Tánaiste announces a total of over 90 new jobs for Galway
HP (Galway) investing ¤11 million in Research, Development and Innovation Buy.com to establish a European Operations Centre
Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan TD today (Friday 30th October 2009) announced that a total of over 90 new jobs are to be created in Galway in new investments by two companies. The investments are supported by Government through IDA Ireland.
Hewlett Packard Company, the world leading technology company, is to expand its Research and Development capability at its existing operation in Ballybrit, Galway, with two new highly strategic Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) projects involving a total investment of ¤11 million, which will create over 50 new positions.
And new to Galway - Buy.com, an online retailer, is to establish a European Operations Centre in the City centre, which will create 40 highly skilled positions over four years. Recruitment is to commence immediately for positions in multilingual customer support, online sales and marketing, finance and software design and development. The Centre will be located at Mayoralty House, Flood Street, in the centre of the City.
The Tánaiste said “Ireland has a proven ability to satisfy the needs of highly inventive and technologically advanced companies and these projects are an excellent further endorsement of our well established reputation. I welcome the RD&I projects at HP (Galway) as they will open up new opportunities for the facility and are a major vote of confidence in its capabilities, whose prior track record of success was instrumental in its winning these projects. I also welcome the decision by Buy.com to establish in Galway. It is Buy.com’s first investment internationally and further reinforces Ireland’s profile as a leading location for global Internet service companies in Europe.”
The Tánaiste continued by providing details of the new investments and the two companies involved.
Hewlett Packard Company
Hewlett Packard Company, the world leading technology company, is to expand its Research and Development capability at its operation in Ballybrit, Galway, with two new highly strategic projects involving a total investment of ¤11 million, which will create over 50 new positions.
One project will establish HP Galway as the Centre of Expertise for Cloud Computing Services in product track, trace and authentication, placing it at the forefront of the development of new technologies, services and standards for cloud computing globally.
The other project will establish a RD&I Group focused on process innovation, which is core to the delivery of HP’s support of its mission-critical business process. It will develop a standard set of best-in-class customer support tools, processes, metrics and reports.
The Tánaiste said: “ These projects are unique within the corporation and closely aligned with HP’s corporate strategy and priorities of moving to higher value products and services. From an Ireland perspective, it is gratifying to see yet another HP investment in Ireland following so soon after the company announced its intention to create 500 high-skilled jobs at its Global Service Desk in Leixlip.”
Martin Murphy, Managing Director, HP Ireland, said: “This announcement illustrates where HP is going in terms of the delivery of cutting edge services within the international IT sector. This milestone is based on HP R&D, delivery and support services, and is in our view yet another example of the Irish knowledge economy in action, where we can compete for and succeed on a worldwide basis, all through a hub of skilled people focused on bringing world-leading research and development to commercial and industrial settings.”
Mark Gantly, Managing Director, HP Galway added: “HP’s declared strategic focus is to design and develop products, services and solutions that anticipate customers’ changing needs and desires and emerging technological trends. These investments at HP Galway are an intrinsic part of this strategy and we have every confidence in its ability to succeed in this ‘boundary breaking’ work and anticipate that the results may form a significant part of HP’s global offerings in the future.”
The project establishing the Centre of Expertise for Cloud Computing Services in product track, trace and authentication, has resulted from the food traceability leadership and expertise already in-situ in HP Galway. It has identified substantial opportunities for new services, initially for the food industry, but equally applicable to pharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumer products.
There is an increasing universal awareness of the criticality of tracking in ensuring appropriate food safety across the global supply-chain. This project aims to develop a single, independent platform to securely store, manage and exchange information in real-time to the appropriate stakeholders in the food supply-chain - i.e. from farm to fork. The introduction of regulatory legislation in the US, EU and other countries, in conjunction with traceability and assurance directives from large retail corporations, suggest the development of such a platform is indeed a priority.
The Customer Support project is the establishment of a RD&I Group focused on process innovation and is a further substantial boost for HP Galway. This transformation initiative will research and develop best practices for sustaining an innovative support operation by developing industry leading processes, tools, and structures. The support services located at HP Galway delivers a 24*7 operation and will form the basis of and be the primary beneficiary of this research. These new capabilities at HP Galway will raise its profile considerably being exposed to all of HP’s business units in developing the future processes to support business processes used by internal employees and external partners.
The Tánaiste said: “HP is one of Ireland’s flagship companies in the foreign direct investment sector and is a major contributor to both the local and to the national economy. HP Galway is an innovation model of excellence in the continual investment in the sustainability of its business model driven by a dedicated management team and committed workforce. I sincerely congratulate all of them on the winning of these remarkable RD&I investments not just for Galway but for Ireland.”
About HP Ireland
HP is one of the largest multinational companies in Ireland, with over 4,000 people employed across its core business groups in Leixlip, Dublin, Galway and Belfast. Businesses represented in Ireland are the HP Sales and Services Division; HP Manufacturing Operation; HP European Software Centre; HP Global Service Desk for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and HP Financial Services for EMEA.
The European Software Centre (ESC) in Ballybrit, Co. Galway comprises software and services research and development, software publishing services and software management and ebusiness services. The geographic focus is Europe, Middle East and Africa, although many services delivered from the ESC are global.
About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.
Note to editors: More news from HP, including links to RSS feeds, is available at http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/.
Buy.com
Buy.com, Inc., a U.S.-based leading online retail marketplace with more than twelve million customers worldwide, is focused on providing the best deals on a broad selection of high-quality goods. Its robust product inventory includes millions of products in nineteen categories, including consumer electronics, computers, books, videos, jewellery and fragrances.
The Tánaiste said “The announcement by Buy.com that it is to locate its European Operations Centre in Galway, is a further reinforcement of Ireland’s profile as a leading location for global Internet service companies in Europe. Buy.com will join other leading global Internet companies, such as Amazon, eBay and CSN Stores, who are operating successfully out of Ireland.”
Speaking at today’s announcement, Neel Grover, CEO and president of Buy.com, said: "We conducted extensive research to identify the best location for this crucial business function. Ireland faced strong international competition for this investment, but Galway was chosen because of its multilingual skilled workforce, Ireland’s position within the European market and the presence of other Internet service companies operating here”.
About Buy.com
With more than 12 million customer accounts, Buy.com is a leading retail marketplace, focused on providing its customers with a rewarding shopping experience and a broad selection of high-quality technology and entertainment retail goods at competitive prices. Buy.com offers millions of products in a range of categories, including consumer electronics, computer hardware and software, cell phones, books, music, videos, games, toys, bags, fragrance, home and outdoor, baby, jewelry, shoes, apparel and sporting goods. Founded in June of 1997, Buy.com is located in Aliso Viejo, California. Buy.com® and The Internet Superstore™ are trademarks of Buy.com Inc. Buy.com currently competes with a variety of companies that can be divided into two broad categories: (i) retailers and ecommerce marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon and Wal-Mart and (ii) specialty retailers or manufacturers such as Barnes & Noble, Best Buy and Dell.
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Media contacts –
HP –
Tara Collins, HP, +353 1 6158881 / +353 863553201 Tara.Collins@hp.com
Paddy Hughes, Drury Communications +353 876167811 / +353 01 2605000
Kevin Daly, Drury Communications +353 879653155 / +353 1 2605000
Buy.com –
Eoin Matthews Mob: 086-0241071 e.mail: euro@buy.com
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment –
Sean Perry, Press Office, Tel: 01- 6312200, Sean Perry
IDA Ireland -
Brendan Kenny, Press & PR, Tel: 0801 6034000
Last modified: 30/10/2009
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