Belfast Firm Pioneers New Type of Internet Technology

December 20, 2001

Liberty IT, which employs 120 people in Belfast, is releasing a pilot application which is a first-of-its-kind software project for US insurance giant Liberty Mutual, its parent company.

The Belfast project team has produced an application that incorporates customised and newly-developed Java-based software frameworks. The software has potential to be re-used and applied to many other business areas wishing to become web-enabled.

And the announcement is being seen as a further endorsement of Liberty IT's advancement as one of Northern Ireland's leading software companies.

Its managing director Gordon Bell said: "We are delighted to be developing leading-edge technology that could have an impact on the global IT industry."
"We have a highly experienced team of software developers and more emphasis on this kind of work will help carve out a major international niche and further position Northern Ireland as a centre for software development."

Yesterday's announcement coincided with a visit by software guru Tom Gilb, a world authority on software inspection and an advisor to leading companies including Ericsson, Sony and IBM.

He was brought to Belfast by Liberty IT to share his knowledge with staff on the latest developments in software inspection and to advise on how Liberty could better improve procedures.

Mr Gilb also addressed an audience of 200 software engineers at an event organised in conjunction with Momentum.

And in an obvious endorsement of Northern Ireland's IT sector, he said: "The level of software research and development taking place here definitely impresses me."