100 new R&D jobs for Ireland as IBM invest €25m in expansion of Ireland Software Lab

The Ireland Lab is one of more than 80 IBM research and development laboratories around the world, providing intelligent software that serve business purposes in many industries such as healthcare, energy, telecommunications, transportation, retail and public services.

Dennis King, Vice President of Advanced Collaboration Development at IBM.

IBM Corporation is to make an investment of over €25 million in an expansion of its Ireland Software Lab, with the support of IDA Ireland. The expansion will see the company create 100 new software engineering positions over a three year period in its Ireland Software Lab located in Dublin, Cork and Galway, bringing total employment to over 600 people.

Welcoming today’s announcement Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan T.D said, “This is wonderful news coming from the largest information technology company in the world. This knowledge-driven investment is highly significant for Ireland. The benefits are tremendous in terms of the highly sophisticated software technology that will be developed, the key skilled positions that will be created and the endorsement by an industry leader that Ireland is helping to fulfill IBM’s global research, development and business strategy”.

“This is IBM’s fourth R&D announcement in Ireland in the last two years, validating Ireland’s claim as a leading 21st century knowledge based economy” he added.

Through this expansion IBM will expand its collaboration, service management and data warehouse software portfolios. These initiatives enable a smart working environment which facilitates closer ties among customers, partners and colleagues to deliver business and IT services, while leveraging data intelligence for greater business value. Today’s announcement builds upon IBM’s software R&D commitment focused on three key areas, namely: designing and developing Software as a Service Solutions (SaaS), Service Management and Data Warehouse products.

“The Ireland Lab is one of more than 80 IBM research and development laboratories around the world, providing intelligent software that serve business purposes in many industries such as healthcare, energy, telecommunications, transportation, retail and public services” said Dennis King, Vice President of Advanced Collaboration Development at IBM. "We are committed to extending our collaboration and Data Warehouse technologies to meet the growing need in the market.”

About IBM Software Development Lab in Ireland

Today, enterprise computing software is commonly used as a service. Earlier in the year, IBM and the Marine Institute Ireland announced a SmartBay program using an ensemble of cloud computing software to monitor wave conditions, marine life and pollution levels in the Galway Bay. It turns mountains of data into intelligence and helps with fishermen activities and future development of the bay.

IBM will expand the lab in three main areas: including information development , Data Warehouse and cloud computing software

•  establishing a new software development team in Dublin to work on the creation and testing of the next generation of IBM's flagship Data Warehouse which is used to gather and analyse information about their business and subsequently make informed business decisions. This new team builds on the existing capabilities in the Ireland Lab in DB2 Database development, and will deliver industry specific data warehouse architectures for banking, insurance, telecommunications, retail and healthcare.
• creating a new cloud computing software development team to work on IBM LotusLive offerings, which is a suite of cloud-delivered online technologies for business. LotusLive provides essential collaboration services to simplify and improve daily business interactions with customers, partners and colleagues. Designed with security in mind, LotusLive Connections and LotusLive Engage provide social networking capabilities such as Web conferencing, file storing and sharing, content management, live chat, and business forms.
• creating a Centre of Excellence for Information Development to support a number of software products across IBM Tivoli software which delivers solutions to multiple industries such as telecommunications, banking, pharmaceuticals and aerospace.

About IBM
Headquartered in New York, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is one of the largest technology companies in the world. For the financial year ending 31 December 2008 the company had revenues of $103 Billion, net income of $12 Billion and 398,455 employees.

IBM Ireland
IBM Ireland employs 3,600 full time personnel and on average 1,500 contractors each year, fulfilling a diverse range of international mandates across all IBM’s businesses. It has attained strategic status within IBM Corporation’s globally integrated delivery framework. IBM Ireland’s annual expenditure in the local economy is €380 million, €155 Million on salaries, €117 Million on contractor salaries and services and €108 Million on employer and corporate taxes.