Good News Thursday - 12 June 2009

June 12, 2009 Good News Thursday No Comments

Well - I was going to post good news stories every two weeks but through-out my travels this week, I came across a few good news stories and thought to myself, why wait until next week?

Next week will see a return of the recruitment and innovative ideas sections but today, we’re delighted to share good news stories on this rainy Thursday.

1. Third Award in Six Months…

Paycheck Plus is no stranger to winning awards - they won the Irish Payroll Association Award for Best Outsource Provider in 2007 & 2008, Best Small Business Award at the Drogheda Chamber Excellence Awards in November 2008 and Best Service Provider and Overall Winner at the Louth County Enterprise Board Awards in March 2009.

Just last week they picked up Best Small Business Excellence Award at the Fingal Chamber Excellence Awards. Well done Anne and the team.

In addition to winning the award, Paycheck Plus also expanded their team by hiring Janice Coleman. Janice is another distinguished graduate of the Irish Payroll Association and brings significant payroll experience to Paycheck Plus from her previous experiences. Welcome to the team Janice.

2. Thriving Business in a Recession…

Another good news story came from David Quaid of Primary Position. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a must for all businesses that have a website. The oldage of ‘If you build it, they will come’ doesn’t work…you need to work hard at getting them to come. That’s exactly what David helps SMEs do - bring traffic to your website.

I hope he won’t mind me telling you but in the past four weeks, he has signed up 10 new clients - all who are export oriented and have new ideas. In addition to growing and thriving his business, he has been approached by 5 start-ups to be IT Director/CTO of their new businesses. Now, this is someone thriving in a recession.

3. Irish Company goes up against Big Guys in Corporate IT Award

MCor Technologies launched its 3D printer, the Mcor Matrix, to much applause last year. It is the only 3D printer in the world that can use A4 paper to make 3D objects. MCor won the 2008 Intertrade Ireland Seedcorn, Best Emerging International company award and recently won the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Award in March 2009.

Just this past week, they were contacted by the World Technology Network and informed that they were nominated in the category of IT Hardware. Other nominees in the category include Sony, Motorola, Belkin International.

The World Technology Network is a real who’s who in the world of global technology. Congratulations to Conor and the team.

4. Tweeting for Business Success..

Claire Boyles of Management Matters continues to educate SMEs, charities and sole traders about the benefits and use of Twitter as part of the social marketing mix.

It’s a lunchtime seminar that educates and inspires people who are aware of twitter but don’t know where to start. Claire is getting great feedback from her participants.

She is planning seminars around the country and more in Dublin so when I have the list, I’ll share it with you.

It’s great to see businesses innovating during these tough economic times.

5. Some Companies are still Investing in New Technology…

I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Knight of Donite Plastics during the week and it is great to see a company that is still investing in new technologies and innovative processes.

Donite is a vacuum forming company. Vacuum forming provides an inexpensive way to have your own special plastic parts moulded to order - whether they are small or large.

They’ve recently installed a large 5-axis CNC router to automatically trim their plastic mouldings. Yep, I didn’t know what that meant either so when I asked Michael what the benefit was, he explained that it will allow them to do much more accurate and more complicated trimming operations than was possible before on very large mouldings. It saves time on large and small parts.

Now, a typical new product will take only 2-3 weeks from initial concept to real production parts.

***Ends until next time***