Manchester software developer fissara has become the latest company to receive support from the UK Government’s Chinese investment programme.
A loan of £200,000, secured through the Government’s UK Tier 1 initiative, will enable the team to invest further in developing its ground-breaking fieldforce management software.
In addition, two new positions will be created bringing the rapidly growing team to 12 and the company plans to undertake a further recruitment drive later this year.
Fissara is a software platform which allows companies to manage people, processes, stocks and schedules; delivering operational efficiencies, environmental savings, reduced costs, improved customer service and productivity.
It has drag and drop visual work schedules and interacts with real-time maps and other platforms to calculate travel times and logical routes or service schedules to maximise the available time for workforces.
Two new pilot projects are due to start with companies operating at different ends of the energy sector.
The first is with CM Utilities in Bridgend, South Wales in a programme which will use Fissara to support its service engineers.
The second is with the world’s fourth largest pipe manufacturer which provides plastic pipes and fittings for the telecoms, gas, water and wastewater sectors right around the world.
Earlier this year Fissara opened offices at The Millbrook Business Centre in Wythenshawe to accommodate its rapidly growing business and is now recruiting for a user-interface developer, a development manager and a sales and marketing apprentice.
Fissara launched in 2013 and has since won contracts with companies including Motorola, AMCO Engineering, O2 Telephónica and Scanlans Property Management and is gearing up for a rapid expansion into the civil engineering, utilities, telecoms and facilities management markets.
Director Jon Holltum said: “We are at an important point of being able to achieve rapid growth and this investment will help us to recruit more skilled people which will drive Fissara forward.
“Word is spreading about how Fissara can transform businesses, especially those which rely heavily on maintenance and service and we are having to expand our sales and marketing team to cope with the increase in enquiries from both the UK and now also overseas.
“We have been asked to look at delivering projects in the Middle East and China so this investment comes at a pivotal time for the company.”