Xerox Ireland may double employee base to meet rising demand

Xerox Ireland could nearly double its employee numbers at its Ballycoolin-based pan-European global services centre over the next year as demand for its shared services offerings continues to climb.

"We expect to grow by another 50 to 100 heads in the next six to 12 months," said Bob Horastead, director and general manager of Xerox Ireland.

The centre, established 18 months ago as part of Xerox's transition from a products and software supplier to a services-oriented company, has 120 employees at what has become Xerox's European customer support and services hub.

He said the company was experiencing "continued growth in this area" and hiring depended "on how quickly I can afford to invest ahead of the arrival of contracts. It's great pressure to have."

Xerox's shared services market in Europe was understood to be worth about $600 million (€467 million) two years ago, with approximately 25 per cent growth since then. Xerox said European operations made up about 15 to 20 per cent of the company's global services revenue.

Mr Horastead pointed to a major Nokia contract managed through the Irish centre as an example of the increasingly important role of the Dublin operation to Xerox.

Under the terms of the bid, Xerox Ireland is doing project management and consulting for Nokia's larger locations, including document outsourcing and networking, providing printers and copiers and managing all output devices. It is also undertaking general fleet management.

The deal also includes placing 90 employees into Nokia operations globally and running a Dublin-based help desk on document-related hardware and software for the Finnish company's global offices.

While he would not disclose the value of the four-year contract, Mr Horastead said it was "one of the largest bids" Xerox has received for shared services contracts and was the biggest in the Irish office.

Mr Horastead said that the expansion of the services centre meant that he could offer employees new career paths within Xerox, making the company a more attractive employer in Ireland.

The Ballycoolin centre has a total of 14 projects, most of them connected with Irish-based companies.

Xerox employs about 1,700 in Ireland, most of them in Ballycoolin, with another 450 in Dundalk.