Galway beats off worldwide competition to land 100 jobs

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

Galway has seen off competition from locations in Toronto, Chicago and Mumbai to land 100 highly skilled Information Technology (IT) support jobs which were announced for a new service centre in the city yesterday.

Pivot Acquisition Corporation – described as one of North America’s largest IT solutions providers – have said that the Republic’s low 12.5% corporation tax rate, the availability of high-speed broadband, and an educated, English-speaking workforce were key factors in the decision to locate here.

The company has had a presence at the Parkmore Industrial Estate on the east side of the city for just eight weeks and has begun a recruitment drive to create 25 jobs by the end of this year, with a further 75 planned for 2012.

Staff at the Galway shared services centre will provide IT solutions to at least three major companies in North America via video conferencing calls, providing “operations support and technology solution development” under one roof.

The firm intends to move to a new, permanent location in the city in the coming weeks and senior management have been sizing up facilities in both the city centre and Dangan in recent weeks with a view towards finding a permanent home.

Pivot AC was only founded in Canada last year and is dedicated to innovation by providing global IT solutions through new technologies. The corporation has acquired three major companies in three North American cities (Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Texas) and intends to provide IT expertise to all three facilities from the new Galway base.

Positions to be filled include vacancies in information technology, software development, finance, international customer support, project management, marketing, and process innovation. Galway native Christine Power will lead the recruitment drive.

“We have invested in video conferencing here in Galway and there has been great expertise on the CVs we have received so far. These are highly skilled jobs and, in fact, the CVs we have received have been shockingly good," said Pivot AC Director Cory Reid yesterday.

Read more in today's Connacht Sentinel