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SAP opens new facility in Dublin
Thursday, September 20 2001
by Andrew McLindon


Enterprise software firm SAP opened a EUR25 million facility in Dublin that will
act as a hub for the delivery of customer support services in EMEA and the US.





 

The 75,000 square foot facility in CityWest Business Campus has been set-up by
SAP Service and Support Centre (Ireland) and is one of three SAP global support
centres in Europe. Liam Ryan, managing director of SAP SCC, said that the centre
will handle around 60 percent of all European enquiries and "a significant"
number of enquiries from the US. 

 

According to the company, the global support centre will provide a variety of
on-line services and support for e-business solutions including customer
relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), along with support
for Internet transaction server technology and database platforms. 

 

Ryan told ElectricNews.Net that Ireland had been chosen as one of the global
support centre destinations because of its highly skilled workforce and the
ability of the Irish operation to attract well qualified staff. 

 

SAP SSC (Ireland) was set-up in April 1997 and currently employs 280 people. The
company had previously established a local support centre in Eastpoint Business
Park, which was the first such SAP centre outside Germany, but due to space
considerations decided to move to CityWest. In preparation for the move, SAP SSC
had increased its workforce by 110 over the last eight months and further jobs
are in the pipeline, said the company.

 

"Our current plans will see us increase employee numbers by 70 within the next
year and we are aiming to have 400 staff by the end of 2003," commented Ryan. As
its new building can cater for around 400 people, Ryan confirmed that expanding
the facility was being actively looked at. "We have an option to build on both
sides of the building and we do envisage exercising that option at some stage,"
he said. 

 

Mary Harney TD, Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, who
launched the centre, said the fact that one of Europe's largest software
companies had chosen to locate such a facility in Ireland was a "clear
indication" of Ireland's continued reputation as a leading location for the
world's best software companies and was a "further positive development" for
the technology sector.

 

SAP, with headquarters in Germany, is a provider of e-business software solutions
with an estimated 10 million users worldwide. According to the company, more than
15,000 companies in over 120 countries run more than 36,000 installations of SAP
software.

 

On Thursday the company said that an initial assessment of current business
activity indicated that it was on track to reach previously announced revenue and
margin goals for the nine months through 30 September 2001. At the time of its
second quarter results, SAP said that revenue growth for the first nine months of
2001 would slightly exceed 23 percent, with full year 2001 revenues growing by
more than 20 percent.

The announcement gave a boost to the company's share price, which was up 1.06
percent in New York at 11:13am EST to USD23.75.



SAP is at  http://www.sap.com/.