Companies in Ireland’s €2.6bn a year domestic IT sector that neglect software compliance issues are putting their futures at risk because of the increasing sophistication of US and European screening procedures, an industry expert has warned.
Declan Kavanagh, managing director of Insight Test Services, one of Ireland’s largest software quality firms, warned indigenous software companies: “If your software does not come up to the new and more exacting standards being applied by the US Food and Drugs Administration and others this can result in your products being barred from key markets.”
His company Insight employs a team of more than 75 software quality engineers with offices in Dublin, Galway and the UK. The company helps businesses in the ICT, financial services and life sciences sectors to develop and implement quality software.
Kavanagh was speaking after his company took two major awards at Eurostar, a key event for Europe’s software testers and quality engineers in Copenhagen. Kavanagh’s presentation dealt with managing outsourcing to low-cost economies.
His colleague Fran O’Hara, Insight’s practice director, was honoured for his paper on process improvement technologies that deliver measurable added value.
By John Kennedy
