Irish Small Firms Association

MDR

Pat Delaney is the Head of the Irish Small Firms Association, their principle sponsor is the incumbant operator. Have we spoken to Mr Delaney, or if we haven't in like of their sponsorship, is it worth talking to him ?

dahamsta

Pat Delaney was rather critical of IrelandOffline around the time of the Blackout, effectively saying that our actions were inappropriate and could be damaging to business. However David long met with him recently - about a month ago by my reckoning - and I believe that after a short spell of skepticism and defensiveness, Dave was able to get across why we felt we had to resort to such action, and how the SFA and IrelandOffline could work together. I believe IrelandOffline and the SFA parted company on reasonably good terms on the day, although I'm unsure if there's been any follow-ups. There may be a report on the forum or the site, a search might reveal something. If there isn't, I'm sure Dave will follow up later.

adam

SkepticOne

IrelandOffline (David Long and Howard Brittain) has met with Pat Delaney. I was not at the meeting personally so the following is second hand information. There was some initial skepticism from Mr Delaney about the demand for broadband and flat-rate. It was not something he felt was a huge priority among small businesses. After further discussion, he appeared to come around. He was influenced by the personal experience of Howard who is a web designer working from home. That's all the info I have at the moment. No doubt Dangger will have more detail.

MDR

I don't how many of you krazy kids are familiar with the residentail user Survey I have been working on. One of the final aidditions to it was a question asking the Surveyee (is there such a word ?) to list some Irish Website they frequented such Pigsback, Buy4Now etc, you know the kind. I hope to build a list of small and medium sized Irish Firms with an Online presence. We then can produce in about six weeks, another survey to canvass their opinion on the effect lack of flat-rate access inb having on their businesss etc.

What do you think ?

Dangger

We met with with the Small Firms Association on the 11th of April this year.

The meeting was a little frosty at the start as Pat Delaney expressed his feelings that the blackout was not something that should have been carried out and it could not be expected to be beneficial in any way.

He told us that from recent surveys with members of the association broadband or Internet connectivity issues were not highlited as being problem areas. He told us that issues such as high insurance costs were what firms wanted addressed as a priority.

You can't argue with that, as so many firms are having such difficulty with regards to insurance costs. However we came prepated. With us we had statements from a "traditional" businessmen, explaining that even though he's company is not of the dot com variety, the lack of adequate Internet connectivity in Ireland was preventing expansion and therefore preventing job creation is what some would consider regional areas. This got Mr Delaney's attention. We also had statements from newer dot com style companies as they must be listened too also.

We knew before the meeting, that to get the message across we would have to appeal to the traditionalist idea of what small companies are and could be doing with the Internet. The statements from an "old school" business prompted Mr. Delaney to listen up.

He asked what could the SFA do. We explained that in all their future releases and work covering the Internet connectivity issues, broadband and flat rate should be separated they are different. They must not be lumped in together. We have also asked to consult with them in asking members further questions covering such issues.

Mr Delaney has also given us a preliminary invitation to speak at a conference to be held in September/October , which will be aimed at highlighting the problems facing small firms in Ireland for the attention of the Taoiseach. We will be covering connectivity issues.