Industry & Business

BM (NYSE: IBM) has announced it is to expand its IBM Ireland Analytics & Solutions Lab to advance cloud social collaboration and HR analytics software that help organisations build and maintain a smarter workforce.

New jobs will be created for high value software engineering roles at the development lab which has offices in Dublin, Cork and Galway. Recruitment for graduate and experienced computer scientists is expected to start in the coming weeks.

This project is supported by the Department of Jobs through IDA Ireland.

IBM Smarter Workforce solutions combine the power of analytics and workforce science, with market-leading talent management and social collaboration solutions. By putting relevant data and expertise into the hands of business leaders they help companies to attract, engage, develop and retain the best talent.

Welcoming today’s announcement, the Tánaiste Joan Burton said:

“IBM has long-established roots in Ireland, having first established here in 1956, and is an excellent employer. Today’s announcement is another very significant statement of confidence in Ireland as a country that supports cutting-edge companies and helps them to grow. This latest expansion will contribute to further innovation by IBM, and contribute to Ireland’s continuing economic and employment recovery”. Tánaiste Joan Burton

“The Ireland Lab together with our research and development labs around the world are helping companies tap into the power of social networking to transform the way they work and innovate over their competitors,” saidDebbie Landers, IBM General Manager, Kenexa & Smarter Workforce. “By combining social, behavioural science and analytics in the cloud, we give businesses a clear path to empower their most valued asset – employees.”

Welcoming today’s announcement, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, who has met senior IBM executives on multiple occasions both in the USA and Dublin since taking office, said: “Data analytics is a key area which we have targeted as part of our Action Plan for Jobs, and in recent years we have seen a strong performance in this sector. IBM is of course a world-leading company and a household name in tech, and today’s announcement that it is expanding its high-end analytics and solutions labs in Ireland and creating new jobs here is very welcome news. I wish Debbie and the team every success with this expansion”.

According to a recent IBM study that surveyed Chief HR executives representing 18 industries, many businesses are not taking full advantage of the insights delivered by workforce big data and analytics. The study also found that human resources executives are in the early stages of applying social approaches within their organisation.

IBM Kenexa Talent Insights, powered by IBM Watson Analytics, allows organisations build deep insights into their HR data.  IBM Kenexa BrassRing on Cloud is a global leader in applicant tracking systems and is used by many large and successful organisations around the world to attract, engage and hire top talent. IBM Smarter workforce is offered as a suite of capabilities hosted on IBM’s Cloud.

In creating a smarter workforce, organisations can resolve problems before they arise to help improve customer service, drive innovation to bring products and services to market faster, and increase sales by building new skills and linking the right experts to the right clients.

“IBM has a long history in Ireland where it has constantly evolved as a business to suit client needs. IBM takes advantage of Ireland’s highly-skilled ICT workforce in the areas of cloud computing and analytics research to further advance the capabilities of businesses in Ireland and around the world.  Seeing a company like IBM expand here in Ireland sends out a very powerful message to other ICT companies across the world”. IDA Ireland’s Martin Shanahan