SAP

On the occasion of SAP celebrating 25 years in Ireland I would like to thank the Ireland Leadership team and all SAP Ireland employees in Dublin and Galway for their expertise, flexibility, motivation and exceptional customer focus. Over the past 25 years we have helped guide customers and partners on their transformation journeys and as SAP celebrates its 50th anniversary globally we look forward to helping even more customers run better and improving people’s lives.

Liam Ryan

Managing Director, SAP Labs Ireland

SAP

SAP is the world’s largest enterprise resource planning software provider and the largest non-American software company by revenue. The company’s headquarters is in Germany and it has 180 offices worldwide. 

Deep roots for SAP in Ireland

SAP has been in Ireland for more than 25 years, having started in Dublin in 1997 with 33 employees, quickly followed by a second facility in Galway: a rare feat for the company to set up a second in-country office so quickly. Since then, SAP’s Irish presence has grown to employ more than 2,300 people across two large sites in Dublin and Galway. The latter site, in the west of Ireland, is the location for a support services centre employing close to 800 people, mostly multi-lingual tech support for the SME market in Europe. 

SAP chose a second location in Ireland because it allowed access to strong multilingual talent in a vibrant city with a slightly lower cost of living, complimenting the Dublin operation. The capital city already had a growing software engineering talent pool at the time, which has evolved with SAP and now the focus has moved to cloud engineers, in line with SAP’s cloud-focused R&D roadmap.

An evolving mandate

In 2008, SAP invested in R&D in Ireland for the first time, supported by IDA Ireland. Access to the growing software engineering talent base in Dublin was a main driver for this. The presence of so many of SAP’s customers, partner companies and key stakeholders in Ireland all support the deepening of SAP’s roots in Dublin and Galway.

The Ireland mandate from corporate SAP continues to evolve. From support services in Dublin and Galway in the first instance, Dublin now serves Fortune 500 clients across EMEA and North America, spanning functions such as sales, finance, IT and – the jewel in the crown – the ERP Centre of Excellence.

In Galway, the technical support mandate established in 2003 has evolved into cloud services, technical writing localisation, licencing, partner services and e-learning – all in a vibrant multilingual setting, where the site boasts more than 45 nationalities serving the European SMB market. 

How Ireland Helps SAP

• SAP now employs 800 people in Galway and 2,300 in total in Ireland
• Strategic site in Dublin serves Fortune 500 clients across EMEA and North America
• Cost of living and diverse workforce big pull factor into Galway
• SAP Ireland is proud of its gender diversity, with 35% female representation