Why international tech companies are investing in Ireland as a long-term strategic base

Guest post by Kieran Collins; VP, Global Technical Support Park Place Technologies

Ireland is widely recognised for its business-friendly environment, highly educated and skilled workforce, and strategic location. These advantages make it an attractive destination for international tech companies.

We chose Cork as our EMEA Operations Centre due to the region’s thriving tech cluster. This provides us with access to a rich talent pool and opportunities for collaboration with other companies and networks, such as the Tech Industry Alliance (TIA). We are committed to helping our employees build their careers with us, as developing our people is crucial to our success. Additionally, the quality of life in Cork is a significant factor in our decision.

We received substantial support from the IDA while developing our EMEA strategy, and our relationship with them remains strong to this day.

The benefits of tapping into Ireland’s diverse and educated talent pool

Diversity is essential for innovation, collaboration, and performance. It naturally occurs within our team, thanks to the talent pool available locally. Our team comprises individuals with varying experience levels, opinions, and cultures. Over the past few years, we have expanded our services from English to include German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and we plan to further extend into other languages and markets.

How workplace culture and community engagement are becoming key drivers of success

We all know that culture is key, especially in a rapidly growing team that continually adds to our services and product portfolio. Change is constant, and the appetite to grow within our team is remarkable.

A positive work experience, a sense of belonging, and knowing that you are making a difference are crucial for team morale and long-term retention. At Park Place Technologies, we have an active social circle with regular events, which helps welcome new team members. I love seeing our team working and collaborating every day. To validate this, we were recently recognised by Great Place To Work, with two certifications in Ireland, for Best Workplaces™ in Tech and Best Workplaces™ for Health and Wellbeing.

We value community engagement and feel a responsibility to demonstrate our community values. We have relationships with local schools (we recently ran our inaugural Transition Year program), regularly interact with local colleges (UCC & MTU), and have a strong intern and university hiring program. Additionally, we support local clubs and have ‘give back’ days to allow our team to support causes important to them.

Lessons learned from building out EMEA operations in the Irish market

Ireland offers numerous advantages, including location, language, workforce, diversity, quality of life, technical skills, and more. The vibrant local tech cluster means that attracting talent requires demonstrating a rewarding workday and fantastic growth opportunities.

We started in Ireland in 2018 as a Technical Support team and have since evolved into a centre of excellence with teams working in Client Services, Sales, Data Engineering, Managed Services, Solution Delivery, Pricing, Area Operations, Remote Professional Services, Customer Onboarding, Field Engineering, and Technical Support.

I strongly recommend not doing this in isolation. We regularly reach out to our network and peer companies for support. We have also become increasingly active in professional networks, which helps build our brand and allows us to learn from and collaborate with similar companies.

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