Up to 10 jobs could be created in Stornoway with the further development of a local IT company with aspirations to market software products across the world.

This follows the decision of Western Isles Enterprise (WIE) to back Mysterian Ltd, which has offices on Cromwell Street Quay.

The company already employs five in Stornoway and a further six on the mainland but it is intending to focus its product development and headquarters staff in Stornoway. It aims to make full use of the Internet's ability to allow staff to work globally.

The total expansion project is worth almost £400,000, with WIE involvement totalling £180,000. WIE's commitment includes buying £70,000 of shares in the growing company, as well as providing a development grant.

Two of the company's founders are Neil Finlayson, from Ness, and Malky Burns who is from Stornoway who are former pupils of the town's Nicolson Institute. They were later at university together and also worked for the internet company Iomart when it was creating and running the Madasafish Internet Service Provider from Gleann Seillach Business Park, also in Stornoway.

Neil Finlayson, who is Mysterian's technical director, said: "We are delighted to have received this investment from WIE which will help secure the future of the business and sustain its growth over the next year."

The existing staff are all trained to a graduate level or equivalent  and the new posts will demand similar qualifications.

The company has built up strong links with Lews Castle College and aims to build on a successful use of the WIE-backed Graduate Placement Scheme which enabled the firm to take on a graduate of the college's BSc Computing course last year.

Mysterian was set up in 2001 to provide consultancy services to organisations looking for IT and internet solutions to provide management and services and also to develop innovative software that would provide collaborative, team-workspace solutions, and lead to the development of software products that could be used widely, at home and abroad.

The development period has seen three products emerge. One for providing remote radiology services to hospitals has been on trial at the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway.

Radiology is unusual as a medical speciality as the doctor normally never sees the patient but only the results of x-rays and scans. This makes it particularly appropriate for remote uses and the Mysterian product aims to provide a secure collaborative software solution for the radiology team.

Another product is a Business Healthcheck system for Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) that will allow enterprise agencies across the region to use identical approaches to companies looking for assistance. It will systematically gather information about them and will also allow regular updates as the businesses progress. The third product  is designed to assist business and management consultants.

Malky Burns, who is managing director, said that Mysterian had sought to find development partners for the projects so that they could jointly finance the research. The aim was to find individual solutions which could then have a general application. For instance, links had been established with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to work on software that would assist the parents of children in Gaelic medium units. If successful, this could be applied to assisting all minority languages, or possibly any language teaching.

Donnie Macaulay, chief executive of WIE, said the development of Mysterian would create good quality, well-paid employment, in a leading edge, knowledge-based industry sector.

"The company has developed an extensive list of prospective customers and has a tested product for launching in the healthcare sector. WIE believes there are reasonable prospects for commercial viability and additional growth in a sector which has grown gradually on the Islands for several years," Mr Macaulay said.