Keeping talent at home: Northern Ireland seeks to halt developer exodus - software engineers in Northern Ireland - Field Report: Global Software

Software Magazine, Sept, 1992 by Mike Bucken

The university system of Northern Ireland has moved steadily to create substantial software engineering talent, but the government has so far been unable to create enough jobs for those graduates.

The United Kingdom member has attracted investment by major corporations, including British Telecom Plc., London; McDonnell Douglas Information Systems Ltd., St. Louis; and E.I. Du Pont de Nemours, Wilmington, Del., all of which have opened software development offices in the capital city of Belfast.

Helped by government, industry and university funding, some small software companies such as Kainos Software Ltd., Belfast, and Controlled Electronic Management Systems Ltd., Newtownabbey, have quietly sprung up in Northern Ireland, aiming to fill some niches with innovative software.

Gordon Bell, information technology executive of the Industrial Development Board (IDB) of Northern Ireland, noted that his former company ICS Computing Group Ltd., Newtownabbey a maker of applications software and development tools, has grown to $20 million without moving far beyond the British Isles.

In 1989, IDB spearheaded a move to create the Institute of Software Engineering, a government-funded research and consulting group charged initially with aiding Northern Ireland developers and later with selling its services throughout the United Kingdom, said Kenneth Thompson, directer of the institute.

Thompson said the firm wants to expand its operation into Europe and the United States, but as a U.K. government-sponsored organization, it cannot compete with private U.K-based companies. The organization was built to aid private industry, not compete with it, Thompson said. He added that the firm is instead trying to sign partnership agreements with U.K. consulting groups.

Despite efforts to create opportunities within its borders, IDB officials acknowledge that software engineering graduates from Queens University of Belfast and the University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, continue to emigrate, primarily to companies around London.

"[Northern Ireland universities] produce between 600 and 700 people a year with good technical skill% but we lose between 40% and 5(}% of the graduates each year," said John Harris, IDB senior executive of information technology. "Many move to England and Europe, many go to the U.S., and many go on to postgraduate studies."

TRYING TO RETAIN EXPERTISE

Many of the small software developers in Northern Ireland maintain they would welcome potential competition from overseas if it meant the country could retain the native expertise.

"If we can build a high-technology industry here, we can pull some of our expatriates back into the work force," said Des Lowry, managing director of CEM Systems, a start-up firm in Newtownabbey, which is developing a Unix-based hardware/software airport security system.

Alan. Gilmore, project manager at Kainos Software, a joint venture of the Queens University of Belfast and London-based computer manufacturer ICL Ltd., contends that he would continue to attract top Queens graduates even if foreign competitors started locating and hiring in Northern Ireland, given the location of the firm on the university campus. Kainos is a maker of applications for Unix-, MS-DOS-and OS/2-based computers.

Government officials acknowledge that decades-old political problems between the U.K. and those in the Republic of Ireland who believe Northern Ireland is part of their country hurt the recruitment process. However, despite periodic outbreaks of violence and terrorism in Northern Irelands cities, "we have the lowest crime rate in the U.K.," claimed Arthur Mc- Ferran, managing director of 12-yearold Logicom Ltd., Belfast, a maker of applications for computers from Wang Laberatories Inc., Lowell, Mass.

British Telecom opened a software development center in downtown Belfast because it had been unsuccessful in getting many experienced developers from Northern Ireland to move to its facilities in London and Glasgow, Scotland, said Charles Moore, director of the Belfast operation,

So in 1981, the facility was opened to develop applications for the London MIS operation of British Telecom. Today, about 200 developers are employed at the facility, Moore said.

Nynex, Inc., New York City, moved quickly to utilize the Antrim, Northern Ireland, BIS Beecem International software development unit of the London-based BIS Group following its acquisition of the technology firm two years ago, said Calvin Jones, director of the Antrim facility.

The Northern Ireland developer of custom software, called BIS Information Systems NI Ltd., sent a team of engineers to New York City to make applications for the Nynex corporate operation shortly after the acquisition, Jones said.

Officials at beth British Telecom and the Nynex unit said they are able to utilize the specialties of the local universities, which include work in the C and C languages, object-oriented technology, Unix and SQL.

Fabian Monds, dean of the College of Informatics at the University of Ulster, said his department of 1,100 students specializes in several software skills, including, "the use of software engineering in VlSI [very large scale integration] design, artificial intelligence, object orientation and [computer-aided software engineering]."