Martin Curley, director of IT innovation at Intel, made the trek to Register Towers to tell us all about the chip giant's plans for a network of Innovation Centres.

"It's not about delivering technology, it's about delivering the use of IT. The IT industry lacks excitement and innovation. The power of the PC platform is unparalleled but it is not being properly exploited yet. These centres are trying to improve the usage of IT rather than just looking at technology. We're looking for frontier stuff - pioneer projects."

The new centre in Swindon will offer support,including an SGI machine, for for independent software developers to test applications. Curley believes the public sector offers the biggest opportunities for innovative technology use. He welcomed the UK government's efforts to increase technology use within the National Health Service.

Intel hopes the centre will help promote 'blue sky' projects which will set best practice for such projects in future. Curley noted that failures are just as useful as successes. But it is crucial that such projects relate back to properly measurable business value. "If you can't measure it then you can't manage it. Projects must improve efficiency and add new business value. It's about better project management and better measurement," he said.

Intel has Innovation Centres in Kildare in Ireland, Sacramento in the US and Penang in Indonesia. Smaller centres exist in Shanghai, Swindon and Israel. ®

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