Nortel in Galway is developing global multimedia contact centre technologies
Canadian networking firm Nortel has reiterated its commitment to its Galway operations with the opening of a $5 million (€3.67 million) research and customer demonstration facility.
The investment will not initially add to the 300 staff who work at the Nortel facility. The move comes as Nortel marks the 25th anniversary of its R&D activities in the west of Ireland.
Nortel in Galway has global responsibility for developing multimedia contact centre technologies - sophisticated communications systems for call centres that support newer communications channels such as instant messaging and video. This R&D function is headed by Ollie Daniels, a Nortel veteran who recently rejoined the company following the defection of his predecessor, Mike Conroy, to rival Cisco.
Nortel's operations in Galway are very different to the predominantly manufacturing facility that Mr Daniels joined in 1980. "People still talk sometimes about factories - this is a factory, it's a skills factory," says Mr Daniels. "We've got to keep churning those skills, changing the skills of the people involved so we are nimble and agile."
In this regard Nortel provides an interesting model for Ireland Inc. Although jobs were lost when manufacturing was moved out of Galway in 1999, the new remit for the site has embedded it firmly in Nortel's worldwide operations.
"This team has competed fiercely to win [the R&D investment]," says Darryl Edwards, president of Nortel in Europe. "The Irish government, past and present, has enabled it to happen. This is an absolutely critical location for us."
It also helps that the engineers in Galway have come up with the goods - on average they file 30 patents for Nortel annually. As the new man in the job, Mr Daniels is fired up by the challenge of "staying ahead of the curve". He talks about building alliances locally with customers and other technology players, as well as how Science Foundation Ireland will become as important to the company as IDA Ireland due to its renewed commitment to research.
The revamped customer centre will host visits from over 100 customers per year from around the globe. "It's not just about Guinness and oysters," insists Mr Daniels. "At the end of the day there are lots of interesting places that people can go." Nortel's research has found that 85 per cent of customers who visit the centre go on to make a purchase.
Mr Daniels also sees great benefit from having the engineers who develop the products working on the same site that major customers visit.
"The first question I asked of every engineer I met when I came back was 'when was the last time you met a customer?'," says Mr Daniels. "These guys are our best salespeople - but they wear jeans and T-shirts, not €1,000 suits."
