Former US presidential candidate Mr Ross Perot has underscored Ireland's growing role as a global centre for enhanced information technology (IT) services with the announcement of two new ventures in Ireland.
Perot Systems says it will generate a total of 498 jobs here over the next five years.
The firm is setting up a new company, PS Information Resource (Ireland), in a joint venture with Bank of Ireland, which plans to create 342 new jobs over five years in addition to 204 existing Bank of Ireland staff who will transfer automatically to the new venture.
The other initiative involves the establishment of a Perot Systems business and technology services company in Dublin which is expected to create 156 new jobs. Recruitment for both companies will begin immediately.
The new joint venture will amalgamate Bank of Ireland's data centre in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, and as part of the agreement, will manage all the bank's in-house IT services.
PS Information will commercialise gradually and expand its activities with the aim of becoming a European hub for a range of monitoring, advisory, diagnostic and value-added IT services to international clients. Target industries will include the financial services, healthcare and travel and transportation sectors. Any earnings generated will be equally distributed between Bank of Ireland and Perot Systems, and PS Information will be overseen by a board of directors represented equally from both companies.
Mr Perot said in Dublin yesterday that as the technology environment transformed from the mainframe data centres of old to the network-based world of the future, PS Information would become "a European computing utility with the ability to serve industries across Europe and address problems with technology-enabled solutions".
Though a location has still not been found for the wholly owned Perot Systems office in Dublin, its function will be to provide systems integration and applications development services to Bank of Ireland and other European clients. This latest move further strengthens Perot Systems's foothold in Europe, which now accounts for more than a third of the company's annual revenues of $781 million.
By partnering Bank of Ireland, Perot Systems is using the strength of the bank's brand to increase its profile in the Irish market.
According to Mr John King, head of Perot Systems's global financial services, Ireland has been earmarked as a potential location for the company for the last five years.
"We consider the European market for IT services to be worth about £17 billion per year, and because Ireland is very Europe-facing we think there is a lot of business for us here. A combination of tax advantages and a young intelligent population has attracted us here, the makeup is unlike anything we will see elsewhere in Europe."
Both projects are separately supported by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland.
Mr Pat McDowell, deputy group chief executive of Bank of Ireland, said the new venture would allow the bank continue to focus on its core competencies, while PS Information would bring proven expertise in the IT area which is critical to the bank's future.
