Software developer Cora Systems to create 70 jobs by month’s end

Software developer Cora Systems will have created 70 jobs by the end of this month as US opportunities boost the Co Leitrim company’s growth.

Based in Carrick-on-Shannon, Cora’s software allows manufacturers, engineers and government organisations to manage big programmes through a single platform. Its systems handle about 600,000 projects at a time in more than 50 countries.

John Fitzgerald, chief financial officer, said on Tuesday that the company will have created 70 jobs by the end of this month, following its pledge a year ago to hire 300 new staff.

Almost half the jobs will be at its US office in Atlanta, Georgia. The Irish company has won contracts from two leading aerospace and defence companies, which it cannot name, and work from the US government.

PTSB most exposed Irish lender to competitive threat from Spanish move into market

---

Stella Li of Chinese car maker BYD: ‘We don’t want to engage in a price war’

---

Will consumers benefit from Aviva entering the Irish health insurance market?

---

The world’s richest countries must invest in effective, cheap technologies to tackle climate change

---

“Around 70 per cent of our revenues are US-based now,” said Mr Fitzgerald. He noted that one of its aerospace clients calculated that Cora’s system was saving it up to $200 million a year. He said this was the competitive advantage that being able to view real-time progress on big projects through a single platform gave the business.

Cora’s products streamline and centralise all the data customers need to monitor projects and complete them on time and on budget.

The business will have created more than half the new jobs at its Carrick-on-Shannon base and in the northwest. In the Republic it has won the contract to provide Irish Rail with software to manage its capital spending projects.

Other Irish customers include renewable energy group Aer Soleir, which does most of its business outside the State. In Britain it numbers the National Health Service among its clients.

Cora focuses on aerospace and defence, biopharmaceuticals and healthcare, engineering and construction. Project-management software demand in those industries is $9.5 billion (€8.7 billion) a year. Cora expects its growth to outstrip that of those markets as a whole, according to Mr Fitzgerald.

Typically a business spends about €500,000 a year on project-management software, while big enterprises or organisations could pay €5 million to €10 million.