The international merchant bank Goldman Sachs has made its first investment in Ireland, putting $7 million (£4.6 million) of development finance into software development company, Point Information Systems. This follows a $1 million investment in the company by Yeoman International last March. Goldman Sachs and Yeoman now hold a 10 per cent stake, but have options to increase this to more than 50 per cent over the next decade.

The company designs and develops the software that runs call centres. The business is complicated by the fact that the product must be specially adapted for each customer. Point, founded in Germany in 1989, now employs 100 people; more than half are in Dublin, with the rest staffing front offices around the world.

"This investment will enable us to accelerate our drive into the North American market," said Point's chief executive, Mr Paul Basson. "We have already established a leadership position in the European market as a provider of integrated sales, marketing and customer service software."

The company plans to use the rapid growth in the market to increase its turnover to $100 million (£66 million), within four years.