Melbourne has beaten out fierce rival Sydney and other metropolitan centres to become the home of CSC’s new $78 million facility.
Located at in the Docklands precinct the new facility draws together 450 CSC staff from around Victoria into one place.
“Some of our key customers, BHP Billiton, GE Money, Worksafe Victoria, are Melbourne based so it makes sense to be nearby,” CSC chief financial officer, Wayne Banks said. “Some of our other customers, like ANZ, we are now literally a stone’s throw away from with the new facility.
“The amenities that the Victorian Government has put in place are particularly good. Staff come to work by train, tram, and lots of bicycles – we put lots of showers and lockers in so people can ride to work. We actually even have someone who paddles his kayak to work.”
The announcement follows on from other significant investments in the state by high-profile ICT companies. These include: NBN Co’s engineering headquarters; Wipro, which unveiled a development centre in Melbourne to provide consulting, software development, testing and business process services; and Bell Labs at the University of Melbourne with a new telco research centre.
A recent IT job recruitment survey also indicated available roles had doubled in the past three months in Victoria, whereas inter-city rival, Sydney experienced minimal growth.
“I think the state of NSW needs to lift its game in terms of what it does for private enterprise,” Banks said. “We see expansion in Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland and heavily on the back of both progressive state governments and the natural resources boom. As an IT business in those sectors we are gravitating to where those customers are and where the business is.”
CSC also refurbished its outer Melbourne suburb, Clayton, data centre, which provides services to Defence and other Federal agencies.