Belfast Charms Irvine Software Maker
By CHRIS CZIBORR
Belfast may not be the first choice for businesses looking to set up an overseas office.
But Irvine-based California Software Corp. says it’s delighted with the 10 software developers at its office in Northern Ireland’s capital.
The company acquired the office,previously Software Ireland,two years ago from Marietta, Ga.-based UniComp Inc.
The Belfast site hasn’t seen any violence since California Software acquired the unit, Chief Executive Bruce Acacio said. But he said the office has closed temporarily during what’s known as the “silly season” of summer protests.
“We think the business community there is pretty rational and seems to function quite well,” he said. “But during the silly season we have to assume that we’ll have to shut down for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately that was the case this year.”
The company is planning to double its Belfast staff roster in the next two years, Acacio said.
That’s because Northern Ireland,like its neighbor Ireland,has developed a relatively inexpensive and high-quality technology labor force.
Ireland began attracting tech companies in the 1980s.
The selling points weren’t lost on executives from Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Oracle Corp.: a well-educated workforce, low wages and low tax rates. Those companies and others set up plants and, later, research and development centers.
Northern Ireland, while less politically stable than Ireland, is becoming more like its beloved neighbor.
“There’s an astonishingly good labor pool in Northern Ireland,” Acacio said. “It’s a very educated workforce. They all obviously speak English as a first language, which makes things a lot easier for us. Our costs are lower and the work ethic is stronger than in many Western European markets.”
California Software’s labor costs are lower, Acacio said, because income-tax deductions,at 18% to 20% of salaries,are much lower than rates of up to 50% in France or Belgium.
“The government obviously wants business,” he said.
Although home prices have skyrocketed recently, workers in Belfast still pay a relatively low amount on housing.
The average price of a Belfast dwelling is about $155,000,a lot less than greater London’s $365,000 or even Dublin’s $230,000.
“Our workers’ cost-of-living is about 30% lower than what it would be in the U.S. and about 40% lower than Western Europe,” Acacio said.
All of California’s Belfast workers are software developers supporting the Irvine operation. The company also has operations in Paris, Brussels and Richmond, Va.
“The European market for our products is growing faster than the U.S.,” Acacio said.
Most of the Belfast workers are Protestant, Acacio said, though the company makes a point of not asking workers about their religious beliefs.
California Software counts 53 employees in total, including 21 in Irvine. The company develops loan-processing software for financial companies and “migration” software that converts IBM applications to Windows, Linux and Unix formats.
