OVER 40 new jobs have been created at IT software and services company Equiniti ICS.
Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster announced the Belfast-based company is creating 45 new jobs with the support of Invest Northern Ireland’s Jobs Fund.
The new jobs are part of an overall expansion plan that will see the company’s HR and payroll division target the public sector, including health and the financial services sector.
The Minister said: “Equiniti ICS is one of our most successful IT software and services companies and its ongoing success is reflected in this expansion plan, which is creating 45 new jobs.
“The jobs are being supported by Invest Northern Ireland’s Jobs Fund which was set up to help companies create jobs quickly.
The ICT sector is an important driver for the economy and it is encouraging to see companies investing in growth even in these difficult times.”
Equiniti ICS specialises in IT and payroll services and currently employs 270 staff in Belfast and 100 in India. The company has enjoyed steady growth for the last 10 years and is now aiming for a 30 per cent increase in revenues over the next two years.
David Mawhinney, Managing Director of Equiniti ICS, said: “Our strategy for growth includes targeting larger payroll outsourcing deals in the private sector, and becoming the largest private sector supplier of payroll services to the NHS. We are also developing software for case and document management based on Microsoft technologies for financial services organisations and the public sector.
“To support this we needed more staff in our payroll division and the support from Invest NI has allowed us to put those staff in place quickly and to carry out extensive marketing activity to help us break into new markets.
BT’s state-of-the-art contact centre, also supported by the Invest NI’s Jobs Fund has been officially opened.
BT’s major investment, which created over 100 new jobs, was announced in May this year. It also received training support from the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) under its Assured Skills programme.
Performing the opening of the contact centre in Belfast was Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster.
The Minister said: “BT has a long history of investing in Northern Ireland and selected Belfast as the location of its new contact centre due to the calibre of staff available in Northern Ireland and the support offered by Invest NI and DEL.
“The jobs created contribute £2.9million a year in salaries to the economy which is a welcome boost for the business sector in Northern Ireland and for our economy as a whole.
“Invest NI’s Jobs Fund has proved extremely effective in enabling BT to progress and complete its recruitment in under nine months. The Fund has created over 1,750 new jobs across Northern Ireland to date and I would encourage other export focused businesses that are looking to grow and create jobs to get in touch.”
The Jobs Fund aims to create 4,000 jobs by 2014.