Polaris setting up application certification centre in N Ireland
To invest Rs 78 crore over the next three years
| The company has chalked out a business plan to invest 10 million pounds (about Rs 78 crore) in Northern Ireland over the next three years. The Northern Ireland government through an investment programme called 'Invest NI' will offer a grant of 1.5 million pounds (about Rs 12 crore) to Polaris to set up its facility and train the staff. |
| Besides providing cost advantages, the Belfast centre is expected to serve as a near-shore centre to meet the requirements of the company's customers in Europe. Another key factor is the availability of educated people in the island. |
| This facility will be the first green-field investment by an Indian technology company in Ireland. The centre is likely to begin operations with about 50 people by next month and the headcount is expected to go up to 150 over the next three years. |
| Addressing a press conference after signing the partnership agreement with Northern Ireland state, Arun Jain, chairman and chief executive officer, Polaris, said that the company had acquired most of the large customers in UK in the last three years and wanted to provide the near-shore centre services to the customers in that region. |
| European region accounted for 30 per cent of the company's revenue and the UK alone accounted for 28 per cent of it. Of the top ten banks in the UK, five were Polaris' customers, said Jain. |
| The Polaris centre in Belfast will be developed over three phases. Starting as a certification centre to provide independent quality assurance software testing, it would become a software development and business continuity centre in the second phase. In the third phase, it will focus on providing technical support to customers in Europe. |
| At the end of the third phase, it is likely to become a full-fledged software development centre and a Mercury-certified banking and financial application centre. |
| The company had recently entered into a tie-up with Mercury, a US-based business technology optimisation firm, to jointly develop testing performance accelerators, to cater to banking and financial services institutions. |
| Arun Jain and Leslie Morrison, chief executive officer, Invest NI, signed the financial assistance agreement in the presence of Peter Hain MP, UK secretary of state for Northern Ireland. |