Nortel is to create 60 new high-level research jobs for its Galway operation. The jobs will be created over the next three years.
The jobs follow a US$5m investment by parent company Nortel Networks Corporation into the Galway site last April and is part of a significant research and development (R&D) programme supported by IDA Ireland. It will bring the number of workers at the Galway site to 330.
Nortel’s Galway facility develops leading-edge products for corporate and enterprise customers. The R&D centre’s primary area of expertise is in the area of multimedia customer contact centres that interact with customers via phone, internet, email, video and text messaging.
The Galway site has also hosted a Customer Partnering Centre since 1997 that showcases new concepts and next-generation technologies to customers and prospective clients.
The new R&D programme will focus on service-oriented architecture (SOA) platforms and enhancements to Nortel’s multimedia applications and eBusiness ordering tools. The Galway team’s work on multimedia contact centres based on SOA is expected to provide enhanced applications and communications interfaces that improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Nortel began operations in Galway in 1973 as a manufacturing operation. It introduced an R&D facility in the early Eighties which has grown steadily since then. At its peak in 1997 850 workers were employed at the site before a global restructuring led to massive job losses in 2001 and 2002. Nortel Ireland has successfully consolidated R&D operations at the Galway campus since then. This announcement is the biggest spate of R&D jobs to be created at the plant since its inception. Other activities at the site also include sales, support and international finance.
“Nortel has evolved from a manufacturing base to become a cutting-edge and innovative centre of R&D excellence,” commented Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheal Martin TD. “The Irish facility has excelled within the Nortel parent corporation and is one of the few multinational companies in Ireland with full global R&D responsibility for a complete product portfolio. The staff and management of Nortel Ireland are to be congratulated for this remarkable achievement.”
“Today’s investment is another significant milestone in the evolution of Nortel in Ireland,” said Ollie Daniels, R&D leader, Nortel Ireland. “It is testament to the spirit of innovation that drives Ireland forward that the company has chosen Galway as the hub for this work that’s so integral to Nortel’s future.”
By Niall Byrne
