One week left to apply for IEDR’s OPTIMISE e-Commerce Fund

IEDR is making a final call to Irish small businesses and micro enterprises to apply for IE Domain Registry’s (IEDR’s) OPTIMISE e-Commerce and Website Development Fund. With just one week left until the closing date for applications on April 25th, IEDR is encouraging small business owners with an existing .ie website to apply for one of 20 places on this year’s OPTIMISE Fund.
IEDR’s OPTIMISE Fund will provide twenty small business owners with a combined €150,000 worth of professional consultation, training and development support services to improve and develop their existing online presence. The Fund covers e-commerce capability and functionality, helping small businesses benefit from e-Commerce features such as real-time payments, online catalogues, order processing and booking facilities.
Further details and the online application form are available at www.why.ie/optimise.
Urging Irish companies to apply, David Curtin, Chief Executive of IE Domain Registry, said: “I would encourage any small business owner with a .ie website looking for practical, step-by-step support to grow their business online to apply for a place on this year’s OPTIMISE Fund by April 25th. Previous winners of the OPTIMISE Fund are already reaping the benefits of being able to make the most of the Internet’s 24 hour sales channel, resulting in new customer enquiries and increased sales and growth.”
Ends
For reference:
Gibney Communications, Tel: 01 661 0402
Mark Leech, 087 905 3679 / Karen Jones, 086 866 4501

Note to Editor:
About the IE Domain Registry:
The IE Domain Registry (IEDR) is responsible for the management and administration of Ireland’s official Internet address .ie, in the interest of the Irish and global Internet communities. The IEDR operates the domain name system (DNS) for the .ie namespace, facilitates a dispute resolution service and operates a public ‘Whois’ lookup service for .ie domains. The DNS is one of the most important systems on the Internet as it provides the means to map easy-to-remember Internet addresses (such as www.iedr.ie) to cumbersome IP addresses (193.1.32.40).
The IEDR is a managed registry which means that there are rules and procedures governing the registration of .ie domain names. New applications are reviewed to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of registration. For example, IEDR will verify an applicant’s company registered number with the CRO, or its patent reference number with international databases. This contrasts with dot.com or dot.eu where there is no manual review, and the domain applied for will be automatically registered – once the name is available. Authenticating the claim to the domain name lends confidence to consumers and businesses to carry out transactions online, safe in the knowledge that the online companies are who they say they are. Also with a managed registry there are virtually no instances of cyber-squatting, fewer costly intellectually property disputes and reduced instances of spam and identity theft.
Reflecting the nature of Ireland’s managed registry system, the .ie country code domain name, has consistently been ranked one of the world’s top 5 safest domains by the McAfee Mapping the Mal Web report, since the report was established in 2007.
In October 2007 the IEDR relaxed the rules for registering personal .ie domain names for individuals, for example, www.johnsmith.ie. The relaxation of the rules was introduced in response to the increasing popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo after full consultation with the .ie registrar community and industry organisations.
In November 2010, the IEDR celebrated its 10th anniversary during which it marked a number of milestone events including the registration of Ireland’s 150,000th .ie domain name and launch of a www.why.ie as a resource for .ie registrants and registrars. This was followed by the publication of the Registry’s inaugural Domain Name Industry Report, the first account of its kind in Ireland of the .ie namespace and the Irish domain market. It is set in the context of the global domain name market and Ireland’s Internet ecosystem, and is published as a resource for Internet industry leaders and policy makers.
In May 2011, IEDR launched OPTIMISE, an e-commerce website development fund. The fund was launched following the findings of IEDR’s Domain Name Industry Report which found that only two-thirds of businesses were online and of those, only 21 per cent had e-commerce capability. The fund provided Irish SME owners with professional support with which to plan and carry out a major e-commerce website upgrade.
In early 2012 IEDR reached another milestone with the registration of Ireland’s 175,000th .ie domain.
Under the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme, the IEDR also provides free .ie domain names for registered charities, as well as free registration for two years to registrars providing new broadband connections to Ireland’s schools and educational institutions.