* IF Scotland believes it is on the periphery of the European market,
where does that leave Iceland? Nearer the centre -- if it creates a base
in Scotland -- is the answer as far as Atlantic Information Systems is
concerned.
Iceland Softwear Inc was looking for a European base, and after
considering Germany and the Benelux countries it plumped earlier this
year for a site near Glasgow Airport.
David Farquhar was made managing director of the Scottish subsidiary
and already he has a number of Scottish clients including the Scottish
Ambulance Service and the Forth Road Bridge.
''The bridge has to carry a stock of 3000 different spare parts for
maintenance purposes,'' he says, ''and we have provided them with a
small stock management system.''
The Icelandic parent company sees Atlantic Information Systems as its
European headquarters. ''Our first task is to build up a customer base
in Scotland, then cover the rest of the United Kingdom,'' says David.
''Then we will look at Europe. The intention is to have a physical
presence on the Continent.''
Atlantic Information Systems at present employs six people but
Farquhar believes that by the end of 1996 the number will have grown to
between 25 and 30.
He was a Captain in the Royal Corps of Transport until 1989, then
worked for Glasgow Location Services, a part of the GDA, before moving
over to Atlantic Information Systems.
''Scotland was chosen because Icelandic people are bi-lingual and
speak English, and it is easy to get here with flights into Glasgow
Airport,'' he says.
David now visits Iceland regularly and has taken Scottish business
representatives to Reykjavik to see at first hand the systems the
company has installed there for major customers such as the Bank of
Iceland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article