Software firms attracted to Northern Ireland

CyberSource had announced in May 2008 that it was locating an R&D base in Northern Ireland to carry out a variety of advanced software development in conjunction with the firm’s research facilities in the US. Twenty staff have since been employed at CyberSource’s Belfast base; although, over a three-year period, this number is expected to swell to 56.

“The Belfast R&D centre has already proven to be a valuable addition to our global R&D operations,” says Bill McKiernan, Chairman and CEO of CyberSource, a provider of electronic payment and risk management solutions. “The people we have attracted to CyberSource are highly skilled, dedicated and capable engineers from across Northern Ireland.”

Also in July, US-owned Tyco International opened its new £7 million centre of technical excellence in Belfast, supporting its Electronic Security Products business. The new facility is now fully operational and fulfilling technology and product development objectives for Tyco’s global access control and video systems companies, including CEM, American Dynamics, Software House, and Kantech.

Numerous ICT companies invest in the UK

Yet CyberSource and Tyco are just two of numerous international companies that have recognised the value of the UK’s ICT sector. Many of these have chosen to locate in Northern Ireland, which has fast-become the leading region in Europe for inward investment in software development and technical support centres. Indeed, of the 700-plus companies in the region’s ICT sector, more than 100 are international investors.

For instance, Allstate Northern Ireland (formerly Northbrook Technology) has provided software development services in Belfast, in support of its US parent’s global operations, since 1998. Allstate has invested significant resources in recruiting and developing skills across Northern Ireland, and its sites in Belfast, Londonderry and Strabane employ almost 1500 people.

The skills sector here, the infrastructure, the strength of our universities and our R&D base make Northern Ireland an attractive place for inward investment

Judith Millar

International Marketing Executive, ICT

Invest NI

German software company SAP, meanwhile, opened a research centre in Belfast in 2005 (one of only eight globally), and has since formed productive partnerships with Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster. Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group has similarly tapped into the potential of the region’s technology-focussed universities. Its UK subsidiary, Liberty IT, has been based in Northern Ireland for over a decade and employs around 200 people, mostly graduates and post-graduates.

Then there is Japanese firm Fujitsu Services which, in 2008, announced the creation of 120 jobs in Londonderry and a further 30 in Belfast – an investment of £8.8m into the region. This was the third such investment Fujitsu had made in Northern Ireland in 18 months. The first of these – £18 million in June 2007 – created 402 jobs in Derry and Belfast; while a £3.2 million expansion of its Centre of Excellence for Oracle created a further 30 jobs in Belfast in August 2007.

Other inward investors in Northern Ireland’s ICT sector include Openwave, Microsoft, HP and Canada’s BTI Systems. Gregory Koss, Chairman and CEO of BTI Systems notes: “We have been immensely impressed by the calibre of people recruited to date (in Northern Ireland) and are confident that working in partnership with our main development centre in North America, that our R&D potential can be fully maximised.”

Financial Services Technology

Judith Millar is International Marketing Executive for the ICT sector with Invest Northern Ireland, the region’s economic development agency. She says: “The skills sector here, the infrastructure, the strength of our universities and our R&D base make Northern Ireland an attractive place for inward investment. There’s a mix of new talent from the universities and experience from established businesses. What we find is that once inward investors locate here over two-thirds of them then re-invest. In other words, they like what is here enough to buy more.”

One of the areas in which Northern Ireland particularly excels – along with London and Edinburgh – is the growth area of Financial Services Technology. “This is a speciality area for the region,” says Millar. “New York financial services company Citi located here, recognising the depth of the knowledge and skills base; and Liberty IT develops applications and verifies and tests software systems for Liberty Mutual around the world. Also, New York’s NYSE Technologies, using software developed in Belfast, enables stock exchange data to be delivered to financial institutions at high speed.”

A strong growth area for Northern Ireland is security, however: security in computing, information, financial processes – and people. In 2003, Queen’s University Belfast launched the €60million Institute for Electronics Communications and Information Technologies (ECIT), which has gained an international reputation due to its far-reaching research activities and many successes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Says Judith Millar: “ECIT has now successfully bid to establish a Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT). This is poised to become a flagship centre for all aspects of security in the UK – financial, electronic, information and homeland.”