Contact centres, communication technology firms and software developers are flocking to Northern Ireland. Overseas investors have always been attracted by the country’s low operating costs, but now its skills and educational standards are moving centre stage, writes Helen Smith
Northern Ireland is putting the Troubles behind it in a big way. After decades of high unemployment and economic blight, the IRA’s first real ceasefire in 1994 marked the turning point for the province. Now Northern Ireland has become one of the leading contact centre locations in Europe and a major centre for communications technology and software development.
The region’s low operating costs labour costs are up to 32% below those in the US and 25% below the European Union average have proved a major factor in attracting overseas business, as have high educational standards among Northern Ireland’s population of 1.6m. More than half the staff at Nortel Network’s Belfast operation, for example, have masters or PhD qualifications.
Accordingly, the development agency for the region, Invest Northern Ireland, has been able to shift its emphasis. “What we used to offer was a low-cost base with lots of incentives. That has completely changed, with the focus now being on quality of skills, educational standards and competitive real estate,” says Colin Lewis, director for international sales and marketing. The agency struggles to overcome what he calls “the CNN factor” the widespread media image that still paints the region as driven by violence. “But now we have a product to sell and the acid test is in the companies that have come here. Most of them have reinvested at least once they see commercial potential here,” says Lewis.
Northbrook Technology, a subsidiary of US company Allstate, first set up operations in Northern Ireland in 1998 and has expanded rapidly. It now employs 650 people in Belfast and Derry.
The company provides a large proportion of the IT functions for the US insurance giant, despite being on the other side of the Atlantic.
“From a telecommunications point of view, it’s as though we are next door. We make good use of video- and voice-conferencing, and any drawbacks are far outweighed by the cost benefits,” says Northbrook managing director Bro McFerran.
Not only are employment costs in Northern Ireland a fraction of those in the US, but the operation has proved to be far more productive. Since Northbrook Technology was set up in Belfast, Allstate has been able to reduce the number of outside IT contractors it uses in the US from 6,000 to a mere 300.
The company’s original intention was to operate an office of 250 people in Belfast, but now it expects the Northern Ireland operation to grow to 1,000, McFerran says.
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Belfast Offices |
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|
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
|
|
Prime rents (£ per sq ft) |
11.15 |
12.50 |
12.50 |
|
Take-up (sq ft) |
645,855 |
403,660 |
274,490 |
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Source: King Sturge |
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” Software
” Contact centres
” Telecommunications/electronics
” Life and health sciences
” Manufacturing
Northern Ireland is readily accessible by air, with daily direct flights out of three airports to major European and US locations. London is one hour away by air. Belfast International Airport is the third largest air cargo centre in the UK.
Electronic communication with the rest of the UK is carried out via three secure undersea cables using both synchronous digital hierarchy and wave division multiplexing.
A fully digital, fibre-optic communications network provides a bandwidth that allows communication with Europe and beyond.
The all-fibre backbone is based on synchronous digital hierarchy technology, which provides a minimum capacity of 2.5 gigabit per second this is expandable up to 100 Gb per sec using dense wave division multiplexing.
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Northern Ireland Area, population and labour market statistics 2001 |
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Area (sq miles) |
Population density (people per sq mile) |
Population (000s) |
ILO unemployment rate 2000-01 (%) |
Average gross weekly full-time earnings, April 2001 (£) |
|
|
UK |
l93,416 |
629 |
58,837 |
5.3 |
442.4 |
|
N Ireland |
5,242 |
321 |
1,689 |
375 |
|
|
Eastern |
676 |
987 |
667 |
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|
Northern |
1,580 |
272 |
428 |
||
|
Southern |
1,187 |
264 |
312 |
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Western |
1,799 |
158 |
282 |
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Source: Office for National Statistics and Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment |
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Key contacts Northern Ireland |
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Organisation |
Website |
Telephone |
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Belfast City Council Economic Development Unit |
www.development.belfastcity.gov.uk |
+44 (0)28 9032 0202 |
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Invest Northern Ireland |
www.investni.com |
+44 (0)28 9023 9090 |
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Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry |
www.nicci.co.uk |
+44 (0)28 9024 4113 |
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Other useful websites : |
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Northern Ireland Executive |
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Northern Ireland Tourist Board |
www.ni-tourism.com |
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