Uncategorized
Data Protection Commissioner launches his Annual Report for 2010 including special investigation on insurance data
Insurance Link Claims Database
The Commissioner is publishing the findings of the most wide ranging investigation yet undertaken by his Office of a database of personal data kept by the insurance sector known as Insurance Link. This is a shared claims database that allows member organisations to share and cross-reference their insurance claims data. At the time of the investigation it contained details of almost two and a half million claims. The investigation identified a major lack of transparency with regard to Insurance Link and that far too many individuals in insurance companies and other entities had access to the database with little or no oversight of that access. Some serious incidents of inappropriate access were identified and are listed in the report.
Data Security Breaches
The Commissioner reports on his publication of a data security breach Code of Practice. This was one of the recommendations of a Working Group set up by the previous Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform which also recommended a strengthening of our data protection laws to provide for penalties for serious breaches. The Code focuses on informing the people affected by security breaches so that they can take appropriate measures to protect themselves. It alsoencourages organisations to voluntarily report incidents to the Commissioner’s Office. 410 data security breach incidents were reported to the Office in 2010, a 350% increase on the number of reports received in the previous 12 months (there were 119 reports in 2009). This large increase in reporting is a consequence of the more exacting demands of the Code of Practice. The Commissioner reports on serious data security breach incidents that occurred in 2010 involving the GAA and SelfCatering.ie (see pages 77 and 79 of the Report). The report also includes details of an ongoing investigation of a breach affecting personal data held by the Department of Social Protection.
Data Sharing in the Public Sector
The Commissioner is publishing a set of guidelines for public sector agencies that wish to share personal data in the public interest – for example, to prevent tax evasion and other types of fraud. Transparency and proportionality are the key guiding principles. The sharing should be explicitly provided for by law. The public sector customer should know what personal data may be shared. The extent of sharing should be limited to what is necessary to achieve the public interest objective. The disclosed data should benefit from a high level of security and be securely destroyed when no longer needed.
CCTV
The deployment and use of CCTV continues to give rise to complaints from members of the public. Investigations regarding the use of CCTV systems in schools, workplaces and in a small village, Culfadda in Sligo are detailed.
General Matters
The report outlines concerns which arose following audits of charities. The report also provides information on positive engagements with the National Board for Safeguarding Children and the Catholic Church, the HSE in relation to its child welfare work in Limerick City and the Irish Council for General Practitioners.
Case Studies
The Commissioner’s report includes case studies of a number of investigations including:
· Prosecution of Ice Communications Ltd. for failing to comply with legal notices;
· Prosecution of three companies (Free Spirit Hair & Beauty Salon Ltd, Crunch Fitness Ltd and The Black Dog Communications Ltd) for sending marketing text messages;
- Prosecution of Fairco Ltd and Pure Telecom for calling numbers listed on the NDD opt-out register;
- Prosecution of Tesco for email marketing;
- Prosecution of UPC for offences related to unsolicited marketing phone calls;
- Deployment of biometric systems by commercial service providers and schools;
- Use of vehicle tracking systems
- Disclosure of previous defence force career information by the Defence Forces
- Disclosure of personal data by a housing association to a debt collection agent.
Note: The Annual Report is available for download in PDF format from the Data Protection Commissioner’s website: www.dataprotection.ie
Social Media Working Group, Guest Blogger
Review: The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media, by Joan Curtis and Barbara Giamanco
This review is part of a series of reviews that you can expect to see over the next while from the Social Media Working Group. This first one is by Eamonn O’Brien, Founder of The Reluctant Speakers Club. Here he reviews The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media, by Joan Curtis and Barbara Giamanco:
This book offers an introductory guide for people who need to figure out how to both understand and harness social media in a world where traditional sales techniques may have had their day. As such, it probably won’t serve as more than light reading for seasoned social media pros.
The authors spend the first half of the book outlining the revolution that has occurred in the way businesses and customers/consumers communicate – and why companies need to learn how to adapt to a new sales era, dubbed Sales 2.0. They argue that since customers are now more in control of what they buy, and have instant access to more information prior to when they make purchase decisions, that a modern form of consultative selling (which integrates the power of social media to develop better relationships, trust and customer collaboration) needs to be used as a replacement for traditional push based selling techniques.
While there are many nuggets to be found in the first 8 chapters, including author observations, examples of how politicians and companies are adapting to/benefiting from communication changes plus a quite interesting potted history lesson on the evolution of selling approaches from the 19th to the 21st century, much of the information provided at the outset of the book appears to be rehashing of stories and observations that have been doing the rounds for some time (online and offline). Also, many of the points made in the first half of the books seemed be endless variations of a single theme; “Embrace the new technology… move away from old sales approaches, they won’t work any longer with the 21st century buyer”.
That said, the second half of the book (when the authors get into a more ‘how to’ mode) is likely to prove both interesting and genuinely useful to anyone who needs practical suggestions on how to harness social media for sales and marketing purposes. The authors did an especially good job on how Sales meets LinkedIn and Sales meets Twitter, including really helpful ‘do’s and don’ts’ tips.
Also, their observations on how to use blogging to drive better Google site rankings together with their suggested ‘rules of engagement for bloggers’ are spot on. But the real value in this book comes at the end, with a case study style 30 day social media sales challenge. This blow by blow demonstration of how social media can be used and why – together with suggestions re goal setting and performance measuring – sold me on this book, all on its own.
My Overall Book Rating: 4 out of 5
Thanks a million Eamonn! More from the authors on their website.
IIA Conference 2011
Minister Richard Bruton TD speaking at Open for Business
Okay this is (probably) the last post about Open for Business 🙂 Thanks to MerrionStreetNews for this video of Minister Richard Bruton TD speaking at our annual conference on May 12th last
adsense, events, marketing
Free Digital Marketing Mini-conference for Hospitality Sector
Dublin City University Business School – free digital marketing mini-conference in the Gallery Theatre in the Helix.
Tomorrow DCU Business School with the DCU LINK Research Centre’s Techspectations Initiative is holding a free digital marketing mini-conference in the Gallery Theatre in the Helix. Techspectations Summer Hospitality & Tourism Digital Marketing Summit is supported by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association of Ireland.
The Summer Summit programme is designed to introduce Irish hospitality professionals to SEO tools and resources, Pay Per Click advertising, Social Media Marketing and more. To coincide with President Obama’s visit to Ireland and #irlday, their theme will focus on marketing Ireland, Irish food and hospitality however the content will have general applicability.
All the details can be found on the Techspectations website.
Uncategorized
Obama’s Administration chooses IT developed in Ireland
The IT was developed at the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded CSET (Centre for Science, Technology and Engineering) DERI in the National University of Ireland (NUI) in Galway.
The web standard, Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities (SIOC), is a way of incorporating data into websites and blogs for example that makes it easier to connect online communities and internet-based discussions.
Commenting on the visit today (23 May 2011) of President Obama, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Irish Government, Professor Patrick Cunningham spoke of ‘the great relationship between the US and Ireland in science.’
‘Ireland has a great reputation of a place to do good science and examples such as the IT developed in Galway and adopted by President Obama’s Administration is an endorsement of the calibre of Irish science.’
In 2012, Europe’s largest science event, ESOF 2012 (Euroscience Open Forum) is coming to Dublin.
Professor Cunningham, who is also Chair of ESOF 2012 went on to speak of ‘the great history of US and Irish science collaboration and to honour this, one of the major themes in ESOF 2012, Europe’s largest science event which is coming to Dublin next year, will be The Atlantic – a shared resource.
‘This aspect of the conference is a joint US-ESOF partnership programme in which eminent scientists from the US and Europe will come together in July next year in Dublin to discuss the critical aspects of this great shared resource.’
Uncategorized, Guest Blogger, International Strategy Working Group
Review of Open for Business: Mark Rodgers, MD, Cipherion Translations
This is a review of last week’s Annual Conference by Mark Rodgers of Cipherion Translations. Mark is also chair of the IIA Internation Working Group. This review was originally published on his own blog and he very nicely (cos he’s a very nice chap) allowed us to republish it here. Thanks Mark!
IIA Annual Conference: Open Data, Cloud Computing and the Future for Irish Entrepreneurs
The location, the speakers and the networking all contributed to making it a great event. Wonderful conference! Another superb event by Joan, Roseanne and the IIA team.
Cloud Computing and Open Data
A tech-conference in Dublin these days is not a conference without an appearance by Josh Holmes – Microsoft’s evangelist. And Josh didn’t disappoint either, with some wonderful insights into deep fried mars bars and other Arkansas delicacies. Tech-details aside, the convergence of cloud computing and open data is starting to show signs of becoming a reality, well done to IIA for showcasing the strategic nature of this convergence. Check out our thoughts on m-cloud.
Future for Irish Entrepreneurs – a European Content Hub?
The final panel discussion really started to spark the imagination. Neil Leyden, joint-winner of “Your Country, Your Call”, outlined his fantastic ideas and visions for an Irish Content Services Centre (ICSC) here in Dublin. In short, it’s the IFSC Part II.
However, instead of funds, Neil suggests that we focus on our unique position and ability to play a central role in Content distribution to the European market – and beyond. Disney (www.disney.com) , EA (www.ea.com) , Sony (www.sony.com) etc could all be invited to set up European “content” centres here in Ireland.
Constantin Gurdgiev loved the opportunity to speak publicly and not mention the words “bailout” or “crisis”! Instead he focused on the opportunities for organisations to develop new technologies, not based on a defined and known market, but more along the lines of: build it, go to market and try and sell it, take on customer feedback, modify the product or service and go to market again. The future is un-known, as soon as you do market research, it’s out of date!
This is real entrepreneurship – heading into the future, not certain of where or how you’ll get there but knowing that you have the people, tools, resources and abilities to get there. With a sprinkling of deep fried “self-belief”, as Josh might say.
So instead of spending your €1million of investment in technology, spend €250k on the sales channel and sales person… and spend the next €500k on upgrading and improving. “K”s can also be dropped above ; – ). A bit like the Japanese Kaizen approach.
This approach ties in very nicely to a current LinkedIN debate in the Irish Software Association group on how tech start-ups can find the right sales people. What’s emerging is that IRELAND INC, as a collaborative community, could be doing a better job at supplying already existing information and / or contacts and networks to our entrepreneurs – so that they are better equipped to face into what is ahead. Perhaps Michael Gerber’s “E-myth” be made mandatory reading before anyone sets up a business. In reading the book it becomes clear:
- Most businesses are set up by folks who know the “technology”, myself included.
- The more successful they get, the busier they become in delivering product / service
- This leaves a gap in the business: Who’s going to sell my services
- Sometimes this realisation comes too late: the business goes under
- Successful entrepreneurs either delegate the technical aspects or hire a great sales person
- All businesses are the same; all entrepreneurs are the same – only with different challenges.
- So let’s just recognise the problem, consult others to see if it’s valid, and change our approach.
In Ireland, there are ever more green shoots appearing. The harvest is still some time away.
However those that are just starting along the road to global success can learn from those who are one step ahead, those that are one step ahead can give back to those that are just starting. Just check the newspapers last weekend, the Turley brothers netted €80m for the sale of their business CarTrawler. One of the brothers was in sales, one was in operations – it works!
IIA Conference 2011
Presentations, videos and slides from Open for Business
A number of the presentersat Open for Business: the IIA Annual Conference, which took place last Thursday May 12th, have made their presentations available online. There are a number available in the resources section of our own site and some others are here below.
- Dylan Collins has shared an edited transcript of his address on his blog.
- Open Government & Fingal Open Data – Presentation to Irish Internet Association 12th May 2011View more presentations from Fingal Open Data
- The Smart Future – An Amárach Research Report
View more presentations from Amárach Research - You’ll also find Georgina Bowe’s presentation on eircom group’s Social Media Strategy from the Social Media Breakout session online here. Well worth a look.
Also the IIA Social Media Working Group made a rough recording of their session. Many thanks again to Populis for sponsoring this session.
IIA Conference 2011
Our Twitter Wordle from Open for Business #04b
Here is a visualistion from Wordle.net of some of the tweets that were flying around yesterday afternoon and this morning about Open for Business the IIA Annual Conference in the Aviva. I hope to release the plenary sessions as podcasts in the coming weeks and I know the social media working group have a video of their session which we will share soon too. Hopefully one of our delegates might write a review for next week as well (hint hint everyone!)
In the meantime many thanks to all our delegates for engaging in such a lively manner at the event and via Twitter, thanks to all our brilliant speakers in the plenary sessions, hosted conversations and breakout sessions. Thanks also to our brilliant sponsors without whom much of the event would not have been possible. We appreciate your community spirit!
With many thanks to our supporters, sponsors and exhibitors | |
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IIA Conference 2011
Don’t miss these rocking Breakout Sessions at Open for Business
One of the most popular features of our Annual Conferences every year are the breakout sessions. This year we’re mixing it up a bit and in addition to our usual practical breakout sessions we are holding three hosted conversations in the morning. These promise to be fascinating and a great opportunity to get your voice heard on the following topics:
- A conversation about collaborative innovation hosted by Amy Neale and Gary Leyden of NDRC
- Seán Baker, Irish Software Association Board and entrepreneur and Peter Finnegan, Dublin City Council host a conversation about Open Data and Open Government.
- Neil Leyden, Your Country, Your Call winner, will host a conversation about his plan for Ireland as an international content services centre.
In the afternoon we will be running 4 breakout sessions covering smartphone insights from Amárach Research, the reality of cloud computing with the IIA Cloud Computing Working Group, social media strategy with the Social Media Working Group and Ecommerce Best Practice and Emerging trends with Realex Payments.
I caught up with Jonathan Forde from Realex Payments yesterday and asked him to share a little bit more about what delegates can expect from their breakout session on Thursday afternoon.
Jonathan, you are running a breakout session on eCommerce at Open for Business, the IIA Annual Conference on the afternoon of May 12th in the Aviva Stadium. Which key areas are you going to be focussing on during these 2 sessions
The focus of our E Commerce breakout session will be Taking Your Business Online and the different elements that you need to take into account when developing your own E Commerce Strategy. Three speakers will present on different aspects of E Commerce to give the attendees an indication of what they need to do to get up and running successfully.
I’m going to discuss your online strategy as a whole including
- how to go about getting your Merchant Service Agreement,
- choice of web developers,
- what to look for in a Payment Gateway and how to combat fraud.
Bob Curran from Buy4Now will present on the different options available to businesses in E Commerce Platforms and Shopping carts and some tips on what to look for and best practice.
Aileen O’Toole of AMAS will look at the State of the Net and the importance of knowing what’s going on in the market around you, the emerging trends in E Commerce, spending patterns etc.
Following the three presentations there will be time for questions and answers including some questions that have been received via Twitter and Facebook in advance of the session.
Realex Payments have been a great supporter of the IIA over the years, getting involved in the conference in some capacity every year; what are the biggest changes/ challenges you have seen for Irish businesses who are coming online or upping their online game in this time?
We’re always happy to support the IIA and the Irish internet sector! 🙂
In terms of changes, the biggest and most positive change has to be social media, a large majority of our merchants are now actively involved in Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn etc and have benefitted significantly from being involved in this area. Many of our merchants tweet specific deals, have discounts for consumers who like their product on Facebook etc, so social media has become an important sales tool for so many businesses. The ability to have frequent conversations with your online community offers an incredible opportunity, not just from a social engagement point of view, but from a commercial perspective too.
I think initially many businesses were a little reluctant to participate in social media, particularly those businesses operating in a B2B environment, but as times gone on, the likes of twitter and Facebook have become an integral of marketing strategies throughout the country, including our own!
If you have one piece of advice for an Irish business reviewing their ecommerce strategy in light of these new challenges what would it be?
Integration of social media with ecommerce has become a crucial element for every ecommerce business, for B2B as well as consumer companies. Whether it is integrating social sharing on purchases, offering special deals/incentives to followers or likes, adding facebook open graph to enable Facebook likes to see friends purchases on your ecommerce site or simply leveraging brand ambassadors who emerge on Twitter and Facebook, there are a wealth of opportunities for brands to enhance their ecommerce offering. It’s becoming more and more important for brands to have personalities, as people want to know and engage with the brands that they’re buying, integrating your ecommerce strategy with social media facilitates this process.
Thanks a million Jonathan! See you and everyone else on Thursday May 12th!
IIA Conference 2011
1 to 1 Web Strategy Clinics at Open for Business
As part of this year’s annual conference Open for Business in the Aviva Stadium on May 12th, Sandra Hennessy of Dynamic Web Marketing will be running a series of one-to-one web strategy clinics. We hold these every year, inviting a member to host them. Sandra may well be known to some of our members, attendees and readers already as she is one of the lecturers on our Diploma in Digital Marketing.
Conference delegates can book a clinic online but as they are one-to-one and run only in the afternoon the places are very limited so please no dawdling! (You can book your ticket for the conference online too and again less of that dawdling at the back please!)
I had a chat with Sandra last week about how she is going to run the clinics this year and here is how she replied
Q. Sandra, you are running a one-to-one web strategy clinic at Open for Business, the IIA Annual Conference on the afternoon of May 12th in the Aviva Stadium. Which key areas are you hoping to help delegates with at these clinics?
A. I anticipate a lot of questions around search engine optimisation and social media but I hope to help businesses identify new ways to increase their online profile and conversions. QR codes are getting popular and a lot of the larger businesses are using them, I am currently on a mission to get Irish SME’s using QR codes in innovative ways to help drive sales.
Q. Some of our delegates and members might recognise you because this isn’t the first time you have helped on the web strategy clinics at our annual conference. Tell us about some of the issues you managed to resolve for delegates in previous years.
A. I am delighted to be sponsoring the clinics, I only recently set up my own business but have been working in online marketing for 9 years now. Over the past few years the clinics have centered around websites evaluations, giving delegates advice on how to improve their website usability, search engine optimistion and conversions. I expect this theme will run into this year but the web is moving and how we attract new business online is changing every day. Setting up and using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter was discussed last year but I anticipate a lot more questions in this area as it is now paramount to any online marketing strategy to include social and business networking.
Q. And in the (2/3) years that you have been doing this and working in this area in general what are the biggest changes/ challenges you have seen for Irish businesses who are coming online or upping their online game?
A. The biggest challenge I have seen since the birth of social media is time. It’s great that we can use Facebook, Twitter etc for free but it does take time to set up and manage. Part of what I do every day is help businesses establish and implement their social media strategy. I help them build social media it into their working day. It eventually becomes habit rather than a chore but it takes time to get to this stage.
Q. If you have one piece of advice for an Irish business reviewing their online strategy what would it be? I know tough question!
A. Three words – PLANNING, DELEGATION and ANALYSIS. Planning will help structure things, plan out a time line for different stages and don’t be afraid to delegate out some of the work to colleagues. Once upon a time looking at your website once a month and making a few changes would suffice but now online marketing is an integral part of any marketing plan so it needs to be planned into every day tasks. Decide when things will be completed and who will complete them. Once they have been implemented, analyse. No point in taking the time to plan and implement if you are not going to review how successful your online marketing campaigns are.
Big thanks to Sandra for answering those questions and giving us a flavour of the good sense Open for Business delegates can expect at her one-to-one clinics at the Conference.
If you do hope to participate please book online. In this form you can include details of the particular issue you wish to discuss so Sandra can prep in advance and you can really make the most of your half hour with her.