University supports Derby software company’s expansion plans

The University of Derby’s Invest to Grow programme is supporting Derby-based company, CommonTime, in their continued business growth with an award of £800,000.

The successful software company, based at Pride Park in Derby, will invest the money into its highly functional and innovative core product, mDesign.

mDesign enables organisations to develop their own business process mobile applications and deploy them across their organisation, seamlessly integrating with back office databases and management information systems.

With the support from Invest to Grow, CommonTime will also undertake two projects to build upon the market position it has created; the CommonTime Growth Project to accelerate its sales and marketing investment, and the CommonTime Research and Development (R&D) Project to maintain CommonTime’s market leading product position.

As a result of the funding to support the Growth and R&D Projects, 30 new, full-time, permanent jobs will be created over the next two years.

Ian Knight, Chief Executive Officer at CommonTime, said: “We are proud to be working in partnership with the University of Derby’s Invest to Grow programme. Securing the financial support from the project will have a significant impact on our growth plans for 2016 and beyond.

“It will allow CommonTime to take the mDesign mobile application development platform to the next level in terms of technical capability, market presence and industry competitiveness.”

Margaret Bruce, Chair of the Invest to Grow Strategic Investment Panel and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Derby, added: “We are pleased to support the growth plans of CommonTime.

“The investment will allow the company to undertake important research and development work and to bring forward their expansion plans, leading directly to the creation of high quality jobs.”

The University of Derby secured £16 million last year from the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), to support business growth in the region by investing in companies, as well as providing access to its extensive range of wider resources including academic expertise and technology.