Aer Lingus service is recognised as the leader in this field. FastPass is intended to be used by all business and leisure passengers. It is easy to use and empowers passengers to choose their own seating, check-in for onward flights and print their boarding passes. Passengers with luggage present their baggage for tag-ging at designated “Tag and Drop” desks.

When the kiosks were initially installed at Dublin airport the take-up of the service by passengers was nothing short of dramatic. Within five months of its launch, FastPass became the primary channel of check-in. Currently, over two thirds of all Aer Lingus pas-sengers at Dublin now use FastPass at check-in. Due to the overwhelming demand for this service at Dublin airport the service has been extended to airports in Cork, New York (JFK) and London (Heathrow), with equal success.

FastPass is all part of the ongoing develop-ment of Aer Lingus’ strategy of providing a better service for its customers while contributing to a positive experience of travelling with the airline.

“Since its introduction, FastPass has transformed the check-in experience for our customers at Dublin airport”, says Anne Bradley, Aer Lingus Dublin Airport Manager. “FastPass gives us many more check-in points at the airport. Passengers can get their own boarding pass in less than a minute and no longer have to endure long queues. Quite simply, FastPass is now an essential part of our daily operation. In fact FastPass has been so successful that we quickly extended it to our other major airports.”

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The Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) with research colleagues at universi-ties and laboratories around Ireland needed a large-scale, high-end supercomputer that could deliver the largest computer processing power, in a cost-effective way. The potential projects for this supercomputer involve life sciences, hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics and climate modelling.

Supercomputer “Walton”, announced in 2005 by ICHEC, is truly a breakthrough accom-plishment; it represents innovation in the true sense of the word. It uses IBM technologies to establish a new model by which supercom-puting power in Ireland can be applied to a wider array of diffi cult problems, accelerating scientifi c discovery, and tackling complex business problems. For example, research projects simulated on Walton could lead to more targeted drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, AIDS or multiple sclerosis.

“The next-generation IBM solution is giving Irish researchers the ability to carry out new science as well as shaving critical time off achieving tangible results for existing projects.” said Dr Andy Shearer, Director of ICHEC. “Walton uses the most advanced aspects of modern computer science and is capable of many trillions of calculations per second. With this power many physical problems can be simulated on the computer. For example, it is possible to determine how a surgical implant will fatigue during its lifetime. Doing this on a computer has clear benefi ts over measuring the fatigue after it has been put into a patient.” ICHEC merges high-end technology, includ-ing supercomputing and visualisation, with Irish expertise in such areas as genomics, proteomics, bio-imaging and pharmaceutical sciences, to enable major contributions in sci-ence and healthcare. An emerging discipline, bio-informatics uses the power of super-computers to interpret data in the biological sciences at the molecular level. The innovative IBM solution is the result of an IBM supercomputing project begun in its labs and dedicated to building a new family of supercomputers, which are optimised for bandwidth, scalability and have the ability to handle large amounts of data while consum-ing a fraction of the power and fl oor space required by today’s fastest systems.

IBM worked closely with ICHEC to develop a powerful, state of the art clustered supercom-puting solution that would meet their needs to attract internationally competitive research. Walton is now ranked at 205 of the most pow-erful commercially available computer systems in the world by top500.org

The new supercomputer, Walton (walton.ichec.ie) is an IBM eServer cluster �350 consisting of ��� IBM e326 compute nodes. Each compute node is a dual AMD Opteron 250 - 2.� GHz single core CPUs with a �MB level 2 cache. ��0 of these nodes have � GB of RAM, while the remaining 6� nodes have � GB RAM. Walton is capable of a peak per-formance of more than 2.�9 TFlops.

Such performance scalability, fl exibility, and innovative design opens the door to tackling a wide range of complex problems—not just in life sciences, but in many important scientifi c and commercial fi elds including materials sci-ences, molecular dynamics, fl uid dynamics, climate modelling, and fi nancial risk analysis.

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IrISh centre for hIgh-end coMPutIng (Ichec)

474 individual servers make up the fi rst

supercomputer built in Ireland by IBM.

2.79 terafl ops of processing power

is the equivalent of 2.79 trillion

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The Knowledge and Data Engineering Group (KDEG) within the Computer Science Department at Trinity College Dublin, has established itself as an international leader in researching knowledge management systems. Although KDEG has won numerous interna-tional awards for its papers, it faced problems all too familiar for organisations that require extensive collaboration.

“We were trying to collaborate using e-mail and copies of documents without a way to ensure that we all had access to the most current revisions and research findings,” ex-plains Alex O’Connor, a postgraduate student at KDEG studying semantic interoperation. “This often meant that we were collaboratively working on documents. We needed a way to flexibly ensure timely and appropriate contri-butions to documents in progress.”

To improve the productivity of its students and staff, the group wanted a collaboration tool that could act as a document management tool and cross-platform authoring solution. The collaboration technology needed to provide the ability to structure and track team projects. Equally important for an academic organisation, the technology needed to be affordable.

As it turned out, the answer to the group’s collaboration needs was just around the cor-ner. “We became aware of some very exciting work being performed at IBM’s Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS), Dublin Software Laboratory, which seemed to have possibilities for informing our research on the interop-erability between systems. When we first encountered IBM Workplace Collaboration Services, we were interested in it as part of our research,” remembers O’Connor.

“Collaboration using different applications is one of the things that makes us most interested in Workplace Collaboration Services—and this is also where the product really comes into play,” says O’Connor. “Instead of people authoring things on their own computers—and then e-mailing their work off in the hope of it reaching the right people at the right time—IBM Workplace can automate workflow and ensure people are working on the right version of a document.”

Teams of researchers and developers based at the Dublin Software Laboratory play a key role in contributing to the vision, innovation and architecture at the core of this product. “IBM Workplace delivers an integrated col-laborative environment that includes a wide range of capabilities like e-mail, calendaring, presence awareness, instant messaging,

learning, team spaces, Web conferencing, document and Web content management. The underlying service oriented architecture (SOA) provides a flexible and easy way to de-ploy. It’s built on open standards and a single componentised infrastructure that is centrally managed,” says Bill Kearney, IBM Dublin Software Laboratory.

For KDEG, the product has resulted in stream-lining a previously ad hoc process. “The docu-ment management capabilities mean that we have a more definite turnaround of work, and we have more certainty that the documents people use are indeed the correct versions to edit and review,” says O’Connor.

“We think we have only touched on the capabilities of the product, which is already making an innovative impact on how we document and publish our research findings.”

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trInIty college duBlIn the KnoWledge and data engIneerIng grouP

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With over two million� registered vehicles on Ireland’s roads, the challenges of managing renewals are significant. Motor Tax Offices (MTOs) are the main renewal points for car tax and, as such, can get heavily congested. At peak times, such as January when new car registrations are at their peak, the start or end of each month, or during weekday lunchtimes, the queues of motorists are sometimes long. This can delay motor-ists trying to use other MTO services. To reduce the delays, promote increased efficiency and improve customer service, the Irish Government conceived a new channel for car tax renewal – Motor Tax Online.

Motor Tax Online’s primary function is to provide a quick and convenient online renewal channel. It complements existing methods and eliminates the need to visit an MTO except in cases where a more complex transaction is required. Gerry O’Malley, Principal Officer with responsibility for motor tax at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (DEHLG), explains: “Shifting a large number of renewals from our motor tax office network to the Internet makes good commercial sense. The idea was that the sys-tem would facilitate almost instant renewals. It would be a far more convenient way to renew, and a cost-effective route to revenues for the Government.”

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dePartMent of the envIronMent: Motor taX onlIne

over 47,000 renewals took place online in 2004, generating €100m in revenue for the government

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IBM’s established relationship with the Department as a supplier of business consul-tancy and new application development and support proved crucial in winning the highly competitive tender process.

“We have a relationship with IBM that provides us with many key benefits. IBM delivers valuable business analysis, helps us manage the impact of legislative changes on our business processes and provides software which helps us to enhance service quality,” says Philip O’Flaherty, DEHLG Project Manager for the online renewal project. “Another key factor was IBM’s ability to demonstrate its e-commerce credentials through real customer references.”

IBM Business Consulting Services provided reference e-commerce projects, such as a major airline’s website, which showcased sophisticated transactional capabilities. IBM began with an in-depth analysis of the MTO’s business processes. This led to the definition of a scalable technical design for the Internet channel, which took six months to implement.

Following a successful three-month pilot, the service, www.motortax.ie, has now been rolled out nationwide.

The application boasts sophisticated function-ality and includes an easy-to-use front-end. It can make use of data from the National Car Testing Service to ensure that the necessary vehicle checks are made, is bilingual and links to an electronic online payment provider. It performs a series of validations to ensure that the vehicle is eligible for online renewal and allows customers to track the status of a renewal request.

The online system enables office staff to concentrate on other tasks, such as driving li-cence, vehicle registration and motor tax clas-sification changes, licensing trailers and goods vehicles certification. With less reliance on offices, there have been improvements to staff productivity too. “Cashiers now have much more time to allocate to complex customer queries. This ensures that regular queries are dealt with efficiently and that every customer achieves the same high level of MTO service,” explains O’Flaherty.

Today, Motor Tax Online accounts for over a fifth of all national renewals. In Dublin, it accounts for over a third. The system is also one of Ireland’s top five Internet sites in visitor numbers. “Over ��0,000 renewals took place online in 200�, generating C= �00m in revenues for the Government,” says O’Malley. The success of the site was also highlighted when the Motor Tax Online project won an Innova-tion Through Technology Award, presented to DEHLG by the Taoiseach. The award was given in the Government to Citizen category, in recognition of excellence and creativity in a public sector technology initiative.

DEHLG has established a single processing centre to support online renewals. This will re-duce the cost of renewals for the DEHLG now and in the future. “Our immediate priorities are to broaden the number of licensing categories that can renew automatically using the online system and to enable the online licensing of new vehicles. IBM’s professionalism, experi-ence, expertise and innovative thinking have continued to enable us to take cost out of our operations, while improving customer service quality,” O’Flaherty concludes.

1 Source: National Roads Authority, Ireland. September 2004.

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Since its founding over �50 years ago, University College Dublin (UCD) has strived to foster ideas, cultivate learning and encourage discovery while playing a central role in Ireland’s advancement as a dynamic and highly successful independent European state.

UCD is a leading European university and the largest university in Ireland. UCD is a pioneer of advanced technologies and an enthusiastic innovator, earning UCD a place at the forefront of technology in education and research. In 2005 the President of UCD set out a vision for the future in UCD’s Strategic Plan 2005 – 2008.

IBM Business Consulting Services is providing consulting support in the develop-ment and implementation of this strategic plan. Underpinning this process is IBM’s deep understanding of UCD’s business, an understanding developed from a long-stand-

ing relationship of working with UCD and other Irish universities, our global education sector knowledge, and our experience and success-ful track record in managing transformation in Irish business. The project places IBM at the centre of the biggest change programme ever undertaken by an Irish university, comple-ments our on-going work with other leading universities and further enhances our profi le in the higher education sector.

Our consultants are working with senior management in UCD and to date have been involved in: the establishment of a programme and project management infrastructure for the implementation of the strategic plan; the conduct of a comprehensive business process re-engineering exercise centered on the university’s core administrative functions; assisting with the introduction of undergradu-ate modularisation; the implementation of new academic structures; the development, the

implementation of fi ve new Graduate Schools to deliver �th Level Ireland; and an on-go-ing programme of assistance to UCD project managers in delivering the strategic plan.

“Delivering change in an organisation as large and complex as UCD is a sizable challenge. The support and assistance which we have received from IBM has really helped UCD to structure and develop its change programme.The quality of the IBM people has been excellent. We look forward to our continued partnership,” says Tony Carey, Director of Strategic Planning, UCD.

After �50 years the university is still holding true to ideals of its founder John Henry Newman, who once said, “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” IBM is pleased to be working with the University College Dublin, as it lives and changes.

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unIverSIty college duBlIn

24,000 students currently attend ucd.

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LeasePlan Corporation is an innovative global leader in vehicle leasing and fleet management solutions. One of the world’s largest fleet and vehicle management companies, LeasePlan has been operating in Ireland since �99� and has become a market leader in providing vehicle solutions to the corporate market.

The group employs in excess of 6,000 people in 26 countries worldwide. It manages a total of �.2 million vehicles and has a consolidated lease portfolio worth C= ��bn.

As part of a worldwide globalisation strategy, LeasePlan took the decision to centralise its IT operation for some 2� European countries, into LeasePlan Infrastructure Services (LPIS), an IT services operation based in Dublin. The services offered include the hosting of all front and back office systems, for the European entities. It also includes the provi-sion of a global communications infrastructure and global application support for over 30 group wide applications.

Such a services platform ensures that LPIS can easily integrate and consolidate the IT systems from its international country organisations leading to a consistent level of service with improved costs. The platform also enables LeasePlan to “build once and deploy everywhere”. A fundamental enabler to the continued globalisation of the corporation.

In 2003 IBM closed a deal with LPIS to provide the hardware, software and technical support for the first phase of the consolidation project. Each year since, IBM has work closely with LPIS to deliver the second and subse-quent phases to the project.

“IBM entered a rigorous assessment process with other IT companies when we were ten-dering the contract,” reports David Ryan, MD of LeasePlan Infrastructure Services.

“There were a number of key attributes which we were rating companies on including reputation, evidence of past success, high availability platforms, geographical presence and experience and of course running costs. We set the bar high and IBM won the deal.”

IBM delivered to LPIS a hardware environment comprising of a number of IBM eServer prod-ucts: iSeries, xSeries and storage systems to facilitate the consolidation of its European sites to Dublin. But core to the project’s suc-cess story were the IBM employees them-selves who worked tirelessly to ensure that the project was a success and that the customer was satisfied with the outcome.

“The technical design which IBM promised has been proven,” says Ryan. “We have rapidly built a global business, supporting not only our corporation colleagues, but also a multitude of drivers when they need to interact with LeasePlan.”

“LeasePlan Infrastructure Services have been a very exciting customer to work with over the last three years, using IBM’s latest technology to bring real value to their business. It was a real challenge but very satisfying for team IBM to implement this project successfully with a customer as progressive as LPIS,” says Peter McNally, Sales Manager, Finance and Public Sector, IBM Ireland.

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leaSePlan corPoratIon

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at IBM, we began to sense the new possibilities for innovation several years ago, as we worked with our clients to help them become more agile, more responsive, more adaptive… in other words on demand.

today, IBM in Ireland provides our clients with an unequalled depth and breadth of technology, expertise and experience – and helps combine them to produce real results. We have done so for businesses and institutions of all kinds and sizes, enabling them to make both a profit and a difference.

of course, this idea of innovation is nothing new for IBM. We have always been an enterprise-focused innovation company. through five decades, IBMers in Ireland have explored the frontiers of the possible – and have brought those discoveries to

profitable and beneficial life in business, government, education and Irish society at large. We call this “innovation that matters.”

We prepared this document to give you a sense of the possibilities of innovation – the abundance of technologies, skills, approaches and capabilities that are available to every decision-maker, in Ireland. We also hope to inspire you through some role models – IBM clients who are innovating in some way, in some part of their business or organisation, to create value and differentiation.

In a world of relentless competition, they stand out as very special leaders. We at IBM could not be more excited by the opportunity to work with them, and many others around Ireland, as their innovation partner.

the PoSSIBIlItIeS of InnovatIon

IBM Ireland Limited Oldbrook House, 2�-32 Pembroke Road, Dublin �, Ireland

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