Northern Ireland attracts more outsourcing work

Government grants and low salaries are luring more companies

Business process outsourcing (BPO) specialist ICICI OneSource has become the latest India-based provider to invest in a nearshore UK site, pledging this week to create 1,000 jobs over the next two years at a number of new contact centres in Northern Ireland.

The move follows similar investment announcements in the past 18 months from Indian IT service providers Polaris and HCL Technologies and underlines Northern Ireland's growing status as an attractive nearshore outsourcing location for both call centre and IT development work.

Hugh Burden, business development director at development agency Invest Northern Ireland, said the trend was likely to continue as more firms demand their IT and BPO service providers have a mix of offshore and nearshore sites, and firms’ in-house IT departments face increasing pressure to cut costs.

Burden argued that development and call centre sites in Northern Ireland boasted operating costs 30 to 35 percent lower than equivalent facilities in the south east of England, primarily due to lower wages. "Northern Irish contact centre employees tend to earn between £12,500 and £13,000, while IT graduates start on between £14,000 and £18,000," he said.

Two high-ranked universities – Queens University, Belfast and the University of Ulster – also provide a healthy supply of technology graduates. Burden also insisted there is capacity for more call centre staff. "Two-and-a-half percent of the workforce work in call centres," he said. "That is far less than in some Scottish cities, which suggests there is spare capacity."

Firms looking to set up sites in Northern Ireland are eligible for generous incentives in the form of employment and training grants. "Grants can run to millions of pounds," said Burden.