Web consultancy plans 100 hires
Fusion Alliance renews an expansion push that it launched in 2008
Executives with web-consulting firm Fusion Alliance said Tuesday that the 100 new information technology jobs the company is creating will pay higher-than-average salaries.
The company now employs about 175 people in Indianapolis and will be hiring information technology professionals with at least eight to 10 years of experience, said Chief Executive Officer Doug Brown. The hires will take place over the next five years, with about 20 staffers hired each year.
He would not disclose the salary range of the jobs but said they’ll be above average in the IT field.
The jobs “run the gamut,” Brown said, including project managers, business analysts, software developers and web architects.
“This is a good day for the brain gain in Indiana,” said Gov. Mitch Daniels, who attended the announcement along with Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.
The company will invest more than $2.2 million to lease and equip more space at its headquarters in the 7600 block of Woodland Drive, north of West 71st Street. The state’s Indiana Economic Development Corp. will provide $1.5 million in tax credits when the jobs are created, and the city of Indianapolis is considering a property tax abatement for the company.
In early 2008, Fusion announced plans to add more than 110 jobs by 2010, but that projection was derailed by the economy. The IEDC had offered the company up to $250,000 in training grants for new and existing workers, but Fusion used only $50,000 of that money, Brown said, and added 18 jobs. He stressed that those funds were educational credits and not tied to the number of jobs the company planned to add.
The IEDC’s $1.5 million this time is in the form of prorated EDGE tax credits, which gives the state protection if jobs aren’t created. EDGE stands for economic development for a growing economy, a tax credit program that rewards companies for creating jobs in Indiana and remaining here for at least two years.
“These tax credits only get realized after these jobs get created,” Brown said.
Providing services for financial, life science and energy companies has helped the company grow from six employees when it was founded in 1994 to about 200 it now has in its local and Cincinnati offices. Fusion Alliance performs tech-based services such as redesigning websites and creating more effective inventory management systems.
Other options instead of expanding in Indianapolis were considered, Brown said, but ultimately the tax incentives offered by the state were a big draw.
Indiana has the largest percentage increase in private sector jobs in the country this year at 2.1 percent, accounting for 10 percent of total U.S. private sector job growth, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Hat World and AIT Laboratories recently announced expansions in the Northwest Indianapolis area, adding more than 730 new jobs.
“We’ve got to keep that going,” Daniels said.
Brown said the company’s long-term goal is to expand into other markets. Prominent local clients include Eli Lilly and Co., Sallie Mae and Midwest ISO.
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