Microsoft has launched a new “permanent workspace” at the University Academy 92(UA92) campus in Trafford.
The tech giant, which it says has almost 200 people based in Manchester, said the new facility will have space for 40 people at one time.
UA92, the brainchild of former Manchester United players Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Phil Neville, offers sports, business and media degree courses.
Speaking at the launch event, Microsoft UK chief executive Cindy Rose said the new office “is an important commitment for us in terms of expanding our footprint so we can better serve our Manchester base of customers and partners”.
“It really reflects our continuing investment in the United Kingdom and our enduring commitment to the UK as a market,” she added.
Derrick McCourt, general manager of the customer success unit at Microsoft UK, told BusinessLive it opened the new space as it wanted a “flagship Microsoft office space” and a “centre for the digital skills plans that we have in the Greater Manchester area”.
Microsoft said it will keep its existing space at Bruntwood’s co-working place, Neo on Charlotte Street, into which it moved 100 people in 2017.
Mr McCourt said: “We’re planning to have both spaces because having a downtown city centre office for staff to drop into when they’re engaged with customers [is] still important to us.
“This is more designed as a permanent workspace for some of our staff who live in the area but also to have a lot of flexible meeting space so that we can run hacks with customers and co-develop product, co-develop strategy together and run events.”
When asked what operations will run from the new office, Mr McCourt said the tech giant doesn’t see individual offices as “operational”.
He explained: “We’re in a world now where staff are mobile, flexible, there’s actually not many of our people have a traditional Monday to Friday, nine-to-five, in-the-office experience.
“It’s not about having a place that would be our centre of operations, it’s having a couple of locations that give flexible space for staff to meet needs on a particular day.”
While there is no “specific job announcements to make”, the firm wanted to have a facility that makes it easy to hire talent across Greater Manchester “because there’s a real digital hub here now”.
He said: “There’s a fantastic skill base so when we’re hiring any role to work in our UK business we don’t want to be geography bound, we just want to hire where the best talent is.”
Microsoft also said it was in the process of creating a new degree apprenticeship programme in computer science in partnership with UA92.
He said: “It’s in the early stages of development, but we’re co-creating content. It has to go through approval through the University of Lancaster, but that’s the intent between our organisation is to use that as a hub to fuel apprenticeship needs locally.”
Ms Rose said the programme will “lay the foundation for the future digital degree apprenticeship programme”.
She said: “This [office] represents our commitment to really fostering the development of digital skills here in the Manchester area.
“UA92’s mission is very similar to our own, a mission to nurture talent and ambition in young people aligns beautifully with the microsoft mission to empower every person on the planet to achieve more.”
UA92 chief executive Craig Gaskell said its partnership with Microsoft is part of its “game changing” approach.
“I can’t emphasise enough how important this relationship is to us, not only do we share this physical building with Microsoft, but we share the philosophy.”
“We’re driven by employers and driven by our industries, so we don’t start designing a degree with a bunch of academics sitting around the table deciding what we’d like to do, the process starts with our industry partners.”
The launch comes after Amazon opened its new corporate office in Manchester last month, while TalkTalk, Moneysupermarket and Vodafone are among large technology companies that are increasing their presence in the region.
Mr McCourt said it was “exciting for Manchester that big organisations are setting up here and showing faith and confidence in the ecosystem”.
He said: “I’m a believer that there are ‘unicorn’ organisations somewhere in Greater Manchester and nothing would excite us more than being at the early stages with those organisations and help make those successful because it’s those organisations that will put Manchester on the map way more than Microsoft being here,” he added.
The event also heard from Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.
He said: “We are so proud that this is at the heart of Trafford borough but also at the heart of Greater Manchester.
“We did set out the goal of being the UK’s leading digital city region and I think we’re there or thereabouts.
“I think this means that we’re not just going to be the UK’s leading digital city region...but we’ve set our European ambitions and we’re going all the way in that direction.”
