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With An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern on hand, Microsoft on Wednesday officially opened its newest office building, the Atrium, in Sandyford. The new building is part of a USD165 million investment programme being conducted by Microsoft in Ireland over a two-year period.
And part of this plan will see the business create 100 new jobs in the Republic, on top of the creation of 100 new positions the business announced last year. The firm said the new jobs would support the growing needs of its Irish operations.
Other elements of the investment programme include the launch of Microsoft's European Internet data centre, located at the National Digital Park in CityWest, which is now operational. The company is also building a new facility in Leopardstown Business Park for some of its European Product Development Centre employees.
"In so many ways, Microsoft is an icon of the positive changes that have taken place in Ireland in the last two decades," Ahern said. "Microsoft came here planning a hundred job operation... now with 1,800, Microsoft are the single biggest employer in the Irish software sector." The Taoiseach pointed out that Microsoft spends over EUR350 million each year in the economy and the company accounts for six percent of national exports.
Also attending the opening was Microsoft vice president EMEA and managing director, European operations centre, Kevin Dillon, who highlighted the company's commitment to Ireland. Dillion said the Atrium building symbolises the evolution of Microsoft's role in Ireland, from manufacturing, to a high-end operation that is the command centre for all EMEA operations.
Speaking to ElectricNews.Net, Dillion said Microsoft had selected Ireland for reinvestment because of the wealth of talent among workers here and because Ireland has a competitive business environment. But Dillion did admit that the Republic has gone from low cost zone in terms of wages, to a medium cost zone over the last few years. The Microsoft vice president also said that 28 of these new positions will focus on sales, marketing and services, "underpinning the importance of the Irish customer to Microsoft."
With regard to the new data centre, the company said its decision to locate that unit in Ireland was "a clear indication of the importance of Ireland to Microsoft in a global context." The centre is the hub of Microsoft's Internet traffic for Europe.
The company discussed the Atrium building itself, claiming it was a working environment with "state of the art" technologies, including wireless and mobile computing. The building uses Windows Smartcards which power cashless services and security. Entertainment and relaxation facilities include Xbox consoles and pool or table football at gaming stations throughout the building.
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