Silicon Bog tops Europe as tech capital


23 Apr 2003

Ireland is at the top of the list in the race for perception as the Silicon Valley or tech capital of Europe, a new Europe-wide survey has revealed.

The survey carried out by Eurocom PR Network in association with its Irish partner Simpson FTPR covered 147 senior executives in 12 European countries.

Almost one in five – some 19pc – backed Ireland as the country with the most potential to be the Silcon Valley/technology capital of Europe. This was followed by Germany (14pc) and the UK (8pc).

“This suggests that the Government’s policy of positioning Ireland as a major European hi-tech centre is working,” said Ronnie Simpson, MD of Simpson FTPR.

The report found senior managers in technology companies to be upbeat about technology market recovery and job creation. One in three senior managers said he or she expects to increase jobs over the next six months and 54pc of respondents believe they will increase their revenues.

Some 52pc of European technology executives expect a recovery in technology spend by the fourth quarter of 2003. However, a pessimistic 3pc don’t expect a recovery in the technology sector until some time in 2005.

In terms of the ‘hot’ technologies driving the imaginations and desires of senior managers, IT security, customer relationship management (CRM) and wireless telecommunications were voted the technologies most likely to drive growth in the technology market, the survey found.

IT security heads the list of technologies with the most growth potential said one in five executives, followed by CRM (17pc) and wireless communications (17pc). Other technologies that had senior executives licking their lips included IT outsourcing (11pc), web services (6pc), e-commerce (6pc) and storage (5pc).

However, GPRS applications and mobile commerce, which were heavily backed two years ago, barely made into the hot technology top 10, with 4pc and 3pc respectively.

By John Kennedy