Perth part of global call centre

WHEN a computer system crashes in the middle of the night somewhere in America, the first phone call for help may well be made to Perth, where it is just another client ringing during office hours.

St Georges Terrace is home to the Asia Pacific headquarters of Irish software developer Iona Technologies and the Perth base helps the Dublin company offer seamless support for its systems around the globe.

If Perth gets the call it can put its engineers to work on a problem across the globe, and if the work can’t be finished by the end of the day it may well be handed over to Iona’s Irish-based staff as they clock in around seven hours behind their Australian counterparts.

Australia’s distance from the rest of the world is ended by plea over the telephone and a few keystrokes from an office in downtown Perth.