Line of Business
Derry to be different
Letter from Belfast What Canada can learn from Northern Ireland's IT strategy12/6/2005 5:00:00 PM By: Neil Sutton
There’s a city in Northern Ireland with two names.
Some people call it Derry. Others call it Londonderry. It’s located on the Northwestern tip of N.I., close to the Irish border, and what you call it depends on your point of view. Broadly speaking, Londonderry is the town’s official name and the one you’ll see on maps and road signs. Internally it's often referred to as Derry, in part to distance it from any association with the U.K.'s capital city. In an effort to appeal to all people, some locals choose to use both names and have thus dubbed the place “Stroke City” (i.e., Derry/Londonderry).
In a very real sense, Northern Ireland’s IT community is making this sort of effort across the country and is going to lengths to draw more overseas investors to the region. The term “Gateway to Europe” was bandied about by several executives and government representatives during the three days I’ve spent here. It’s ideally positioned, just a few hours flight from every major centre in Europe. It has increased the number of university graduates with IT-based skills in recent years. There are tax incentives for companies looking to open new offices. It’s cheaper than operating an office or facility in London. Any of this sound familiar?
Canadians have been saying the same thing about our country for decades: cheaper than the U.S. but very close to it, plenty of talented labour, a favourable economic climate – generally a solid place to do business.
It was halfway through my initial meeting with a group of Northern Irish companies and investors that someone drew the comparison between their nation and ours. Belfast, for example, is an ideal nearshore opportunity for companies that want to do business in the U.K., much as someone might set up shop in Halifax in order to reach American customers. The number of call centres that have sprung up on the East Coast in recent years is testament to that fact.
What the Northern Irish are trying to avoid is becoming ghettoised as yet another offshore opportunity muttered in the same breath as India and China. Any mention of those countries, particular in the same sentence as N.I., is likely to draw some icy glances from local businessmen.
“We’re not going to compete with the Indias and the Chinas of the world and we don’t want to,” said Barry Gibson, head of international marketing for the Invest Northern Ireland group, stressing the region’s IT development pedigree.
One firm that chose Northern Ireland over those two other alternatives is the Allen Systems Group (ASG), a Floridian enterprise software firm that recently opened a development centre in N.I.
“There needed to be a central place that has an ASG badge on it,” said Martin Mellon, the company’s director of development, during one of the many meetings I attended here.
“Fifteen years ago, this place was equated with Beirut in a lot of people’s minds,” he said, referring to Belfast’s long association with political upheaval and terrorist violence. “There was always talk that people would return to Northern Ireland. It was thought of as a myth. But now people are coming back.”
Northern Ireland is on the cusp on an IT renaissance, with money and development coming to the region. How sustainable it will be depends on the nation’s commitment to economic and political stability, and its ability to both draw IT talent and keep graduates in the area.
What’s for certain is the lesson Canadians can learn from the sheer force of willpower that’s creating opportunity in the region. N.I. is well on its way to creating a new "Stroke City": Developer/Outsourcer.
Neil Sutton is ITBusiness.ca's assistant editor. Shane Schick will return on Wednesday.
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