SAP , SAP SE which has an office in Galway, this week celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Ireland operation with a commitment to create an additional 150 local jobs over the next 18 months. Bill McDermott, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, formally announced the job roles at a celebration event at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium alongside Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland.
A long-standing commitment to ongoing innovation has seen SAP Ireland transform from its origins as a 30-strong company based on the single floor of an office in East Point Business Park, Dublin. It is now an Irish powerhouse, employing more than 1,880 people across 40 lines of business – from research and development to sales and customer support – housed in two offices in Dublin and Galway. Collectively, members of the team speak 47 languages and hail from almost 60 countries.
Today SAP Ireland invests significantly in digital transformation – developing technology and innovation through SAP Labs Ireland – alongside driving powerful community initiatives. These initiatives include GIRLSmart4tech, FIRST LEGO League and Skills@work, all of which aim to increase education opportunities and access to tech careers to support and grow the Irish economy.
The strategy of SAP Ireland will see the new job roles enhance its services offering alongside strengthening the Customer Center of Expertise organization. These will be the first steps in transforming its operating model to support customers in adopting SAP® product innovations and cloud solutions in a simpler, faster way.
This investment in skills and people will include determining the right skills mix to support the strategic growth areas of SAP S/4HANA®, the Internet of Things, machine learning and the public cloud. An additional focus on project management expertise and business acumen will ensure that SAP continues to deliver services and projects with predictable, repeatable and profitable outcomes.
SAP also launched its groundbreaking SAP Digital Boardroom approach today, for the first time in Ireland. SAP Digital Boardroom is a breakthrough digital concept that aims to contextualize and simplify performance reporting across all areas of business in real time. It harmonizes the view of company operations across all lines of business on multiple devices, giving users unprecedented oversight of operations and enabling them to conduct business successfully in today’s digital economy.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “I welcome SAP’s ongoing commitment to Ireland and I am delighted they have chosen Ireland as the location for a further 150 jobs. This announcement further highlights Ireland’s suitability as a destination for the tech sector. This thriving company is exactly the type of business we seek to attract. Our unemployment rate has gone from 15.2% to 6.2% and the Government will continue to work for a robust economy for all our people.”
Speaking at the event, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’ Connor T.D said “I’m hugely impressed with the achievements of SAP since they located in Ireland 20 years ago. I warmly welcome the creation of an additional 150 jobs in Dublin and Galway, which brings their total employment here to over 2,000 staff, a staggering achievement indeed. SAP’s expansion builds on their multi-skilled business activity and is vindication of the competitive advantage we can offer high technology companies. We have made strenuous efforts to ensure that the skills necessary for ICT companies like SAP are available here and this decision vindicates that policy. I congratulate all at SAP and wish them the very best for continued success in the future.”
Liam Ryan, Managing Director of SAP Labs Ireland, said: “Twenty years is an exceptional milestone in the tech industry, but SAP truly is an exceptional company. We were founded on innovation and ingenuity and from our earliest days we have put our customers at the heart of everything we do. SAP Labs Ireland is part of a 19-strong global network of SAP Labs and is at the center of our R&D investment, focused on developing and improving SAP core products, allowing SAP to innovate, grow, and succeed. The knowledge and expertise we have built stems from our employees, which is why SAP’s commitment to creating 150 new job roles in Ireland is so exciting. These roles will empower a new wave of SAP employees to drive transformational change and create people-centric solutions for businesses worldwide, ensuring Ireland remains a cornerstone of SAP’s global operations.”
Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland, said: “Ireland has developed a reputation as a great place for forward-thinking, agile and transformational technology enterprises to do business. As one of Ireland’s largest and most-established tech companies, SAP’s investment in Ireland and ongoing education initiatives have greatly enhanced Ireland’s technology ecosystem. We certainly look forward to the next 20 years.”
