Jobs boost as Dell expands Scottish unit

DELL'S top man in Europe has announced expansion plans for Scotland that could see the American technology giant's jobs tally at its Glasgow operation grow from 800 to as many as 1,000.

Stephen Murdoch - a native Scot who controls Dell's newly-combined 5.6 billion large enterprise and public sector business unit - said the company was filling roles in Scotland at a rate of 35 vacancies per month.

Murdoch, a vice-president whose brief - along with Europe - also covers the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), added that he expects to fill significant numbers of IT specialist posts this year.

He said: "They involve a concentration of high-salaried and more skilled technical specialists in whom we are investing heavily in education and training."

The extra staff are needed because employees at Dell's Glasgow City Park headquarters are increasingly being called on to handle EMEA-specific marketing and sales support queries and related technical work.

New roles include business developers and analysts, "IT solutions architects", technical managers, graduate scheme trainees and customer care consultants.

On a recent visit to Scotland, Murdoch also inspected the Edinburgh operation of SecureWorks, which Dell acquired in January.

Up to 30 IT graduate-level security developers and coders are being hired and more expansion is planned as it beefs up its online security offering, especially where it involves the burgeoning specialist area of digital forensics.

Globally, Dell is converting itself from being perceived solely as a PC and laptop hardware manufacturer to a technology services and cloud infrastructure equipment provider to both the public and private sectors.

Within this remit, the company is re-vamping its supply chain to increase the proportion of servers, data storage devices and tech consultancy services that it sells. Each of the areas is more profitable than Dell's traditional and basic PC business.

Murdoch said: "Success is down to a number of key elements, including our solutions and services work, a continual transfer of our core client and end-user desktop and notebook PCs, and delivery of products that have specific end users in mind."

Dell is trying to move past its recent troubles, when the company paid 61 million to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to settle claims that the firm had misrepresented its accounts between 2003 and 2007.

The firms's most recent results showed a 177 per cent rise in its net income for the quarter ending 29 April to 580m and profits totalling 209m.

Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest, said that Dell has the "potential to sustain margins," and should be able to maintain its "impressive" financial performance.