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RSM FARRELL GRANT SPARKS IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE RUBAN D’HONNEUR RECIPIENTS FOR IRELAND IN EUROPEAN BUSINESS AWARDS 2012/137 Companies from Ireland Are Through to Final Stage of Prestigious Awards Programme The final stage of the European Business Awards (www.businessawardseurope.com) has been reached and main sponsor RSM Farrell Grant Sparks is delighted to announce that 7 companies from Ireland have been awarded the highly-coveted Ruban d’Honneur. With only 100 companies across the entire European region achieving Ruban d’Honneur status in the awards, it is a significant achievement for Ireland.  The Irish WinnersThe Irish companies who received the Ruban d’Honneur are:Netwatch, Aer Lingus, Glennon Brothers, Helix Health, Saongroup.com, Coillte and Translink. The Awards ProcessOver the past two months, a panel of judges made up of European business leaders, academics and entrepreneurs has assessed the 200 companies that made it through to the National Champions stage of the awards. From these, the judges chose the top 100 businesses that stood out not only for their business accomplishments but also their dynamism, focus and ethical standards.  Each of the National Champions was judged in one of ten individual award categories covering Innovation, Growth Strategy, Environmental & Corporate Sustainability, Customer Focus, Employer of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Import/Export and Business of the Year [t/o €0-25m], [t/o €150m+] and [t/o €26-150m].Intensive face-to-face interview sessions by the judging panels will now take place before the ten overall category winners are announced at a gala event in April 2013. Aidan Scollard, RSM Farrell Grant Sparks Partner responsible for the European Business Awards comments “As proud sponsors of the European Business Awards in Ireland, we are thrilled to see 7 Irish companies get through to the final round. These awards are widely recognised as the most significant in the region and will bring far-reaching and positive associations for our successful companies. The judges have been very impressed by the drive and determination shown by the entrants from Ireland, alongside their innovation and enthusiasm. Well done to everyone.” European Business Awards SupportersOther European Business Awards category supporters areUK Trade & Investment (UKTI); Millicom; and Infosys. For more information on the awards, or to see the Irish video case studies please visit: www.businessawardseurope.com. [Ends]

Cube are delighted to announce a new website for Truck Electrics.  The new website has come about as the result of website reviews on the current web properties owned by the company.  We found that the company would be better running this web shop on the one domain targeting both UK and Ireland rather than using multiply domains.Having all the content on one domain allows Truck Electrics to concentrate all its promotion efforts including social media on one domain rather than spreading the time, money and effort across multiple websites.  Google plus and local are now run for one domain again saving time and money.  Truck Electrics supply various lights and electric components for trucks and heavy goods vehicles.  It is great to see companies in Ireland weathering the current climate and continuing to grow in what is very challenging times for business.See the new web site here http://www.truckelectrics.com/

Ireland’s number one domain registrar and hosting company introduces Whoowns.it, an all-new domain lookup service.

Always looking for new ways to improve the customer experience, Blacknight realised that there was a gap in the reliability of domain lookup services. The leading registrar tackled this challenge and set out to create a service that allows users to find information on a domain regardless of where it is registered or what the extension may be.

However, Blacknight have taken things one-step further and partnered with Afternic (http://www.afternic.com/), the largest premium domain marketplace worldwide, to assist users in acquiring desired domain names that are already owned by someone else.

Michele Neylon of Blacknight states: “We know how important it is to find the right domain for a business or personal project. With that in mind we’ve been developing whoowns.it to help people either get a fresh new domain or to acquire an existing one. To assist this undertaking, we’ve partnered with Afternic to help customers take the next step to acquire a domain name even if it is already registered.”

Blacknight is committed to bringing best of breed technology to their customers and Whoowns.it (http://whoowns.it) was created to help users have a smoother domain buying experience.
The site underwent a soft launch during the first week of January and has already garnered positive feedback from the public.

Neylon Continues: “We’re constantly adding new features to the site and will be rolling out changes in the coming weeks and months based on user feedback.We will also be adding more features, including things like the DomainsBot API so that we can do “semantic” search as well.”

Bob Mountain, Senior Vice President of Business Development & Account Services at Afternic explains: “Afternic is pleased to be involved with this project. We are committed to empowering our customers to pursue the perfect domain name for themselves or their business and Whoowns.it is a great opportunity to introduce even more end users to purchasing aftermarket domains.”

Whoowns.it joins Blacknight’s family of stellar services like “No Fluff” cloud hosting and domain registration. Visit Whoowns.it to begin the search for the perfect domain name.

For more information on Blacknight’s services, visit http://www.blacknight.com

About Blacknight:
Blacknight are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and colocation as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.

Blacknight invite customers to start 2013 with a clean digital slate. 

It is becoming increasingly important to have a safe hub where all of a user’s content that is stored across a variety of social media and blogging software can exist in one accessible place. Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) aim to provide their customers with best of breed technology to help organise a full but scattered online life.

The leading Irish registrar and hosting company offer a variety of services to get one’s online identity in order. Whether registering domains for projects in the New Year, or hosting email and websites, Blacknight offers packages and solutions for all levels of online engagement.

Michele Neylon of Blacknight states: “The start of the year is all about making resolutions and beginning with a clean slate. I can’t think of a better illustration of that than to get one’s digital house in order. Making sure all of the domains are registered for new projects you want to start, your registrations are in one place, and your hosting and email needs are secure is all you need to get a jump on your online organisation.”

Blacknight offers domain registration (http://www.blacknight.com/domains.html) in over hundred extensions including .COM, .EU,  .CO and .ME, which can be perfectly paired with “No Fluff” Cloud Hosting. Aimed at replacing the existing Virtual Private Server (VPS), Blacknight’s “No Fluff” Cloud Hosting (http://www.blacknight.com/cloud-hosting.html) currently operates through a range of plans with fixed resources, ranging with options of up to 12 Gb of RAM, 8 vCPUs, 85 Gb of hard disk space and massive amounts of bandwidth starting at €12.99 per month.

For those who prefer a more traditional hosting setup, Blacknight also provides Standard Shared Hosting, Business Email Hosting (http://www.blacknight.com/hosted-exchange.html) , Hosted SharePoint, Dedicated servers, colocation, and Mobile Friendly Hosting through goMobi (http://www.blacknight.com/gomobi.html). Each service has several pricing and performance tiers so Blacknight customers can create a package that fits their needs.

Neylon Continues: “We understand that our customers are unique and can have vastly different needs. We don’t agree with the idea of  “one size fits all” packaging so we pride ourselves on having a variety of services that our customers can mix and match to suit their individual purposes. We don’t like to pay for more than we need and our customers shouldn’t either.”

To explore the range of services that will help jump start online organisation, please visit http://www.blacknight.com

About Blacknight:
Blacknight are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and colocation as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.

Waterford, Ireland – Hosting Ireland was delighted to join two of its customers in celebrating their wins of the IEDR Optimise 2012 Fund.The Optimise e-Commerce Website Development Fund was set up by the IE Domian Registry to assist SMEs and Micro-Enterprises get the best out of their websites.  The Optimise fund was designed to help SMEs sell goods and services 24/7 to the Global marketplace.Selected from over 100 applicants, CateringEquipment.ie and MorrisOil.ie were among a select number of winners that today attended the celebrations at the Conrad Hotel, Dublin. The honorable Mr Pat Rabbitte, T.D., Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources presented certificates to the winners of Optimise 2012.The lengthy application process required that applicants must have at least one registered .ie or multiple registered domains and be looking to develop their online presence.  The winners received professional technical and marketing support.The IEDR also announced that the fund would continue to be made available into 2013 and again would be open for applications to any business who had registered a .ie domain. Hosting Ireland the Company

Hosting Ireland is a leading domain name registration company and is an accredited registrar for .ie domains.  In addition, Hosting Ireland provides cloud hosting services and solutions to small medium enterprise and corporates across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe.  Hosting Ireland specialises in cloud servers, cloud vm’s  and dedicated server solutions and uses the very latest state of the art data centers in both Ireland and the UK. For more information visit: Hosting Ireland

Roomex.com are excited to announce details of our amazing offer on a family holiday to Disneyland Paris with discount of up to 40% on all Disney Hotels!! With prices starting from as little as €338 for a family of 4, with packages available or 2 & 3 Night stays. All packages include the following:

   - 2 or 3 Nights, B&B

   - 2 Adults and 2 Kids under 12 go free

   - With Park Passes included also for Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios!!

All available to book on http://www.roomex.com/disney Offer closes on the 17th December. No flights/ Transfers Inc. T&C apply.

RSM Farrell Grant Sparks welcomes Minister Noonan’s recognition today of the critical employment role played by the SME sector and his introduction of a “Ten Point Tax Reform Plan” to help boost the sector.

However, while many of the measures in the Plan are positive, more could have been done to boost the SME Sector generally and the technology sector in particular. Michael McGivern, Partner, Tax and Technology Partner with RSM Farrell Grant Sparks, commented;

“While the proposals contain some positive aspects, I was hoping for some bolder announcements from the Minister. The extension of the EII to 2020 is welcomed, but further improvements to it could be made such as widening the range of applicable sectors, and removing the tax relief for individual investors from the list of specified relief restrictions”.

In relation to the Foreign Earnings Deduction proposals, Michael commented that “the list of qualifying countries should be extended further and other changes could be made which would help the SME sector such as reducing the 60 days a year requirement which does not fit in with how many SMEs operate”.

Michael has welcomed the proposals to double R&D tax credit volume based threshold to €200,000 as “a further step in the right direction, which will particularly assist the SME sector”. Michael is also pleased to note that the R&D tax credit regime will be reviewed generally in 2013 and he hopes that this review will enhance the regime further.

Finally, Michael is pleased with the proposals to amend the Three Year Relief for Start Up companies to enable them carry forward the relief where necessary due to the existence of early stage losses.

Please note, we have a tax expert available for comment on the above topic. For further information, please contact:

Michael McGivern

Tax Partner, RSM Farrell Grant Sparks:

+353 (0) 1 418 2092

michael.mcgivern@rsmfgs.ie

Superstar domain name registrar and website hosting company Blacknight are using their marketing powers for good to help clients promote special offers during the holidays with Christmascracker.biz.

Blacknight have created Christmascracker.biz (http://christmascracker.biz) as a forum for their clients to increase exposure and promote discounts and offers to potential customers. Participating businesses are encouraged to list their holiday special offers and discounts on the site. Visitors to the site can browse businesses by category of service or by individual stores.

Participants such as Fotolia, Zemanta and Spinnaker Pro are already using Christmascracker.biz to share discount codes with the public.

Michele Neylon of Blacknight states: “We love to run holiday promotions for our customers and show our clients how much we appreciate them. We are very excited to launch Christmascracker.biz, as it is a great opportunity to do both of those things at once. We know from experience that marketing and promoting your business is hard work, so we’ve put together this site to help Blacknight clients promote special offers and discounts for the Christmas period. This in turn allows Blacknight customers to get great deals on some vital online services.”
Visitors to Christmascracker.biz may choose from a variety of coupons from online companies specialising in areas such as blogging software, stock photo archives and marketing services. Discount offers may be redeemed by the customer on the offering company’s website.

Blacknight encourage their clients to take advantage of Christmascracker.biz to increase their holiday output and reach out to new clientele. The registrar and hosting company has run similar successful promotions in the past. Former participants include Infacta, My New CV and Eireann Design.
Neylon continues: “We have a record of running this sort of promotion in the past with excellent results for our clients. Blacknight has a very broad marketing reach and we are pleased to extend the benefits to our clients to connect them to new a new audience of potential buyers who may need their services but don’t know how to find them. We chose the domain Chrsitmascracker.biz to promote the site as .biz is the Internet extension for businesses and we want to show our full support for online businesses down to the last detail.”
Christmascracker.biz is ideal for any business or company that offers online services. Register today to take full advantage of this promotion.

Visit http://www.christmascracker.biz to participate.
To learn more about The Blacknight suite of hosting and domain services please visit http://www.blacknight.com

About Blacknight:
Blacknight are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and colocation as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.

Blacknight, a company famous for using engaging, over-the-top-graphics has partnered with the stock photography community Fotolia to offer customers the opportunity to decorate their websites for the holidays.

Fotolia is an online community where members buy and sell images for use in websites, advertisements, and presentations. Fotolia offers low-priced royalty free images, giving users the option to pay by the credit (1 credit = €1.30 or lower) or a subscription system. Customers who sign up for Fotolia using Blacknight’s link and will receive 3 free welcome credits and 30% bonus on their first order.
Many Internet users are not aware that taking an image from another website and using it as their own is a violation of copyright law. It is important to always be sure that any image used on a website is the property of the owner or has been licensed with permission.

Michele Neylon of Blacknight explains: “At Blacknight we take entertaining our customers with graphics and images VERY seriously. We understand that finding quality images can be a challenge and want to take this opportunity to make it easier for our customers to spruce up their sites for the holidays.  If you just go off and find images online, there is a good chance you will run into the ‘minor’ issue of copyright infringement. If you do not own an image or if the image isn’t made available under an explicit license for usage you cannot use it.”

The best ways to avoid using copyrighted imagery are to use images that are released under a “creative commons” license or to obtain professional stock images. Using Fotolia’s services is an excellent way to insure that all images are already approved for use. Fotolia’s library includes millions of royalty-free images, vectors, illustrations and video footage clips and they are the first worldwide microstock organization to offer both crowdsourced and professional images on one site.

Neylon continues: “It is easy to avoid copyright problems when there are so many cool images available to be licensed. We can’t wait to see how our customers use Fotolia to customise their sites.”

The Blacknight/ Fotolia promotion is ongoing through the new-year. To access this promotion, please visit http://eu.fotolia.com/blacknight

To learn more about Blacknight’s suite of hosting and domain services please visit http://www.blacknight.com

About Blacknight:
Blacknight are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and colocation as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.

On 26 November 2012, at an exclusive event hosted by the British Ambassador, Mr Dominick Chilcott, in association with the UKTI (UK Trade & Investment) and awards sponsor RSM Farrell Grant Sparks, the organisers of the European Business Awards (www.businessawardseurope.com) announced the  eleven National Champions for Ireland who will go forward into the next round of the prestigious 2012/13 Awards programme.  Four of these companies are in the technology sector.

Eleven businesses will now represent Ireland and compete against the very best companies in Europe. An esteemed panel of judges made up of Europe-wide business leaders, academics and entrepreneurs will assess all National Champions between now and April 2013 when the overall European Business Award winners will be announced.

How the Irish National Champions were chosen

This year, for the first time, entrants in the European Business Awards submitted a video case study. All case studies were uploaded onto the European Business Awards website and an online voting mechanism was introduced to allow the public to choose their favourite videos in each country. Over 35,000 votes were cast with one company automatically going through to the National Champion rounds alongside another ten chosen by an expert panel of judges.

Aidan Scollard, Partner responsible for the European Business Awards at RSM Farrell Grant Sparks, commented,“We are proud to sponsor the European Business Awards, which is widely recognised as the most significant business awards programme in the region. This year, thanks to the video case studies, we have been impressed by the innovation and determination shown by the Irish entrants, many of whom are experiencing high levels of growth despite difficult global trading conditions. We are now looking forward to the next round of the judging process and wish all the National Champions for Ireland the very best of luck.”

The 11 Irish National Champions Announced were:

Netwatch, Aer Lingus, Glennon Brothers, Helix Health, Home Instead Senior Care, Saongroup.com, TERMINALFOUR, The Now Factory, Coillte, Eirgrid,Valeo Foods