Global Services
The Rise of Global Services
In the complex, advanced business environment of today, all businesses have a service component. Some are dedicated service models, whilst others have varying degrees of service - but all are based on service delivery to multiple stakeholders including customers, suppliers, consumers, sister organisations, investors etc. Recent research suggests that internationally tradable services provide an even greater multiplier effect in the Irish economy than traditional manufacturing.
Ireland - A Leading Location for Service Exports
Ireland, like many other highly developed countries, is experiencing strong growth in the services sector. Ireland is one of the leading countries in service exports. The contribution of services to Irish exports almost doubled since the year 2000 increasing from 21% to almost 40% of total Irish exports and accounts for 60% of all value added in the economy. Employment in services in Ireland has increased dramatically over the past decade where today 67% of the Irish labour force can be deemed to work in the services sector, a reflection of a world-wide structural change. A viable internationally traded services sector is a key component of sustainable economic growth.
A Dynamic Sector
A dynamic services sector is a critical element in maximising lifelong employment, given the growth in services will continue, as they are increasingly traded internationally and represent a growing percentage of total world trade. This growth is manifest across a very wide range of market sectors including finance, insurance, ICT activities, R&D, advertising, marketing, engineering, accountancy and a myriad of consultancy opportunities. Almost 70% of value added world-wide is generated in services.
Services Innovation
An increasing dilemma is emerging for business today: the global economy, and particularly that of the FDI community, is increasingly dependent on services, yet many innovation processes are by their genesis often constrained by a methodology intended for developing and innovating manufactured products.
Ireland - A Meanigful Services Innovation Partner for Investors
Ireland is very well positioned to be a serious and meaningful services innovation partner to investors. Ireland is already internationally recognised as a proven location for companies to maximise the higher value elements of the business value chain – headquarter operations, software development, R&D project management, financial services, supply chain management, shared business services and technical support centres. This is underpinned with strong multilingual skills as a result of net immigration; Ireland has 146 nations represented in its population.
A Strong Performance
Ireland has gained a strong and respected reputation for innovation and creativity spanning all aspects of business, arts and entertainment as reflects a world class knowledge society.
Creativity and Competence
Building on our strong performance in R&D investments, over the past five years in particular, combined with services experience, language and creativity, IDA Ireland is leading a new initiative to assist existing and new investors grasp business opportunities in services innovation and position Ireland as a leader in this emerging area of competence.
Close Collaboration with Stakeholders
IDA Ireland is currently working with many stakeholders to enhance and broaden the services innovation landscape in Ireland in order to create new knowledge reservoirs, new value added capacity and business enhancement capabilities.
Exceptional Growth
Growth in Employment by Sector
Growth in Services Exports by Ownership
Ireland - A Serious Innovation Partner to Investors
Microsoft Corporation, the largest software company in the world, is investing an initial $500m in its new European data centre in Dublin. The state-of-the-art ‘mega’ data centre is the latest development in their ‘software + services’ strategy and will provide online services to millions of Microsoft users in this region. Debra Chrapaty, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Global Foundation Services said, It is clear that there is a strong understanding of the strategic nature of this investment for Microsoft and we are delighted that this decision to invest further in Ireland builds on the long-term positive relationship that Ireland and Microsoft have enjoyed.
IBM, the world’s largest information technology company, will establish Europe’s first Cloud Computing Centre in Dublin. This European hub will provide research and services to future satellite facilities in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Cloud Computing addresses the dramatic growth in business collaboration, connected devices, real-time data streams, and Web 2.0 applications such as streaming media, entertainment, social networking and mobile commerce. Dr Willy Chiu, Vice President of High Performance On Demand Solutions, IBM Software Group, said, Responding to demand in the market, we are moving fast to build an integrated Cloud Computing operation... The centres can bring skills and expertise to serve our clients in building their own new enterprise data centres.
FINCAD opened its EMEA Headquarters in Dublin. FINCAD provides over 1,400 financial modelling products enabling financial institutions to mitigate the impact of market uncertainty by having a far greater understanding of the consequences of their decisions. Products cover commodities, convertible bonds, credit equity, fixed income, foreign exchange, municipal bonds among others. The new Dublin Centre will support the company’s international growth and will be responsible for managing relationships with clients across the region. Mr. Bob Park, CEO, FINCAD said, Before making this investment we looked at a number of countries in Europe and we chose Ireland because the people are predominately English speaking, well educated, trained, experienced people with multilingual capabilities.