Ipswitch has opened a permanent EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) centre of excellence at Citypoint, Galway, Ireland.

The permanent office location signifies a substantial investment for the company and supports its EMEA growth strategy. Twelve research and development, sales and technical support team members will initially move in with a plan to increase headcount up to 60 in line with the positions announced in March 2016.

The expanded EMEA core team, based in Galway, will provide local language and local time zone technical and sales support to their in-country partners and customers across Europe. They will also provide central support for the company’s in-country teams across Germany, UK, France, Italy and the Middle East. The centre will host a dedicated partner and customer demonstration suite for sales, which will facilitate events and training.

Ipswitch plans to hire skilled employees from within the local community to facilitate its growth. The company is partnering closely with both the National University of Ireland Galway and Galway Mayo Institute of Technology Business & Computer Science faculties for graduate opportunities.

Michael Hack, SVP of EMEA Operations commented: “In October 2015 we set an aggressive target to double our EMEA business by 2018. We’re on track and seeing double digit growth. Then in March 2016, when we first set up a support and operations centre in Ireland in shared offices where we planned to hire nine people by the end of 2016. Under John McArdle’s leadership, Ipswitch EMEA Channel Director, we’re already well ahead of plan with 12 employees within several functions including R&D, technical support, sales and technical writing roles. We have a further two additional positions approved to hire this year, which will bring the office to 14 employees or 55% higher that our original plan. This fast track growth now means that Ipswitch needs a permanent office space that we can expand into. We plan to create the announced 60 jobs that will be based in the new Galway office over the next five years.

“The opening of our state of the art office in a prime city centre location will allow us to scale to grow the needs of our large client base and attract the talent we need for our business. Having a dedicated senior and technical team in the heart of Europe will have a big impact on the level of support and business development we can offer our partner network and customers across the region, ultimately driving growth.”

The development is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation through IDA Ireland. The privately owned company which has its headquarters in Lexington, Massachusetts, employs over 300 people in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Ipswitch software has been installed on more than 150,000 networks in 168 countries, with customers including Hamleys, NHS Wales, Cambridgeshire County Council and Community Integrated Care. Ipswitch already has research and development centres in Germany, Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia, and Madison, Wisconsin.

Ipswitch IT and network management software provides secure control over business transactions, applications and infrastructure. The vendor’s unified infrastructure and applications monitoring software provides end-to-end insight, is staggeringly flexible and simple to deploy. Its information security and managed file transfer solutions enable secure, automated and compliant business transactions and file transfers for millions of users.

Performing the official opening at the company’s new offices this afternoon, the Mayor of Galway, Councillor Noel Larkin, said: “This move by the company to these larger, permanent premises represents a substantial investment and commitment by the company to Galway city and region. I am pleased that the region’s talented local workforce and supportive business environment has helped Ipswitch get off to a strong start here and I wish them every success in the future.”

IDA’s Regional Business Development Manager for the West, Catherina Blewitt, said: “IDA is delighted to see Ipswitch confirm its commitment to Galway with this move to permanent offices, allowing the company to grow its staff up to the full complement of 60 jobs announced in March and allowing scope for further growth. The arrival of this global IT management software company has added considerably to the region’s reputation as a major technology hub. We look forward to supporting the company in its future growth and wish them continued success here.”