Troubleshooter Software Adds Jobs at Agilent; Tech Targets $2bn Market for Telecoms Software
MARK SMITH, 11.23.04, 4:28 PM ET
The Herald
AGILENT Technologies, the maker of test equipment for the telecoms sector, has developed and launched a pioneering portfolio of products from its base near Edinburgh that will boost its Scottish staff headcount to more than 1000 and reap at least $1bn in extra revenue, the company revealed yesterday.
The technology - the result of two years of research and development and (pounds) 20m worth of investment into Agilent's global telecoms systems division, based at South Queensferry - has been designed to troubleshoot, monitor and manage the increasingly complex network systems of second and third-generations of mobile phone operators.
Called CCSM technologies, or the more cumbersome customer- centric service management, these products also claim to be able to shave up to 20% off costs for the operators and will help predict more accurately revenues for the likes of Orange, Vodafone and T- Mobile.
At the consumer end, the quality, speed and security of data transmissions will be increased, but the number of so-called dropped transmissions and dead zones, which can often plague wireless phone users, will be reduced.
Agilent, which currently employs 950 workers in South Queensferry, plans to add at least another 50 over the next 12 months to roll out and service its new suite of 47 products.
Tom Walls, who heads Agilent's telecoms systems division, said: "If we don't up our employment numbers, we won't be able to properly service the new products. Over the next two or three years, there is a potential $2bn market out there, and we expect to capture at least 50% of that.
"This is not something that comes in a box, but rather a major new technology that is absolutely mission critical. Our new technology is able to pinpoint network problems in real time, as they happen - as opposed to waiting for customer complaints, which is the method now, but by then it's too late to do anything about that customers' experience.
"As 3G phones and services come more and more into their own over the next year or so, the networks will become vastly more complex, and if the issues and problems are not dealt with right away, customers will just start migrating to competing services. Disasters can potentially be much worse with 3G, so they need to get it right.
"Complexity is our friend. To give an idea of how much work has gone into these products at South Queensferry - aside from building the actual hardware, which is manufactured here - the software involved writing more than 10 million separate lines of machine code."
Palo Alto, California-based Agilent was spun out of Hewlett- Packard almost five years ago, but has had a presence in Scotland since 1965.
In the telecom boom days before the crash of 2001, Agilent employed more than 1700 workers at its South Queensferry operation - most of whom were highly-skilled engineers and software developers.
However, as the sector nose-dived into its long depression - largely the result of spendthrift fibre barons who plunged the US and Europe into a network glut that spilled over into the global economy and sapped investor confidence - Agilent began to shed its Scottish workforce.
At its nadir, headcount at the South Queensferry operation fell to as low as 700.
"Three years ago, just before the downturn began to bite, we were pushing an annual turnover of almost $10bn," said Walls. "The news today is that we're back to health. In the past 12 months, our global order growth from South Queensferry has climbed 30%, and we're now (pounds) 7bn annual turnover company."
When asked if the company had considered moving its Scottish operation to eastern Europe or China, Walls insisted Agilent was here to stay.
"I'll stack up the best of the best with the intellectual quality upstairs here," he added.
"This is not a body shop. The bulk of our work here is about intelligence, R&D and quality - all things that cannot be replaced easily. So in other words, this is where we are staying."
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