By John Edison
Herald Staff Writer - 06/08/2007

A Twin Cities-based tech company hopes to add about 80 high-paying jobs between Grand Forks and Cooperstown, N.D., in the next three to four years.

Don Roepke, CEO of Datacom International, formally announced an expansion into Grand Forks and Cooperstown this morning at UND's Center for Innovation.

"Over a period of 12 to 18 months we would have two divisions. One division in Cooperstown. One division in Grand Forks," he said.

The company already employs four workers in Cooperstown for its dataSIGN division, which caters to the sign manufacturing industry, and has started hiring workers for both communities.

The average annual salary for the new jobs is in the $55,000 to $60,000 a year range. Datacom will initially operate out of the Center for Innovation in Grand Forks, before eventually relocating to a larger facility. The company provides business software solutions for the manufacturing industry.

Its product is based on the software-as-a-service model, also known as software on demand. SaaS allows customers to purchase the software without having to invest substantial resources in servers or technical support. Datacom, along with a partner, centrally hosts the software.

This process allows access to the software and information at virtually any place and any time. "Everything is sold and supported over the Internet," Roepke said.

Datacom will expand in stages. By the end of the year, Roepke hopes to employ about 16 workers between Grand Forks and Cooperstown. Next year, the company is aiming to employ 35 workers.

In about 3 years, Datacom will employ about 85 people between two divisions. The dataSIGN division will be based in Cooperstown. Grand Forks will house another division that caters to the metal fabrication industry, called dataFAB.

Financing

A variety of partners came together to offer financial incentives for Datacom.

According to Keith Lund, vice president of the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation, Datacom received an incentive package totaling $1.15 million.

The financing included public and private money from the Griggs-Steele Empowerment Zone, Bank of North Dakota and North Dakota Development Fund, Grand Forks Growth Fund, the Grand Forks-based Valley Angel Investment Fund and Bismarck's Northern Plains Investment Fund.

Gov. John Hoeven, who was at the Grand Forks announcement to welcome Datacom to North Dakota, said the partnerships formed in courting Datacom were crucial to making the project a reality. "It's this partnership between the public sector and private sector that really makes things go," Hoeven said.

Hoeven said North Dakota added about 8,000 jobs to the state's economy last year through partnerships and other economic development efforts.

Edison reports on business. Reach him at (701) 780-1107, (800) 477-6572, ext. 107; or jedison@gfherald.com. This complete article can also be found at http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=40405.