Ness Technologies, an Israeli software giant, cut a ribbon Tuesday in Canonsburg, opening its first U.S. development center. With the new facility will come 170 new jobs over the next 12 months.
The software development center will join 15 such facilities worldwide in India, Eastern Europe and Israel, says Scott Udell, vice president, delivery. Ness launched an exhaustive study of prospective locations after determining that it needed to better serve its East Coast clients by minimizing cultural differences, geographic barriers and time-zone disparities.
After careful study, “New York didn't make a lot of sense and Pittsburgh became quite compelling,” he says. The factors included the highly educated talent pool, proximity to major universities with top computer science, information systems and engineering programs and an attractive cost of living.
Thirty employees from Ness' nearby shared-services location in Canonsburg, performing back-office functions such as human resources, legal, finance and accounting, are moving to the 20,000-square-foot center, along with about 170 new software development hires.
“Ness believes that it will be able to provide regional software engineering talent with a challenging environment with opportunity to work across different clients and industries without having to change jobs,” Ness said in a statement. “Typically these types of careers are limited to places such as the Silicon Valley, Boston, New York and Austin. Now talent from the region – or those who have come here for higher education and would like to remain and build a career and a life – can take advantage of the world-class employment opportunities and job security that Ness expects to provide in suburban Pittsburgh.”
Ness was founded in 1999 from the merger of six companies – the name means “miracle” in Hebrew. Today Ness, whose U.S. headquarters is in Teaneck, NJ, employs 7,000 worldwide and reported nearly $572 million in revenues in 2010.
Source: Scott Udell, Ness Technologies
Writer: Elise Vider