Complete Business Solutions Inc. (CBSI) will expand its Providence operation by 100 jobs and move its South Main Street office to larger quarters at the Foundry complex by mid-1999.
In an announcement last week, the Michigan-based information technology provider cited rapid growth in New England for the move and credited Rhode Island’s business climate for its decision to expand within the state.
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“The assistance of state and city economic development officials continues to help our efforts as we expand our offices and our staff,” said Brad Waugh, Eastern Regional vice president. “We have been busting at the seams and needed to expand.”
The company arrived here four years ago — or its predecessor did, C.W. Costello & Associates — with just two employees in its Providence office. CBSI’s presence here exploded earlier this year with the merger of Connecticut-based C.W. Costello. Its total Providence employees will be 240 once the expansion is completed. The new jobs, including consultants and programmers, will offer an average annual salary of more than $40,000.
CBSI’s move will increase its square footage from 11,000 to 30,000. The additional room will house the company’s development center, which will be used as a resource for the company’s six New England offices. Waugh said Providence was selected for the development center over their other locations, which includes Boston, because Rhode Island is less expensive for doing business. He pointed to Boston’s pricey office space and Connecticut’s 6 percent sales tax on development work, a tax most states do not impose on businesses. Also, he said tax incentives offered by Rhode Island and a strong talent pool of potential employees were major factors in the decision.
Gov. Lincoln Almond applauded CBSI’s announcement.
“We’re on the right track. Good jobs, offering good wages,” he said. “(Rhode Island is) making it easier for businesses to succeed through tax incentives, and it is a tremendous uplift for this Governor to see this success.”
Waugh said the company has three years left on its lease at 321 South Main Street, the Heritage Building, and will likely sublet the office space. He said the Foundry location, located in the former offices of the Department of Environmental Management, provides the room and parking that the South Main Street location could not .And room will be vital in the continued success of the company’s development center, Waugh said. The center allows CBSI to do work for a client off-site, providing quicker project turn-around time and significantly reducing customer costs, he said.
“We call it partnership sourcing. We go to a customer and take over a division and do all their information technology work: networking, software development, etc.,” he said. The demand for such a center has been great in recent years as companies have worked with CBSI to become Year 2000 compliant. The development center will also be used for classroom space to teach clients and internal staff program languages and software applications.
CBSI is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ exchange. The company has a total international workforce of close to 4,000 employees. In its latest quarterly report, issued last week, the company reported quarterly revenues of $98.7 million, up 35 percent from the same period a year ago.
