Jobs Boost For Derry

There was more good news on employment this week as Censys, a Londonderry outbound telemarketing centre, revealed that it has almost doubled its workforce since securing new clients outside Northern Ireland.

The company, which was launched in 2001 and is based at the University of Ulster's Science and Research Park at Magee, has recruited 20 new staff, bringing its total workforce, at the Londonderry Centre, to 46.

Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster visited the Invest Northern Ireland-backed company, in Londonderry, yesterday and said: "Censys has secured new 'blue chip' financial services' clients in Great Britain and consolidated its position as one of our most successful locally-owned telemarketing companies."

The company's focus is on business opportunities in markets outside Northern Ireland such as Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland and the USA, where it has an office in Boston.

It is being assisted by Invest NI to develop its skills' base and to grow sales outside Northern Ireland.

The Minister continued: "Encouragingly this new business has led to the creation of 20 jobs, which are already in place.

"Censys is now an important player in Northern Ireland's developing contact centre sector. It is an integral part of a developing cluster of such firms now operating successfully from the Londonderry area, including Stream International, Firstsource, GEM and HML."

She also said that Censys' success highlights the competitive benefits for contact centre operators in Londonderry: "There is a ready availability of young, well-educated and easily motivated people as well as modern accommodation and access to broadband communications," she added.

Invest NI has assisted the company through its business development and export marketing programmes.

Declan O'Donnell, Censys Managing Director, commenting on the new business, said: "Our role with the new clients is to contact their customer bases about a range of products such as savings plans, bonds, life insurance, secured loans and unsecured loans.

"They've chosen to place important business with us because of our successful track record with our existing clients in financial services and also because of the quality of staff we have here in Londonderry.

"We've developed an excellent team of agents who have a good telephone manner with potential customers, mental agility and a fair bit of tenacity.

"The new business has enabled us to promote four of our longest serving agents up to manager level, so the staff here can now see that there is real career progression available in telemarketing at Censys.

"Our business is also benefiting immensely from the practical support and expert advice provided by Invest NI's North West Regional Office particularly in areas such as international marketing and company development," he said.

(BMcC)