Victoria attracts 400 more IT jobs

Victoria has continued its role as Australia's IT honey pot, following an announcement from Vertex that it will establish its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Melbourne, creating 400 local jobs.

IT outsourcing provider Vertex has announced it will set up its Asia-Pacific headquarters in the IT honey pot of Victoria, creating 400 jobs.(Honey jar image by Nic McPhee, CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Melbourne headquarters marks Vertex's second Victorian facility established in 2010 after the IT outsourcing company created 600 jobs in Ballarat in June.

Phil Allan, Vertex's Asia-Pacific chief executive officer, said that the new facility will allow the company to take advantage of local talent and extend its global reach. Vertex already caters to 45 million customers globally.

Victorian Premier John Brumby said today that the new Vertex facility brings the number of Victorian IT jobs created in 2010 up to 2400.

John Lenders, Victoria's ICT minister, said that the Vertex announcement is a demonstration of the state's potential for growth in the ICT sector and threw his support behind the National Broadband Network.

"We are clearly Australia's ICT leader and this announcement demonstrates that Victoria has the best skills, infrastructure and economy for business investment and we are proud to help create thousands of Victorian jobs," said the minister.

The premier echoed the sentiment, saying that the roll-out of the National Broadband Network is crucial.

"We don't know the outcome yet of the Federal Election, but what we do know is that national broadband will drive tens and tens of thousands of new jobs in our state," he said.

In June, Victoria saw the local expansion of virtualisation specialist VMware and scientific facility Enex TestLab, which led to the creation of almost 100 jobs.

Vertex is the latest to carve out a presence in the state to further its business in IT technical support, outsourcing, sales and marketing operations.