THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
7/18/2009 7:00:00 AM
Software companies step up hiring
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BY JOE GARDYASZ
Senior Staff Writer
Two information technology companies with very different missions are poised to expand their Greater Des Moines operations.
BayTSP Inc., which provides antipiracy and business intelligence software to the digital entertainment industry, plans to fill 25 positions in Des Moines by next spring as it prepares for the industry to emerge from an economic slump.
And two multiyear federal contracts recently secured by Buccaneer Computer Systems & Services Inc. should enable that company to double its Iowa staff by the end of the summer, said the head of the company's West Des Moines division.
Both companies received approval for state funding last week from the Iowa Economic Development Board.
"We'll be close to 150 by the time we get to the end of the summer," said Buccaneeer Vice President Mike Rozendaal. With that growth, "this will be the largest office that Buccaneer has in terms of number of people all in one place."
Buccaneer established its West Des Moines division just over a year ago, and has since gone from zero employees to approximately 65. The division specializes in providing both project management and technical support for Medicare- and Medicaid-related contracts.
Last week, the company secured a $200,000 loan from the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED), with a pledge to create 53 new jobs paying an average salary of about $47,000. The city of West Des Moines has also approved a five-year, no-interest loan of $40,000.
A year ago, Buccaneer received a $120,000 grant from the IDED on a pledge to create 30 of those initial 65 jobs.
With its expansion, the company will fill up the remainder of the floor it occupies in a Regency West office building, and will lease half of an additional floor, Rozendaal said.
A wide variety of positions will be filled, from project managers to support-desk and administrative staff, he said. Buccaneer will also be hiring some high-level program management positions paying up to $100,000; those managers will work with Medicare officials to actually run the business side of the programs.
BayTSP's bid to develop an Iowa office is a second chance for the California-based company, which initially received an $800,000 loan in December 2004. It had pledged to create 75 jobs paying an average wage of $22.51 per hour over a seven-year period.
As of last year, however, the company had created just four positions at its Des Moines office, none of which met the wage threshold.
"The changes in the economy basically had us slowing down our operations," said Jim Graham, a company spokesman.
BayTSP officials renegotiated its loan agreement with the state to repay two-thirds of the original loan, with a pledge to create 25 new positions by April.
The Des Moines office will play a large part in developing services to help clients understand where their online content is being viewed, and then find new ways to make money off of those uses.
BayTSP's clients include nearly all of the major movie studios as well as many pay-per-view broadcasters, software and video game companies.
The company will be hiring software engineers and data architects as well as technical operations staff. The company's Des Moines office will be part of a worldwide system of server clusters that monitor content for clients on a 24-7 basis.
"Clients are basically telling us, 'We've spent a lot of money fighting piracy; now we're looking for new revenue streams,'" Graham said.
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Posted: Thursday, July 23, 2009
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FYI, http://www.sos.state.ia.us/CorpImages/VOLUMEW585K/W00586081.tif
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