i3 Digital Managing Director, Adrian Bradley is pictured with colleagues as they celebrate their success after scooping three awards at the Appys.

NORTH Belfast technology company, i3 Digital, which is headquartered at Fortwilliam Business Park, is celebrating 16 years of trading.

And today it announced it has grown by 30% in 2013 with a total of 28 employees and offices in North Belfast, Lower Hatch Street, Dublin and Covent Garden, London.

The local company, previously Biznet IIS and founded in North Belfast in 1997 by Managing Director, Adrian Bradley, is one of the longest established independent technology companies in Ireland.

The Belfast company, i3 Digital, collected an app’ trick’ of awards in The Appys, an awards programme that recognises the very best in Irish app development and design. This included the Best Productivity App (Gold) Award for i3’s development of the Dublin Bus app, Best Photography App (Gold) for Galactic Fridge, which was also awarded with Silver in the Best Children’s App category.

Managing Director Adrian Bradley commented: “We are delighted to end the year with a 30% growth and to collect national awards that recognise our strength in innovation and our ability to embrace new digital technologies for our clients. As society and the economy becomes increasingly digitised, we are in a strong position having built up our creative expertise over two decades.”

The Belfast company has continued to evolve, develop and implement integrated web and digital marketing strategies for its growing client base that includes Visit Mourne Mountains, Office Interior Solutions, Pet Safe, My US, Trident Holiday Homes, Fáilte Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Road Safety Authority, Safefood, Dublin Bus, Translink, Tourism Ireland and Bord Gáis Energy. i3 Digital is also expanding its GB track record with a recent win including the City of Westminster Council.

Research from the European Commission estimates the mobile app market to be worth over €10 billion in Europe, with Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland among the biggest users of tablets, smartphones and cloud technology.

Bradley continued: “With the continued stratospheric growth in tablets and smartphones, we have continued to invest this year in people, skills and technology that place us centre-stage in the mobile app market. We are also seeing companies ramp up their use of social media beyond marketing as a way to truly engage customers. For us, it not about responding to hype, it’s about productivity. That’s why we were particularly pleased to receive the award for Best Productivity App for Dublin Bus, which is one of the most downloaded apps in Ireland with over 300,000 subscribers.”

“There is a lot of noise around digital at the moment and people have a tendency to think this is a completely new sector of the economy that didn’t exist five years ago. However, we’ve been operating in the digital space for almost two decades and recent developments such as mobile apps are, for us, simply another layer in the development of the digital ecosystem. Our focus is on building long term valued partnerships with our clients and we are proud to say many of them have been with us since day one over 17 years ago….when web business was only getting started!” added Bradley.

i3 Digital has developed key partnerships with global technology partners and a strong advocate of Microsoft-based solutions. The company invests significantly in technological resources to ensure resilience for client projects. i3 Digital is only one of a very small number of digital companies in Ireland with ISO accreditations for Quality, Information Security and Usability.

The company provides a broad range of digital and technology solutions including design, digital strategy consultancy, enterprise class CMS solutions, e-commerce, custom build applications, integrated native and non-native mobile app development, augmented reality solutions, travel technology/tour operator solutions, custom intranets/extranets, social media strategy plus guidance, google analytics and webtrends all supported by a 24-7, 365 Facilities Management and Hosting Service.

i3 Digital is headquartered at Fortwilliam Business Park in Belfast with offices in Lower Hatch Street, Dublin and Covent Garden, London.