76 new jobs announced for the South East

Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton TD today announced 76 new jobs at two new companies in Kilkenny and Waterford.

Bluefin Payment Systems, which provide a secure payment platform for merchants, independent software vendors (ISVs) and financial institutions is to establish a Technology and Operations Centre in Waterford city creating 40 new jobs over the next 3 to 5 years.  

CipherTechs, Inc., the privately held information security services provider headquartered in New York is to establish its EMEA headquarters in Kilkenny creating 36 new jobs over five years at its Security Operations Centre.

Both developments are supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation through IDA Ireland. CipherTechs was introduced to Ireland through ConnectIreland, the company responsible for delivering the Government’s Succeed in Ireland initiative as part of the Action Plan for Jobs, in association with IDA Ireland.

Making the announcements, Minister Bruton said: “At the heart of our jobs plan is accelerating jobs growth in every single region of the country. The South East has performed extremely well in recent years, with the fastest rate of job-creation of any region in the country in the period since we launched our Action Plan for Jobs in 2012, with a total of more than 25,000 extra jobs created in the region since then. This is a massive testament to the ingenuity of people and businesses in the region, who have delivered this result in the face of massive historical jobs challenges. Today’s announcement that these two companies are creating 76 jobs in Kilkenny and Waterford, with support from my Department through IDA, is a great boost for the region, and I wish them every success”.

Bluefin is initially establishing a 7 x 24 Network Operating Centre (NOC) at Cleaboy Business Park in Waterford, responsible for monitoring the company’s security and payment processing platforms. Ongoing growth at the Waterford location will be fuelled by information technology, customer support and sales personnel to support the existing North American market and planned growth in Europe.

Bluefin expects to collaborate closely with the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) located in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) to leverage their experience and expertise in software and start-ups.

General Manager of Bluefin’s Irish Operation is Waterford native Elaine Fennelly.  With her at today’s announcement was Bluefin’s CEO John M. Perry who said: “The dynamic business environment in the Republic of Ireland made choosing it for our first European location an easy decision. Our focus is on cutting-edge consumer data security technologies. Our Waterford location will be critical to our operations in North America and as we expand into Europe at a time when more and more companies are partnering with Bluefin to protect themselves from hackers and damaging data breaches.”

CipherTechs provides security solutions for businesses in areas of IP networking, firewalls, application security, risk assessment, traffic management, encryption, redundancy and strong authentication across Legal, Financial Services, Government, Media & Advertising, Education and Telecommunications sectors.

The Security Operations Centre (SOC) will complement the company’s existing SOC managed services in New York, facilitating intelligence sharing with US colleagues identifying emerging threats overnight. Cipher Tech’s technologies allow the company to monitor and capture data going in and out of clients networks. Data is collected and analysed by the SOC to quickly identify irregular behaviours or patterns.

Speaking at the announcement in Kilkenny, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer Niccolo Alicandri said: “I could not be more excited about our investment in Kilkenny. Ever since we started the internal discussions for expansions towards the European Union, Ireland was always a prime target for us. Once we started working with the LEO and IDA, Ireland jumped to the top of the list. The support from Dublin, Kilkenny and the local IDA reps in New York City made this much easier than we ever could have expected. As the world’s need for better, smarter and more efficient information Security intelligence grows, so will CipherTechs and our Security Operations Centre here in Kilkenny.”

Joanna Murphy, CEO of ConnectIreland said: “It is fantastic to see CipherTechs, an incredibly well established company, choosing Kilkenny for their EMEA HQ. We are proud to have helped secure another regional project, particularly in our local county. It means a lot to be able to welcome CipherTechs to Kilkenny.

CEO of IDA Ireland Martin Shanahan welcomed both announcements, saying” CipherTechs will act as a valuable reference seller for IDA in working to attract high growth cyber security companies to regions, while Bluefin will add to a growing cluster of Financial Services companies in Waterford and the South East, confirming the region as a prime location for such business. I wish both companies every success. Regional development is a core focus for IDA Ireland and these announcements show that progress is being made.”