SOGETI IRELAND could grow to 1,000 staff within the next three years, according to the Capgemini subsidiary's chief executive.
Luc-François Salvador made the claim while on a visit to Dublin last week to mark the acquisition earlier this month of Insight Test Services by Sogeti Ireland.
Through the acquisition and further recruitment, the Irish operations will employ 200 staff in testing and professional services by the end of the year. However, Mr Salvador has a challenging growth plan for the Republic, driven by rapid growth in demand for testing services.
"What I hope is that in the next three years we could multiply by four or five the size of our operations," he said.
"We have to think big and there is a market big enough here to grow it."
Following the acquisition of Insight, about two-thirds of Sogeti's Irish staff are devoted to testing. However, the company also offers professional services, primarily for SAP, Microsoft and IBM technologies.
Globally, Sogeti revenues are growing 10 per cent year-on-year and it will have a turnover of almost €1.5 billion this year.
Mr Salvador said testing, which will account for almost €200 million in revenues in 2008, is growing at a rate of between 30 per cent and 40 per cent in different regions. Analysts at Gartner predict the testing sector as a whole will grow more than 20 per cent in the coming years.
"The perception of testing was that it was an afterthought," said Sogeti Ireland chief executive Michael Connelly.
"I think companies are realising the importance of testing and that if you can improve it you can shorten the time of projects and increase the quality."
The growth in testing is particularly strong in regulated industries such as financial services and pharmaceutical sectors, according to Mr Salvador.
Insight had already established a presence in Britain, where there is interest in outsourcing testing projects to Ireland due to the cost savings from the euro-sterling differential. Even though that particular cost advantage is being eroded on an almost daily basis, Sogeti plans to expand its UK testing practice using the Irish operations.
Mr Salvador described Ireland as a "very interesting geography" because it is a base for so many high-tech multinationals, including two of Sogeti's key industry partners - IBM and Microsoft.
One of the possible limiting factors for Sogeti in Ireland is the availability of skilled staff. Before the acquisition, half of Insight's new staff came from overseas.
Sogeti employs about 18,000 staff globally and accounts for 16 per cent of Capgemini's overall revenues.
