Northern Irish Internet software products company, MINEit Software Limited, has become the first company on the island to scoop an "IT Oscar" from the European Information Society, part of the European Commission.

As well as picking up the award at the finals in Nice earlier this week, MINEit was also presented with a cheque for €200,000 (£157,513).

The company was awarded the grand prize for its software product Easyminer which analyses and builds predictive models of visitor behaviour at Internet sites.

MINEit's product was selected from a total of more than 200 submissions from 26 countries and reached the final, competing there against 20 other companies.