Minister Martin opens SAP’s Global Support Centre in Galway

“Operations and recruitment well on-target,” says Minister

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin T.D., today (Thursday 9^th June 2005) performed the official opening of SAP’s new Global Support Centre in Galway, which is supported by IDA Ireland. SAP is Europe’s largest software company and the world's leading provider of business software solutions.

Speaking at the opening Minister Martin said “progress at the Galway Centre has been excellent and is in line with planned targets; 200 of the 350 people planned for recruitment over four years are already in place and operations such as technical support, customer interaction, license auditing, telemarketing, translation services and technical writing are up and running. I congratulate SAP’s Irish management team and workforce for the early success of this Centre and also for the achievements at the Dublin operation, which helped to influence SAP’s decision to locate this additional Centre in Ireland.”

The Minister continued, “Galway has a proven track record in providing the best of highly skilled and educated people, and the infrastructure necessary to support knowledge-intensive activities from global international services companies. The new Galway Centre is providing employment opportunities for people with fluency in European languages, IT expertise, business and communication skills”.

The new Galway operation provides technical support to SAP’s customers across Europe and the US for its business management product “Business One”, which is part of SAP’s new growth strategy for the future. “Business One” is specifically designed for firms to manage core operational activities to benefit from integrated operations and collaborative relationships with third parties. SAP also has an operation at Citywest Business Park in Dublin since 1997, which is the company’s largest Global Support Centre.

Gerhard Oswald, Member of the Executive Board SAP AG, said “At SAP we are very pleased with the successful start-up of our operation in Galway. In line with our expectations we have been able to attract numbers of internationally experienced and highly skilled people. We are keeping our employees at this Centre up-to-speed in a technology that is continuously evolving by on-going investment in their training. This will ensure that our customers receive the very best of experienced support care on the most up to-date technologies as SAP grows and expands globally.”

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Notes for Editor

SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software solutions. Today, more than 27,000 customers in over 120 countries run more than 91,500 installations of SAP® software - from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize businesses to enterprise-scale suite solutions for global organisations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver™ platform to drive innovation and enable business change, mySAP™ Business Suite solutions are helping enterprises around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations.

SAP industry solutions support the unique business processes of more than 25 industry segments, including high tech, retail, public sector and financial services. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol “SAP.”

Additional information at http://www.sap.com

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