Business process outsourcing firm Concentrix is creating over 1,000 new jobs in Belfast as part of a £36 million (€43.6 million) investment.
The Californian company, a subsidiary of Synnex, already employs over 800 in Belfast. Concentrix as a group runs customer care call centres on behalf of businesses such as banks, insurance firms and health care companies. It also provides front and back office services for retail stores and banks, and processes claims for insurance companies.
Citing low profit margins, IBM sold its customer care outsourcing business to Synnex for $505 million (€365 million) last year, and Synnex combined this business with its Concentrix subsidiary.
Invest Northern Ireland ploughed £3.5 million (€4.24 million) of support into Concentrix’s latest expansion. Concentrix’s operations in Belfast currently service a number of blue-chip international companies. Many of the business services jobs will be multi-lingual and will involve technical support services.
“This is the biggest ever job creation project supported by Invest NI and is a tremendous endorsement of Northern Ireland’s credentials as an inward investment location,” said Arlene Foster, Enterprise Minister, NI.
Senior vice president of Concentrix Philip Cassidy said: “Our strategy is to grow global revenues significantly over the next three years. This will require us to put in place over 1,000 new posts. Since we set up operations in Belfast, we have achieved excellent service delivery and now want to build on this to expand our European base.”
“The support provided by Invest NI, the quality of people and the cost competitive business environment makes Northern Ireland a very attractive location for us,” he added.
TechMarketView analyst John O’Brien said of the investment: “It shows the growing demand in the UK for high quality onshore customer service operations.
“With the right training, investment and career progression in place for these new employees, Northern Ireland could build on this investment and diversify its labour market, perhaps becoming a new high quality onshore customer service hub.”
“Big IT/business processing names like Capita, Fujitsu, HP and Serco, and smaller players like Kainos, are already present here and see the benefits of Northern Ireland as a cost effective UK location with high quality staff,” said O’Brien.
Antony Savvas, Computerworld UK
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