Gorey company Innovate and Virgin Media Business are to create a strategic partnership which they say will offer complete ICT solutions for business customers.

The partnership was announced at the same time as the IEDR, Ireland’s internet domain registry, named Gorey as Ireland’s Digital Town for this year. 

Innovate chief executive Jim Hughes said: “The day Virgin Media came to Gorey set the whole agenda for the future. This partnership positions us in the market to provide rapid and resilient network connectivity and cloud solutions to business customers to support their digital transformation. Together we are transforming technology to unlock their business growth.”

Hughes added that the selection of Gorey as Ireland’s 2018 Digital Town fits in with a broader strategy to put technology at the heart of the economic life of the region. “The Internet is changing value propositions and changing the way we access markets,” he said. “It is changing business and organisational strategies. That applies equally if you are the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, or Liberty Global.”

Gorey Chamber chief executive Diarmuid Devereux added: “Two years ago, it wasn’t even in the back of anyone’s mind that we could do this here. Then Virgin Media came to Gorey. The day they came everything changed. 

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“That was the biggest single infrastructural development to come to Gorey in my lifetime. It’s not just about broadband, it’s about the fibre and how it connects us to the world. It opens Gorey up to investors from around the world and it gives the town the opportunity to develop new commercial opportunities.”

IEDR boss David Curtin called on the government to lead a Digital Activation Campaign to work with sectoral bodies to provide resources to small businesses to enable them to implement digital strategies.

Curtin said: “We compile a Digital Health Index each year, and it shows that while 72% of SMEs have a website only 25% can process payments online and only 32% provide the ability to make online reservations or bookings. E-commerce is booming in Ireland and last year Irish consumers spent €21 billion online — but most of it is going overseas.”

A digital activation campaign would aim to assist businesses address these issues, he added. 

Photo: Jim Hughes (left), Virgin Media CEO Tony Hanway (centre), and Steve Docherty of Cisco. (Pix: Shane O'Neill, SON Photographic)