How Ireland’s technology companies are responding to the COVID-19 Crisis

Monday 20th April: Across the globe, governments and health professionals are working tirelessly to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic whilst mitigating the economic effects that this crisis is undoubtedly going to have.

Many industries have been hit hard by the situation as it’s difficult to know at this point when life will be restored to some kind of normality. But what many don’t see behind the scenes is the crucial work that technology companies are doing to ensure that businesses all across Ireland and the world are able to keep people employed, keep the ‘lights on’, and deliver for their customers –all while having no access to offices and workplace environments.

Connecting Women in Technology (CWiT) is Ireland’s largest network of technology companies who together are committed to encouraging and promoting women in STEM. We asked some of our member companies what measures they are taking to support their employees and customers through this journey…

Accenture: All companies are adjusting to the changing needs of their workforce, clients and supplier; changing the way we work now and adjusting to what happens in the future. One of the actions Accenture has taken is to focus on the digital worker and being equipped to work remotely; through digital collaboration tools and building the necessary skills around these new ways of working; along with building on a digital culture which is key, find out more here. Accenture has also developed some key perspectives on human resilience and the importance of this to ensure all people can navigate through the change which you can find here.

BT Ireland: As one of Ireland’s leading communications providers BT Ireland is offering support to customers operating across the globe helping them to communicate and collaborate remotely all over the world. The company has upgraded its network capacity, increased VPN connectivity to allow for more remote working and enabled extra conferencing and collaboration tools to support its customers. The company is also prioritising its support for critical services like the 999/112 service, which it operates on behalf of the state. The company is also actively recruiting for roles in sales, engineering and product development, as part of its continued growth strategy in Ireland.

Find out more here

Dropbox: Dropbox enables our customers and employees to work in virtually the same way, regardless of whether they are in the office or working from home, bringing all of a team’s content, people and conversations together in a single smart workspace, enabling distributed teams to stay in sync. One of the company’s priorities today is to ensure the reliability of our service for our customers and we’ve taken extensive measures to ensure service stability. Additionally, Dropbox joined 24 Bay Area companies to distribute $22m in funding in response to the COVID-19 crisis and offers free three-month Dropbox Business and HelloSign Enterprise subscriptions to nonprofits and NGOs that are focused on fighting COVID-19 (apply here). If you’re interested to know how Dropbox can enable a distributed workforce, check out the blog.

eir: The eir network connects to two-thirds of the fixed broadband customers in Ireland and more than 1 million mobile customers; it is designated an essential service. eir’s network supports the Government and the HSE in their vital work, it is keeping businesses open and families connected during these unprecedented times. Every member of eir’s team who can work remotely is doing so now, but more than a third of the workforce are deemed to be essential workers. A team of more than 1,000 network engineers continues to work throughout Ireland maintaining the network every day, ensuring that we can all stay connected and we are extremely grateful for their commitment. Read more HERE

IBM are bringing together our resources and communities of experts — clients, governments, scientists, developers, partners, academic institutions, health agencies and IBMers — to work together, and manage through the COVID-19 outbreak with what we do best — applying data, knowledge, computing power and insights to solve difficult problems. Initiatives such as harnessing the best supercomputers in the world to work on research into the Covid-19 virus, IBM staff with 3D printers are volunteering their devices and skills to help alleviate the shortage of protective face visors for hospitals.  More about our Global efforts to fight Covid-19 HERE

Xilinx: Xilinx’s technology is proving critical in the global fight against COVID-19. Many of its customers are in the healthcare industry. These customers have reacted swiftly to adapt & supply their equipment to the many hospitals around the world to help save patients’ lives. Their products are critical to fighting the pandemic. Xilinx’s technology, which powers millions of medical devices, including some of the most critical equipment—ventilators, patient monitors, respirators and patient ICU beds—can play a role in combatting the coronavirus. The company has formed a taskforce to provide special assistance, prioritize product fulfilment, and expedite shipments for these healthcare customers. In late January, they were able to react very quickly and supply China’s largest medical equipment maker, Mindray, with thousands of Spartan-7 devices to power patient monitoring systems in Wuhan. Currently, the organization is also working to support some of the largest medical suppliers in the US & EMEA to supply critical technology to test and treat COVID-19. More information can be found HERE

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