02-02-2006 ChangingWorlds highlighted by Vodafone Ireland at Centre of Excellence launch
Vodafone Ireland opens Centre of Excellence
Thursday, February 02, 2006 by Charlie Taylor
Vodafone Ireland has announced that it is to establish a new Centre of Excellence in Dublin, leading to the creation of 25 jobs.
The mobile operator's Centre of Excellence for Personalisation and Storage, which will be based in the subsidiary's Irish headquarters in Leopardstown, will focus on developing new products and services for the Vodafone Group's 179 million customers.
The Dublin centre is a core part of Vodafone's Future Products Unit, which was established in January 2004 to concentrate on the discovery, selection and incubation of new mobile products and services.
Vodafone Ireland won the contract to manage the centre following an internal competitive tendering process.
Vodafone Ireland also teamed up with the Dublin-based mobile applications firm ChangingWorlds to deploy its ClixSmart Navigator solution over its network. The deployment helped ChangingWorlds to successfully grown its Wireless Portal Solutions business to a point where it provides services to over 30 mobile operators and employs over 70 staff.
The new centre was officially opened on Thursday by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Michael Martin who said that Vodafone's decision to locate the centre in Dublin would further collaboration between indigenous firms and the mobile operator.
A total of six "Centres of Excellence" have been established by Vodafone in a number of key markets with the central unit located in Vodafone Group Headquarters in Newbury, England. Each centre concentrates on a specific area such as entertainment or communications. The Dublin-based centre will be specialising in developing new solutions in the area of personalisation and storage. It will be led by Jennifer Howe who previously held the position of Head of Technology Strategy and Planning at Vodafone Ireland.
"The establishment of the Centre of Excellence is not only exciting news for Vodafone Ireland, it's also significant news for the large number of individuals and companies in Ireland that have great ideas but need support to bring their ideas from the concept phase through to launch," said, Teresa Elder, CEO of Vodafone Ireland.
"We are delighted that as a result of this announcement, Ireland now also has a real opportunity to establish itself as a key player in creating the mobile technology products and services of the future," she added.
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