By Paul Hemsley

Technical support for companies in finance, telecommunications, health care, manufacturing, government and education will be provided through a global service centre in Sydney.

The NSW Department of Trade and Investment worked with ICT services and solutions specialist Dimension Data to build and open the $107 million centre in Macquarie Park.

Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner said the global service centre currently employs 130 people, which is expected to grow to employ more than 300 people over the next five years.

Mr Stoner said a multilingual workforce, competitive costs, reliable technology infrastructure, stable business environment and a time zone allowing companies to provide 24/7 services to global markets were Sydney’s business location advantages.

Dimension Data chief operating officer Ken Westwood said due to the projected growth in the company’s managed services and outsourcing business in Australia, a need was identified to increase capacity of its Australian global service centre.

“We had two options – one to expand our existing global services centre in Melbourne and the other to build a new centre in Sydney to support the significant growth we have had in our services business in both NSW and ACT,” Mr Westwood said.

Mr Westwood said a conversation took place with NSW Trade and Investment around October 2009, exploring the range of assistance packages available to support Dimension Data’s investment in establishing a new facility in Sydney.

“While Dimension Data is a global business, our focus is on investing in the regions in which we operate, and the partnership with the NSW Government has been instrumental in the ongoing job and investment creation through our new global services centre,” he said.

According to Mr Westwood, a range of local contractors worked on the project, which was also a condition of Dimension Data’s agreement with the NSW Government.

He said the companies included Somerville as electrical contractors; Schiavello as building contractors; and Group GSA for interior design.

“We managed the program of works ourselves, with two dedicated resources, one of whom had been involved with our relocation of our Sydney head office a number of years ago to the heritage listed Bushell’s Tea warehouse in The Rocks,” Mr Westwood said.