IBM opens new Shanghai IT centre

IBM has opened a new IT services centre in China to support customers from Europe, Japan and the US.

The Shanghai global delivery centre will offer IT services for software development, maintenance and testing, and will support the main business application packages including Oracle, SAP and Siebel.

The 700-seat facility consolidates IBM's existing IT services sites in Shanghai into a single location in the Waigaoqiao free trade zone and joins IBM's other Chinese IT services centres in Dalian and Shenzhen.

Languages supported at the new Shanghai centre include English, German, Japanese and Mandarin.

Takashi Shimizu, VP of IBM China Global Delivery, said in a statement: "These skill sets, along with our multilingual staff and IBM's advanced global delivery methodologies will allow us to accelerate the development of innovative technology solutions for our clients across the globe."

Other western IT vendors are also rushing to expand their operations in China, with Unisys being the most recent to open a 1,000-seat software development facility in Shanghai.