Northern Ireland, one of the four constituent countries within the United Kingdom, has emerged as an attractive investment destination for the global IT, BPO and knowledge-processing industries. The IT Business Services Sector in Northern Ireland has been growing tremendously over the last ten years. Some of the large global outsourcing companies such as Firstsource Solutions, HCL Technologies, Stream International and Teleperformance have chosen Northern Ireland to enable their global services delivery more effectively in terms of cost and quality. According to A.T. Kearney’s Global Services Location Index (GSLI), a ranking of the 50 leading outsourcing destinations, Northern Ireland’s capital city Belfast was used as a cost/quality benchmark for the United Kingdom, has been ranked 31st for the 2009 survey. The region also helped United Kingdom move up from its 42nd place in 2008 survey. The survey focused on criteria like: financial attractiveness, people and skills availability, and business environment. Interesting Belfast ranked ahead of traditional low-cost European destinations like Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Earlier this year in a report titled ‘Exploring Global Frontiers’ global consulting firm KPMG has identified Belfast as one of the 31 cities that are rapidly emerging as leading contenders to the BPO crown held by the traditional powerhouses such as Bangalore and Shanghai. The report highlights Northern Ireland’s large talent pool, fully fibre telecom infrastructure, 100 percent broadband penetration, availability of prime office space at 40% lower than rest of UK and Dublin, ease of commuting, lower crime rate and lower cost living as the key advantages. Recently Leading Indian BPO Firstsource recently made a significant investment in Northern Ireland by adding 160 employees to its Northern Ireland operations in Londonderry and Belfast. With the new addition their total staff strength is over 800 in the region. Global customers from diverse verticals such as the financial services, telecom, media, travel and healthcare are serviced from its centres in Northern Ireland. In May 2008, Firstsource received support of £6.7 million from Invest Northern Ireland to aid its expansion plan in the region.
