Working to improve the computer services we use every day, Microsoft's Dublin-based European Development Centre is using home-grown expertise to develop cutting-edge solutions.
GLEN POOR has a problem with the perception of his title. He has just told us he is the director of Microsoft Ireland's European Development Centre, but is quick to add, and with some good humour, that he is not their overlord. "They work for the people back in Redmond. My job is just to care, feed and grow the place. I'm not the chief!"
In 2005, Microsoft established a core development centre in Ireland which focused on developing technology and products customers use throughout the world every day. These teams produce cutting edge technology to deliver edge computing, experimentation, mobile, digital TV, IPTV, location-based services, malware response and more.
These technologies are included in products such as Windows, Windows Media Centre, Windows Live, MSN, Microsoft Media room, One Care and more.
The European Development Centre is in fact a combination of the sales and market and operations centres.
Initial projects were based around localisation, such as preparing Xbox games for different European markets and languages. The focus of the centre has now shifted more to software development.
"Our fastest growth area is finding opportunities within the company to do cool and innovative software development - on Windows, Windows Live, MSN, the Office products, security and education," says Poor.
"These are the areas we currently have teams working on . . . products that people know and use every day; and it's the Irish operation and its people that are contributing to the success of these products."
In many respects it made sense for Microsoft to put the responsibility for the European Development Centre in Irish hands.
The Dublin-based operation had already shown it had sufficient management capabilities and people to carry out Microsoft's ambitions in this area.
There are 470 people working in the EDC along with 60 contingent staff.
According to Poor, that number is growing with more product development projects being tackled as localisation takes more of a backseat. "We see our potential going forward centring on more software development and adding to the suite of Microsoft products such as the Office family."
According to Poor, the biggest project the centre has worked on was the Office suite of products, mainly due to the fact that Ireland was the localisation centre of expertise.
He added that the biggest software development effort is carried out by the global product development group that works on Windows Live - a collection of services including Hotmail, MSN and Search.
This development has a public and non-public facing side. The customer sees the interface such as Hotmail and Search but the group also work 'under the bonnet' where they have set up a series of reports and a variety of services to enable businesses to see who is looking at what kind of content, so advertisers can utilise the space in the most cost effective way.
"Essentially, this group is developing software that helps businesses contact with their customer through the Windows properties," said Poor.
Another leading edge piece of development centres on making the Windows mobile experience more compatible with the proliferation of devices on the market today, such as mobile phones, PDAs and so on.
"Each mobile device has got a different screen size, keyboard entry method and different ways of interacting," explains Poor.
"And so the team has come up with software that helps the websites that a customer is using (Windows Live sites) tailor themselves to the device the customer is interacting with.
"Delivery of content to mobile devices is a huge market and everyone sees the web moving towards this space."
Poor says the EDC's future plans are to deliver on what is currently being worked on and to continue to demonstrate to the Microsoft corporation that placing work in Ireland means "you get good quality work and high-quality people".
"You can do cool, innovative tech development work in this location and we're constantly trying to demonstrate that Europe and Ireland is the best place to hire people."
10 TEAMS OF THE EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
Windows International: Global Experience Team
Plumbing work inside Windows, like the date and time control, to improve the experience for international customers
MSN International
Location-based services; video; personalisation experience for mobile community ecosystem with content on MSN
Entertainment home (ehome)
Development of multimedia solution for the Microsoft Connected Home ecosystem;
projects include core Media Centre platform components as well as European specific TV solutions (eg DVB end to end)
Research and Response (R&R)
Research and respond to malware across the web; provide online portal and virus encyclopedia for users and the anti-malware community
Microsoft Television (MSTV)
Broadcast/IPTV hybrid set top box development, allowing people to watch digital broadcast television and video on demand
Global Product Development - Europe Advanced data visualisations; transform web pages for mobile phones for 100 million users; enable website owners to easily run experiments on their users (page design, behaviours)
Global Product Development - IPG Europe
Localisation and adaptation for the full suite of offerings in the Windows Live suite of services for 50-plus markets across the world
Information Worker Development of customer facing innovation for Office, Office Live and Office Mobile
Office International Publishing Group
Office online localisation and adaptation for 36 markets
Home Entertainment Division
Localisation of Messenger, Xbox 360, Games for Windows, and Arcade/Casual games, making them available in up to 20 languages in some cases; also, educational products such as Encarta.com, Grava and Learning Essentials.
