Tánaiste Announces Business Objects To Establish R&D Centre In Dublin

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan, T.D., announced on Tuesday that Business Objects, a SAP company, is to invest €29 million in establishing a R&D Centre in Ireland.

The centre, which will be located at the SAP facility in CityWest, Dublin will recruit a research and development team of 100 people, over a four-year period, with the support of IDA Ireland.

Business Objects, the largest business intelligence company in the world, established its EMEA operations centre in Dublin in 2004 and currently employs 200 people at its Park West offices in Dublin.

In 2008, Business Objects was ranked one of the Best 50 Companies to work for in Ireland.

Business Objects develops business intelligence software that allows clients to gain better insight into their business by tracking, analysing and managing information stored in corporate databases, accounting software and customer relationship management systems.

In January of 2008, SAP, the world's leading provider of business software, acquired Business Objects.

SAP, the largest software company in Europe and the 3rd largest in the world, established operations in Ireland in 1997 with service centres in Dublin and Galway.

Today, SAP employs up to 800 people directly in Ireland.

Business Objects, now an SAP company, is proposing to invest €29 million in establishing a R&D Centre in Ireland, which will be located in SAP's facility in CityWest, Dublin.

The technology is highly innovative, leading edge and is a critical part of the company's future technology roadmap.

The research will play an instrumental role in the development of a new generation of performance optimization applications, which will enhance the effectiveness of business and social networks and deliver new levels of analytics.

Making the groundbreaking announcement, Tánaiste Coughlan said, "This is a superb investment for Ireland by a global technology leader. It is the result of two highly successful companies merging technologies and expertise to create a winning formula for future success. Business Objects and SAP are leaders in their field and are terrific assets to Ireland's ICT industry. Both are IDA supported companies and this project is a very significant win for the agency, as it is a substantial R&D investment. It is also a tremendous boost to our reputation as a prime location for top level research and development investment from major players in the IT industry worldwide."

Both companies combined now employ over 1,000 people in Ireland. The 100 new high quality positions created by this investment will be for graduates and experienced personnel in computer programming disciplines ranging from program managers and IT architects through to developers and software testers.

The engineers will be proficient in computer programming languages, specifically Java, XML, Eclipse and Flex Technologies.

Engineers will require between three and ten years experience in the software industry.

John Walsh, VP of Global Shared Services at Business Objects said, "We are confident that our R&D centre will be a great success in Dublin and will make Ireland a major R&D site for Business Objects. It will involve a significant step-up in ambition and technology challenge for our corporation, as evident by the initial investment of €29 million allocated to establish the centre. It represents a strategic research project for Business Objects Ireland and a major extension of the corporate mandates of SAP and Business Objects, embedding both companies further in Ireland. The support from the Irish Government and in particular IDA Ireland, has been instrumental in making the decision to locate this strategic part of our business in Ireland the right one for our future development."