IBM (IBM) today opened a new global delivery center in Shanghai to address the growing global demand for the delivery of application services.

The center will offer IT services in English, Japanese, Mandarin, and German, to clients from Japan, Europe and North America.

The Shanghai Center builds on IBM's experience in the timely delivery of quality IT services for business application development, maintenance, testing and solution management. Leading package solutions, such as SAP, Oracle, Siebel, mainframe and e-business applications will also be supported through the center.

"This center will harness the skills we have developed through servicing both domestic and international clients," said Takashi (Ken) Shimizu, Vice President of IBM China Global Delivery. "These skill sets, along with our multilingual staff and IBM's advanced global delivery methodologies will allow us to accelerate the development of innovative technology solutions for our clients across the globe."

The center will have a capacity of more than 700 seats, consolidating IBM's existing delivery sites in Shanghai into a single location in the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone. Covering 84,000-square-feet, the Center complies with globally benchmarked security guidelines driven by the IBM Control Access System (CAS) level 1 Security Standards. The center has also been assessed at SEI CMMI Maturity Level 5, the highest in the industry.

Together with IBM's Dalian Center and Shenzhen Center, both opened over the last year, the Shanghai Center forms part of IBM's China Global Delivery Network. IBM's global network consists of service delivery centers in the United States, Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, England, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.