The Transformative
Environment
Interview with Peter O’Neill, IBM Country General Manager
How IBM’s Irish operation reinvented itself with the help
of Irish dynamism
IBM – a name synonymous with cutting edge
technology throughout its history, first established
an entity in Ireland in 1956 to serve the local
marketplace. Since then of course, times have
changed on multiple occasions. The story of IBM
in Ireland represents for many, what the social,
governmental and business ecosystem of the nation
is all about – the ability to adapt and transform to
meet changing needs in changing times.
Peter O’Neill, Managing Director of IBM Ireland,
explains the Irish experience from IBM’s point of
view,
“One of the earliest missions that we had here in
the Irish office, was to establish a call-centre that
provided support services for US customers. We
had 90 days to find a location, hire and train staff
and get the whole show up and running. The IDA
and Fingal County Council worked closely with
us, demonstrating a “can-do” attitude and a lot of
flexibility. The mission was a success and the entire
centre was fully operational within the allotted
time-frame.”
“We couldn’t have done it without the support that
we received. It was then that the message went out
throughout the whole corporation – Ireland is a
great place to do business”.
Of course, the global and domestic environment
went through a complete transformation throughout
the ‘90s, and IBM with it.
“IBM as a whole became a more streamlined
operation, aligning its various components with
the strengths of the various markets it operated in,
thus becoming the globally integrated enterprise
it is today. As a corporation, we had to ask
ourselves, ‘where are we going?’, and so we got
out of the consumer PC business, the low - end