ITHACA — A local software development company has added more than 100 employees in the past three years, and by the end of 2012 expects to reach more than $15 million in revenue. Around 2009, Envisage Information Systems, which provides recordkeeping systems and other software products for the retirement industry, had about 30 employees and […]
ITHACA — A local software development company has added more than 100 employees in the past three years, and by the end of 2012 expects to reach more than $15 million in revenue.
Around 2009, Envisage Information Systems, which provides recordkeeping systems and other software products for the retirement industry, had about 30 employees and generated $5 million in revenue. But some new federal regulations that emerged that year started the firm on a path to rapid growth, President and CEO Steff McGonagle says.
The rules applied to 403(b) retirement plans. They’re similar to 401(k) plans, but used by colleges, hospitals, and other nonprofits. The new regulations mandated new levels of accountability and required a consolidated overall picture of what was happening in the plans.
“They didn’t have all the software pieces needed to have this complete pictorial of everything in their plans,” McGonagle says.
Envisage built a software product, known as Common Remitter, to help the industry meet the new rules, McGonagle says. The company worked with a client in Kansas to design the product.
The client went live and ran the system for about a year before a national player in the space found out about it and signed on. The product allowed Envisage to grow its revenue and helped the staff swell to its current total of 150.
That’s up from 120 less than a year ago.
Envisage’s clients are the recordkeeping firms that serve plan sponsors and there are plenty more to capture, McGonagle says.
“We’ve just barely hit the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “We are definitely poised to double in size again over the next two years.”
Envisage Information Systems has added staff in administration, business analysis, software development, and quality control. Hiring will continue in those areas, McGonagle says.
The company in May moved into a new 15,000-square-foot building at 31 Dutch Mill Road in Ithaca. Envisage acquired the building and renovated the interior to consolidate staff from multiple locations in Cayuga and Tompkins counties.
The firm plans to complete exterior renovations to the new building this year as well.
However, Envisage is already out of space at the new site and plans are in the works to open branch offices in Binghamton, Rochester, and Syracuse. A Binghamton office will open in August and locations in Syracuse and Rochester will follow this fall.
The branches will also help Envisage expand its recruiting footprint, McGonagle says. The offices will house a mix of employees and start with 20 to 30 people each, he adds.
Market demand is not the problem for Envisage, McGonagle notes. How fast the company grows will depend on how fast it can scale up staff and infrastructure to keep pace.
Last year, Inc. magazine ranked Envisage 808 on its fifth annual Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest growing private companies. The firm ranked 76 within the information-technology services industry.
McGonagle founded Envisage in 1990 with Robb Jetty, the company’s vice president for finance and administration. The company has been focusing on the retirement industry since 1998 and has clients nationwide.
Jetty and McGonagle own the firm with several angel investors.
