The Bray-based company, International Translation and Publishing (ITP), yesterday formally established an operation in Beijing to provide localisation services for the rapidly-growing Chinese hardware and software markets.
ITP chief executive, Mr Finbarr Power, who founded the company with borrowed capital of £500 less than ten years ago, said the occasion represented a major personal achievement.
The venture by ITP, a 90 per cent subsidiary of industrial holding company DCC, is also a major step in Mr Power's goal of establishing the computer translation company into a global concern offering international services.
Localisation involves the conversion of software, on-line help systems and related documentation from one language, usually English, to another.
The expansion of ITP to Beijing is a prime example of how Irish companies specialising in technology can exploit niche markets in the Far East without risking major resources.
"We see ourselves as a pipeline between US technology companies and what must be the most exciting marketplace in the world today," Mr Power told a reception attended by Chinese government officials and computer journalists in the Aero-Space & Great Wall Building.
Over the coming months the company has plans to create a software engineering centre to support other Asian countries, which would place ITP among the world leaders in software localisation, he said. And as part of their development, they hoped to be able to translate software from Chinese to other languages of the world.
Mr Jim Flavin, chief executive and deputy chairman of DCC, told the reception that DCC was committed to supporting ITP, which has been operating in the US and Europe and which in February opened an office in Tokyo that now employs 29 people.
"The establishment of the Chinese office is a further step in DCC's long-term strategy to provide a range of services on a global basis to the computer hardware and software industry," said Mr Flavin.
The formation of a DCC SerCom division in Beijing will allow the company to offer printing, media, replication, packaging, kitting and warehousing and distribution services in conjunction with other DCC SerCom division subsidiaries.
The new venture is fully owned by DCC SerCom and will be managed by ITP personnel. DCC SerCom Beijing will initially employ 10 full-time staff, including both Chinese and Western personnel organised in project management, translation, software engineering and desk-top publishing teams. Staff numbers are expected to exceed 15 by the end of the first year of trading.
Together ITP Japan and DCC SerCom Beijing will support the local Asian software markets as well as US and European software developers wishing to localise products for Asian language markets.
ITP has sales offices in Boston and San Francisco, translation services throughout continental Europe and Asia, and an engineering facility in Bangalore, India. Services offered by ITP include software, multimedia and website localisation as well as related services, including software "doublebyte enablement" and technical writing.
ITP is 10 per cent owned by Forbairt, the business development agency. DCC is listed on the Dublin and London stock exchanges with a market capitalisation of £305 million.
