Accuris to invest €1.5m in R& D and create 27 jobs

ACCURIS, THE mobile-phone software development firm, will invest €1.5 million in research and development (R&D) and create 27 jobs over the next three years.

The investment is supported by Enterprise Ireland, which yesterday published the New Software Economy, a four-year strategy for the software sector.

Based on an analysis by consultants IDC, the strategy calls for the development of small, flexible and innovative technology companies that build partnerships that allow them to expand their export operations.

Accuris chief executive Aidan Dillon said the company was investing in R&D so that it would be competitive when its customers started spending again. He also said the company was changing its business model from being licence-based to pay-as-you-go.

Enterprise Ireland software division manager Jennifer Condon said it was important companies understood the business model in the industry had changed. While little in the strategy was “revolutionary”, she said it aimed to develop the Irish software sector in “a more effective and targeted way”.

The changed business model could potentially open new markets, she said, as firms that had previously shied away from paying for expensive licences tried new products on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Ms Condon said it was important that indigenous software businesses grew to a significant size, and one way for this to happen was for companies in similar sectors to co-operate. Central to the strategy is the integration of three components of the industry: multinationals such as Intel and Microsoft; approximately 700 indigenous software firms and research-funded academics.

Ms Condon said the strategy would also seek to expand the development of clusters of firms, such as those providing e-learning software, to allow the State to develop a leading position in other software areas. “We already have clusters of companies in certain sectors, and it is important that we build on them,” she said.

The strategy has set a target of revenues from the sector growing to €2.5 billion by 2013, up from €1.6 billion in 2007.

Minister for Enterprise Mary Coughlan said issues facing the sector included access to working capital and the quality of the communications infrastructure. “I am still hearing a lot from enterprise that we do not have the high-speed connectivity that we should have on the basis of being a knowledge-based economy.”

She said network coverage had expanded significantly and pointed to the awarding of the licence for managing the second metropolitan area network project last week as an example.