Tag: economic

ATU Unveils New Partnership to Explore Economic Opportunities in the Global Semiconductor Supply Chain

A multi-stakeholder event, spearheaded by ATU, in partnership with Tyndall National Institute (Tyndall) and Ulster University (UU), was held at the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) campus, Letterkenny on Monday, September 18, exploring the economic opportunities presented by the newly adopted EU Chips Act.

Semiconductors are the essential components of electronic devices, playing a vital role in the modern digital economy from healthcare to food security, global communications and future mobility. However, recent supply chain disruptions have led to a critical supply shortage, exposing Europe’s over-reliance on imports.

Through the European Chips Act, designed to boost self-sufficiency, the EU aims to double its current global market share to 20% by 2030.

Using case studies and panel conversations, “NW of Ireland and the Opportunity in the Global Semiconductor Value Chain” brought together prominent business leaders, policymakers, academia, and elected officials in Letterkenny to explore how Ireland can position itself as a leader in photonics and semiconductor research and manufacturing while simultaneously addressing the deficits in high-value employment and research infrastructure in the Northwest. Industry representatives in attendance included Eblana Photonics, Cirdan, Yelo, Causeway Sensors, Allstate, Kelsius, Firecomms, and Nuprint.

During the event, invitees got a chance to engage with distinguished speakers and international experts who shared their knowledge and expertise including Dr Wyn Meredith, Chair of the South Wales Compound Semiconductor Cluster, and Valerie Moreau of the Laval Mayenne Technopole in France.

ATU President, Dr Orla Flynn said: “This cross-border initiative unites universities, research institutes, and industry across Ireland to catalyse research, develop new technologies, drive productivity, create jobs, increase STEM diversity, and strengthen the regional economy. With the generous support of stakeholders including the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, local authorities, and industry partners, this consortium has the potential to play a pivotal role in boosting the competitiveness of the semiconductor industry across the island of Ireland.”

Professor Liam Maguire, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research at UU highlighted how the collaborative provision of cross-border education could significantly boost the regional semiconductor talent pool: “This is an exciting knowledge exchange opportunity to further cooperation between third-level institutions in the Northwest. Through collaborative research and development initiatives, as well as training and education programmes, we can support resilient semiconductor supply chains that foster innovation and investment into our communities through an inclusive workforce.”  

Speaking on behalf of the Smart Nano NI cluster, led by data storage company Seagate Technology, Matt Johnson, Senior Vice President Wafer Process Engineering and Systems, commented: “This new all-island collaboration will complement the Smart Nano NI cluster in developing advanced prototyping and smart manufacturing technologies across Northern Ireland. Key to success will be the combined expertise of our companies and the advancement of talent and research infrastructure. We are delighted to be involved in this exciting project which has the potential to put the border region on the global map for semiconductor technology.”

Professor William Scanlon, CEO of leading semiconductor research institute, Tyndall, said: “The recent adoption of the EU Chips Act presents a unique and timely opportunity for Ireland to bolster its leadership in semiconductors and photonics. 

As a longstanding innovator in semiconductor technology, Ireland must act now to build on its well-established strategic advantages in the sector, and mobilising public-private R&D partnerships to lead and leverage cumulative expertise is critical for our future economic success. 

Our alliance with ATU and UU represents a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to accelerate north-south research and innovation in support of a diverse and growing, internationally competitive semiconductor industry.” 

Economic Benefits of Using Bitcoin for hosting payments

Cryptocurrency is a new phenomenon that revolutionizes the way we conceptualize payments. Being based on a completely new approach, it allows us to draw a range of expected and unexpected advantages out of it. The number of areas where Bitcoin can be used for payments is constantly expanding, and now this payment option permeates also the realm of web hosting, with an option to rent VPS server with bitcoin acceptance. 

What is the specificity of Bitcoin payments and how you can benefit from it when paying for your hosting plan? Let’s see.

What is cryptocurrency?

To understand the good things about Bitcoin, it’s essential to figure out what cryptocurrency is and its principle of operation.

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital money that is based on blockchain technology. A blockchain is a public ledger that contains information about all the transactions ever done within the network organized into blocks that are stored in a decentralized way. In this way, we get something that once launched works on its own as long as there are actors participating. Besides that, it’s nearly impossible to hack the system as the information about all transactions is distributed throughout the network, while cryptography helps keep transactions secure and sensitive information unavailable for eavesdropping.

As you can see, crypto depends on quite a different set of principles than traditional bankings do. Although it, for now, can’t be a complete substitution for traditional payment methods, it is already used on many occasions, not least for economic reasons.

Economic benefits of crypto

Lower Fees. Traditional financial institutions and related payment methods, first of all, banks and credit cards are organizations created by people who are engaged in creating money from money. For this reason, fees that originate from this or from that source are inevitable, so you’ll have to pay some extra amount of money on a whole variety of occasions.

Since cryptocurrency, however, doesn’t rely on particular centralized organizations and is in a way self-sustaining, the fees associated with it will be, if not absent, lower in the absolute majority of the cases.

No Particular Fees for International Transactions. Another point is that traditional currencies are mostly connected to particular nations. This results in additional fees when your money has to cross the border and in many cases the need to convert the currencies which results in additional expenditures. This problem is, too, solved by cryptocurrencies since they are fully “border-agnostic”: no matter where you are and where is the one or from whom you want to transfer money, this won’t result in any form of additional fees.

Security and Fraud Prevention. The way cryptocurrencies work gives an additional dimension of security to the whole transaction procedure. In this way, chances that security fails during the transaction, that your assets get hacked, or that transaction records are altered, are almost 100% minimized.

Ownership and Control. Using cryptocurrency you don’t rely on any centralized institution in storing your valuable assets. This excludes cases of financial loss due to technical issues in the banking system or financial institutions getting bankrupt.

Access to Investment Opportunities. Cryptocurrency is a relatively recently emerged field with a whole lot of possibilities for financial development. Although learning to earn by investing in cryptocurrency will require you to learn a bunch of new stuff and invest your time and attention in it, it may greatly pay off eventually. By using cryptocurrency as your first priority payment method on as many occasions as possible, you’ll facilitate your access to further profitable uses of cryptos.

Innovation and Technological Advancements. As already mentioned, cryptocurrency is a relatively young and rapidly developing form of currency with a lot of perspective developments running around it. By using cryptocurrency, you’ll invest in a better understanding of modern tendencies, increasing your general level of economic and technical erudition. 

Smart contracts. Smart contracts, another feature of cryptocurrencies, are a kind of digital contract whose terms are written directly into the code and that is automatically executed when certain conditions are met. This gives the user an opportunity to automatize certain actions, which makes their life generally more convenient. Smart contracts are still fully reliable and secure which is ensured by the transparent and decentralized nature of blockchain.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrency is relatively new, progressive, and developing in a quite rapid pace way of payment. Using cryptocurrency will offer you considerable economic benefits minimizing your extra expenditures as well as opening a whole lot of new opportunities to benefit from the features of blockchain technology. We hope that this information was helpful, stay tuned!

Protecting Your Business During Economic Downturns

Sadly, economic downturns have become part of our reality, especially in today’s dynamic global economy. In the USA only, there have been 11 recessions since 1948, an average of one every six years. This is without adding the time the recession lasted and how long it took for businesses to recover. 

Whether it’s a recession, financial crisis, inflation or market crash, economic downturns profoundly impact businesses of all sizes. Companies that can weather the challenges or even stay ahead of them are the ones that will be left standing once the storm passes. These companies choose a proactive approach and take necessary steps to protect their business, ensuring they mitigate the losses and even capitalise on opportunities. 

The impact of economic downturns 

We all know how damaging the recession can be. Just remember the “Great Recession” of 2008 that affected the markets globally and resulted in the loss of more than $2 trillion in economic growth. The aftermath lasted for years after the recession ended, with individuals and businesses taking a long road towards recovery. 

Economic downturns can significantly impact business markets, with hardly any industry being recession-proof. Even if the recession does not directly affect the company, it is still susceptible to its consequences. From market volatility and changes in industry trends to a decrease in customer spending, the ripple effects of the recession can damage a business that hasn’t taken preventive measures.

Recession or even just the fear of economic downturns can also result in reduced online security, especially with small or new businesses. They are already working with a lower budget, and with the pressure to save costs, they might reduce or even cut departments they determine are non-essential. Bigger businesses are also not immune to this; they could develop a false sense of security and actually downsize the teams responsible for their online safety. This gives fraudsters a better chance of exploiting unsuspecting companies, especially considering that fraud is one of the rare recession-proof industries. According to SEON, during the recession in 2009, the FBI experienced an increase of 22.3% in online crime complaints. With the 2020 recession, that number went even higher, with a 69.4% increase compared to the previous year.

What can you do to protect your business during economic downturns?

The truth is that your business doesn’t have to suffer during the recession. If you take the proper steps, you can not only survive it but also grow your business. AdRoll explained that many businesses have grown during economic downturns, from Netflix and Starbucks to Airbnb and Amazon. Start taking proactive measures instead of just reacting to the situation, and you can join the greats that came out even stronger. 

Customers should always be your priority.

Recession often results in customers tightening their belts, and you want to ensure they don’t do it with your business. Customers make or break your business, which is why 64% of Irish organisations consider customer service as their revenue generator. By constantly trying to improve the customer journey, satisfying their needs, and continuously providing the best value for their money, you will create loyal customers that will stay with you during the difficult time. Staying informed about market conditions and trends can help you make informed decisions about future projects and stay ahead of the competition. 

Create an action plan before anything happens. 

You don’t want to be caught off guard and struggle with keeping your business alive. Create a step-by-step plan for dealing with every element of your business, such as overhead costs, marketing or even employee appreciation. Developing an action plan that clarifies what can be done during the crisis or even before will minimise your stress and help you stay ahead of your competitors. Separate the plan by levels of seriousness, such as easy trimming, serious changes and drastic cuts. This allows you to make informed decisions quickly while avoiding making unnecessary mistakes due to stress and haste.

Operate within your budget.

This tip doesn’t apply only for recession times, but always. You want to avoid being settled with unnecessary debt, which puts your business in an ungrateful position, especially if something unexpected happens. Determine your budget and operate within your limitations while reducing unnecessary costs, for example, by renegotiating contracts with your suppliers or utility providers. Just be mindful not to damage your business by cutting back on departments that keep your company going, such as marketing or security. 

Diversify your offer

Try to determine the steps you can take to expand your business and attract a more diverse set of customers. From digitizing your company or building an online presence to offering new products or even just expanding on your current offer, this is essential for staying relevant in today’s busy market. If you accomplish this without making a significant investment or using existing infrastructure, you will already be ahead of your competitors.

Conclusion

Economic downturns happen more often than people think, which is why preparing your business for it is essential, especially in today’s volatile economic landscape. By taking a proactive approach, you can mitigate the losses and maybe even discover new opportunities. Through building long-lasting relationships with your customers, strategic planning, risk management and diversification, your business will be able to navigate economic downturns more effectively. The worst thing for your business would be to wait for something to happen before you react. Be prepared, be proactive and protect your business.

Dell Technologies study reveals that innovation leaders are 2.2X more likely to accelerate their way through economic uncertainty

The Dell Technologies Innovation Index, a new study polling 6,600 respondents across 45+ countries, including 100 from Ireland, reveals that Irish businesses are confident in the strength of their organisation’s innovation in the face of global challenges. Over three quarters (84%; Ireland: 78%) say that they agree their business has a vibrant culture of innovation, but the research shows a clear ‘innovation gap’ between perception and realisation.

To understand organisations’ innovation maturity across the globe, respondents were placed on an innovation maturity benchmark ranging from Innovation Leaders to Innovation Laggards. This reveals an innovation perception gap, as the results show, despite the positive view of innovative business cultures, only 18% (Ireland: 6%) of organisations worldwide can be defined as Innovation Leaders and Adopters.

This is important, as Innovation Leaders and Adopters are 2.2X more likely to accelerate their innovation during a recession than Innovation Followers and Laggards (who are more likely to decelerate). The good news is that the Innovation Index is a snapshot in time, and organisations can improve by priming their people, processes and technology for innovation.

People-primed innovation

Organisations need help to develop an innovation culture where all ideas can make a difference and learning through failure is encouraged. Businesses recognise this and are confident in their ability to deliver: over three quarters (78%; Ireland 68%) believe that, in part, people join their company because they believe they’ll be empowered to innovate, which is a major achievement.

However, they need to ensure that they fix the innovation gap. 59% (Ireland: 69%) of respondents believe people also leave their company because they haven’t been able to innovate as much as they hoped they would. And 64% (Ireland: 68%) say aspects of their company’s culture hold them back from being as innovative as they want to / can be.

The report also gives businesses a guide on how they can course-correct these issues, highlighting both opportunities to innovate more as well as the barriers that impact innovation.

Process-primed innovation

In addition to people-specific changes, businesses should also look at how they can improve their processes around innovation. The prime barrier to innovation for respondents’ teams is a lack of time to innovate, which underscores the importance of senior leaders modelling prioritisation. Presently, 68% (Ireland: 53%) of respondents say their leaders are more focused on the day-to-day running of the business than innovation. Without true, visible commitment at a leadership level, ambitious, skilled individuals can’t achieve their full potential on innovation.

Providing more structure around innovation can also lead to better outcomes. While by its nature, innovation may be seen as an organic, ad-hoc pursuit, 63% (Ireland: 50%) of Innovation Leaders and Adopters say their innovation is driven by special, dedicated projects.

Technology-primed innovation

The study findings point to the power of technology to enable innovation, and the consequences of falling behind. The vast majority (86%; Ireland: 80%) are actively seeking out technologies to help them realise their innovation goal. Conversely 57% (Ireland: 61%) believe their technology is not cutting-edge and fear they will fall behind their competitors.

The study also explores where organisations are making gains and facing obstacles, across five technology catalysts for innovation: multicloud, edge, modern data infrastructure, anywhere-work and cybersecurity. In nearly all areas, the greatest stumbling block to unlocking that potential is complexity.

These struggles are evident in the top cited global technology obstacles to innovation:

  1. Growing cloud costs
  2. Difficulties integrating the overall business architecture with the IT infrastructure architecture
  3. Time and money spent to migrate apps to new cloud environments
  4. Cybersecurity threats: can’t innovate with data and insecure edge devices
  5. Lack of IT infrastructure to meet and process data at the edge

 

“In the context of non-stop change and uncertainty, it’s never been more important for Irish businesses to innovate. Resilient organisations with a culture of innovation are best placed to drive growth and compete internationally,” says Jason Ward, Vice President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies Ireland.

“The new Dell Technologies Innovation Index showcases that businesses across Ireland can innovate at speed once they have the right people, processes and technology. It’s clear from the research that small, small, practical ideas can create a ripple effect that leads to greater productivity, profitability and purpose. By embracing breakthrough technologies, building a culture where learning through failure is encouraged and embedding data-driven processes at every level, Irish businesses can become global innovation leaders.”

To support organisations on their innovation journey, Dell Technologies will share “lessons from Innovation Leaders and Adopters”. Visit www.dell.com/innovationindex for more information and read our executive summary report.

Everything You Need to Know About the Economic Impact of Crypto

When it comes to crypto, it has become much bigger than we thought, it is not just a technological or financial revolution, as it represents both a cultural and a social change. But more importantly, crypto is seen to have great stimulating power to the economy. There are many ways in which crypto is influencing and stimulating the economy, so let’s try to know about them one by one:

What effect is cryptocurrency having on the economy?

Cryptocurrency has become much more of a catalyst for financial innovation as it has become a cultural, technological, and social form of progress. It has a highly accessible character through which it is providing the potential to accelerate the economy in a digital world. Crypto is a digital currency managed with cryptographic algorithms. There are many different types of cryptocurrencies, the most famous of which is bitcoin (BTC), there are thousands of cryptocurrencies emerging today. If you are a newbie, you may need to know about the BitQT app and start your trading journey simple and secure.

Naturally, there are many stablecoins including cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to, for example, debt paper, fiat currency, and many other commodities such as gold. Fear and greed run high when cryptocurrency prices rise, so you need to understand that the wider impact of digital currency goes far beyond daily price fluctuations. There are many cases of cryptocurrency that have come to the fore which are used to develop the exponential speed of blockchain technologies. The enormous economic influence of digital currencies on the world economy transcends national borders and spans across geographies, exceeding what was previously unthinkable. Because of all these accessibility, cryptocurrencies seem to be getting a lot of boost with financial inclusion on a global scale

How does crypto help protect against inflation?

Many cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, are digital currencies that traditionally hedge against inflation. The supply and decentralized nature of bitcoin is known to make it quite easy and contribute to its rising value for those that have not yet been mined. The high inflation rates and declines seen in cryptocurrency prices today can lead one to wonder whether or not bitcoin can be expected to hedge against inflation and inflation. A difference between “ownership” and “usage” of Bitcoin may be desirable. Do you view Bitcoin as a payment method that might meet the needs of economic growth or as a means of investment and a haven from inflation? Based on the response, it is possible to determine whether digital currencies serve as a hedge.

How are investments affecting the wider crypto-economy?

Cryptocurrencies and blockchains have emerged as ‘trustworthy’ technologies, the most important of which is trust in the way humans interact with each other. The cryptocurrency market is influenced by the broader economy, but it also generates profound effects. Whether the entity is a single company, a venture capital firm, or a variety of projects designed to issue algorithmic stablecoins, the Terra case can potentially vary greatly in its speed. It is about to set in or is contributing to the “boom” in crypto markets.

If there is one main reason that significantly affects crypto-native events, and the resulting collapse of Three Arrows Capital, such as this, provides indications that the crypto-economy is by no means immune to many failures. In actuality, the crypto industry isn’t too big to fail, in contrast to some businesses in traditional banking. Though it’s usually simpler to look back on things, the Terra project had many structural issues that made it an unstable period. However, because so many projects, venture money, and sustainable businesses were exposed and severely impacted, its failure had systemic implications. This suggests that weighing the risks and advantages of investing in cryptocurrency is important.