As Chinese are raging against the French because of what happened during the Olympic Torch Relay, French business leaders have come together in Shanghai's Pudong area to welcome France's ILOG (ILOG) into the new Pudong Software Park.

"This new building demonstrates both our long-term commitment to China and our confidence in the future prospects of Shanghai. It also demonstrates our commitment to helping create a software ecosystem for the development of a world-class Chinese software market and innovation economy," said Pierre Haren, chairman and CEO of ILOG in a prepared statement. "This is our ninth year in China and we are excited to be expanding our China operations to support the growing demand for ILOG services and solutions."

The new facility will consolidate management, technical support, sales and marketing teams supporting ILOG's growing Chinese customer base from three locations in Shanghai to one location. The larger building will also house the ILOG Development Center for delivering services and custom solutions for both the domestic and international markets. The Center currently employs 60 software development professionals with plans to expand. The building also houses training rooms which can be used for customer training and events.

Over 3,000 corporations and more than 465 leading software vendors rely on ILOG's supply chain planning and scheduling applications as well as its optimization and visualization software components. ILOG was founded in 1987 and employs more than 860 people worldwide.