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German software giant SAP (NYSE: SAP) has opened a support center in China to serve its customers in China, Japan and Korea, the company said in a statement.
The center will be based in Dalian, an industrial city in northeastern China. According to the company, 130 native speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English will comprise the initial staff, serving more than 4,200 SAP customers in the region.
SAP Worldwide Support
The workers will provide a number of services, such as online monitoring, software upgrades and remote maintenance.
The company already has support centers in Ireland, Spain, Austria and India. SAP reported that it invested EUR 10 million in the center.
The center will also serve customers worldwide as part of SAP's global 24-hour support network, known as SAP Active Global Support.
"Among all of the enterprise software providers, SAP offers one of the most comprehensive global support networks, enabling us to provide dedicated, individual service around the world and throughout each customer 
engagement life cycle," said SAG executive board member Gerhard Oswald in a statement.
Joining GE, IBM, HP
According to an SAP statement, the new center shows the company's commitment to the market in China, where it has been conducting business for 11 years and where it now employs nearly 500 workers.
Last year the company opened a research and development lab in Shanghai. That lab is one of seven regional labs, with the others located in Bulgaria, France, India, Israel, Japan and Palo Alto, California.
SAP chose to base the center in Dalian in part because of the city's international character, which will make it easier to recruit employees fluent in Japanese and Korean.
The city also boasts the Dalian Software Park, a government initiative aimed at establishing the city as a software hub. GE, IBM (NYSE: IBM), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), Nokia and Accenture already have offices there.
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