The tidy port of Largs, on the Firth of Clyde, is best known as the site of a bloody battle in 1263, when the Scots scored a crucial victory against Viking invaders.
Local wits suggest that a new invasion is under way, this time of call centre staff working at IBM's site just up the coast in Greenock.
IBM has brought nearly 600 foreign staff to Scotland under a scheme to centralise telephone orders and technical support for customers around the world.
Several large rooms in IBM's sprawling complex are full of desks with little national flags over them. Qatari, Portuguese, Swedish and Zimbabwean telephonists sit side by side, taking orders and offering advice to their customers back home. The mixture of accents and languages makes the place sound like a miniature United Nations.
Altogether, Greenock serves customers in 70 countries, with staff speaking 20 languages.
Site director Charles Morrison says: "Traditionally, all this was done within individual countries but much of it has been centralised here. We obviously can't get the number of people we want speaking native languages from here in Scotland, so we recruit them from overseas."
Knock-on effects
One of the consequences is that clusters of same-nationality staff have set up home in some areas - such as the Scandinavians in Largs. There has also been a knock-on effect for local education - IBM is sponsoring special certificates in schools to try to encourage better development of language skills.
IBM's call centre is typical of a trend away from large-scale manufacturing of electronic commodities towards specialised activities, which are adding more value.
By putting all its staff together, IBM can ensure that they all learn from each other - particularly when answering customers' problems. It is also cheaper for IBM to run one large call centre than lots of small ones around the world.
An rising number of inquiries are arriving by email but Mr Morrison says that trend has its limits: "Most members of the public still like to talk to someone."
Looking back
When IBM began production at Greenock in 1953, manufacturing was mostly of typewriters, printers and other basic office equipment. But over the years, as soon as products have become "volume" goods which can be cheaply made through automated processes, production has shifted overseas to countries with cheaper workforces.
In 1981, IBM started making personal computers in Greenock but much of the basic hardware is now assembled at sites in developing countries. The group's Scottish workforce has moved on to more specialised computers - such as large-scale servers for businesses or ThinkPad laptops.
Mr Morrison says the other main activity is to provide bespoke computers tailored to the individual needs of big customers. IBM also provides e-commerce consultancy - the company likes to consider itself "the world's biggest dot.com".
Greenock has seen a number of other new entrants to snap up some of the workforce laid off by its declining docks in recent years. Among the other big employers are One2One and Royal Bank of Scotland, which have call centres in the town.
