HARNEY LAUNCHES NEW 52 JOB SOFTWARE COMPANY AT SHANNON NAVARASOFT LTD., OPENS NEW HEADQUARTERS AT SHANNON FREE ZONE

Mary Harney, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, today (Monday, 2nd November, 1998) officially opened the new company headquarters, of NavaraSoft Ltd., at Shannon Free Zone. NavaraSoft Ltd., a subsidiary of Dr. Materna GmbH, one of Germany's largest independent software houses, received approval from Shannon Development in April to set up operations at Shannon. "The company will develop mobile computing business application solutions for world-wide distribution and create 52 new highly skilled jobs," the Tánaiste said.

NavaraSoft Ltd., will undertake Research and Development (R&D), marketing, technical documentation, world-wide customer service, training and software production, in addition to carrying out all financial and administrative activities, from its new Shannon location.

Launching the new company, the Tánaiste said "Businesses today operate in an ever changing environment with a requirement for faster response rates, between companies and their customers and between companies and their personnel. This has resulted in a demand for software applications which support critical areas of a company's operations, such as the new software product being launched today by NavaraSoft for the mobile computing market."

Circadia - a new software product being issued by NavaraSoft today, is the first truly adaptive business software solution for the fast emerging mobile computing market which will complement corporate IT Standards installed by business. It is therefore meeting the demand from companies to mobilise their technical support, customer service and remote salesforce software applications.

Speaking at the launch, Paul Sheane, Chief Executive, Shannon Development said "NavaraSoft, as an innovative company, is not only providing benefits to Shannon in terms of jobs but is also adding to the strong base of software companies operating from the area. With over 200 companies now employing people with software skills, it is our aim to develop the region as the premier software location in the country".

NavaraSoft Ltd., is a subsidiary of Dr. Materna GmbH, founded in 1980 in Dortmund, is one of Germany's leading software systems and consulting companies. It develops and sells high quality, software products and solutions for office communications, document management, Help Desk systems, PC host communications, client server applications and internet-intranet solutions. Dr. Materna is one of Europe's fastest growing companies and was selected a member of the European Commission's 'Europe 500 for 1997'. Europe 500 was developed to recognise Europe's most dynamic entrepreneurs and those companies that are creating new business opportunities within Europe.