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Paul Rellis, MD Microsoft Ireland speaks in Cork at Innovating for Successful Business Conference

Mr. David Kelly, Asst. Director, S& E Regional Assembly, Mr. Paul Rellis MD, Microsoft Ireland, Mr. Stephen Blair, Director, S&E Regional Assembly & Ms.Rosemary Ward, Business Consultant South East BIC

 

On Tuesday last in the River Lee Hotel in Cork, Paul Rellis MD, Microsoft Ireland addressed more than 120 international delegates at the “INNOVATING FOR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS” conference.

The conference was a key element of ATLANT-KIS, an EU Funded Interreg Atlantic Area Project. The aim of the project is the promotion of external knowledge service providers in order to improve innovation in SMEs.
Mr Rellis outlined how Microsoft supports innovation among SMEs, placing particular emphasis on the innovation of cloud computing. He described how Microsoft assists start up companies through their BizSpark programme and other initiatives.  He officially launched the KIS Platform, an online resource to assist SMEs and businesses in general identify and access Knowledge Intensive Service providers.


The Atlant-KIS project involves 8 partners from 5 countries including France, Spain, Portugal, UK & Ireland.  The highly successful conference was hosted by one of the Irish partners, the Southern & Eastern Regional Assembly.  External service providers, or as referred to in the project Knowledge Intensive Service Providers (KIS) are ICT companies, R&D providers and various management consultancies that provide external services to SMEs in their quest to become more innovative in all areas of business. Facilitators Donagh Kiernan from Cork company Maidsfield Associates, Dan Richardson from Technology from Ideas based in Waterford and Aidan Kenny from Kilkenny company Servitize led lively discussions on their areas of expertise.


Commenting on the event, Stephen Blair, Director of the Southern & Eastern Regional Assembly said ‘We were delighted to welcome delegates from the UK, France, Spain and Portugal as well as Ireland to Cork for this unique conference and networking event. Having Paul Rellis from Microsoft as our keynote speaker offered our delegates a unique insight into the future of cloud computing and its impact on innovation in SMEs, a theme central to the Atlant-KIS project’.