(ValueMomentum press conference late last week in Erie, Pa. Left to right, Swarup Ghost, COO, ValueMomentum; Joe Schember, Mayor of Erie; Tim NeCastro, President and CEO, Erie Insurance; Abhijeet Jhaveri, CMO, ValueMomentum; Kalyan Kodali, CEO, ValueMomentum.)

ValueMomentum, a Piscataway, New Jersey-based IT services and software solutions provider, has chosen Erie, Pa. as the site of a new regional development center to respond to rapid growth and build depth in key skill areas. The vendor reports that it will invest $5M in the project and plans to hire 100 associates over three years. A team of approximately 30 associates will begin operating out of a temporary facility on June 1, 2019. The company is in the process of procuring office space in downtown Erie in order to open the site by early 2020.

During 2018-19, ValueMomentum reports having grown by 31 percent, driven by digital, data and core transformation initiatives. The firm tells Insurance Innovation Reporter that it has also increased staff by a similar amount, as the result of a drive to build greater depth of competence in digital transformation, cloud adoption, data modernization and core transformation. The company currently has approximately 2,500 associates.

ValueMomentum says it chose Erie as the site of its new development center because of an existing relationship with Erie Insurance, as well as overwhelmingly positive response from local leaders. Other factors influencing the firm’s decision include the city’s mix of educational institutions, attractive cost of living index and health care services, and its attractive K-12 schools.

“This is not only an exciting time for us, but it’s an exciting time to come to Erie with all of the change taking shape,” comments Kalyan Kodali, CEO, ValueMomentum. “ValueMomentum has experienced tremendous growth in the past several years and we are confident our new Erie location will be another key factor in our continued growth for the future.”

Talent Development for Competitive Advantage

In considering an initiative to open a regional development center, ValueMomentum adopted a premise that substantial engineering & STEM talent was available in non-metropolitan cities characterized by the presence of a healthy mix of universities, an attractive cost of living index and multiple other parameters, according to Kodali. The emerging plan also entailed talent development as a means of competitive advantage rather than relying on scarcely available talent to fulfil the company ability to support its clients’ digital, data & cloud technology initiatives.

“We have already seen remarkable results with this strategy through our graduate trainee development programs piloted in the past two years in our New Jersey development centers,” adds Kodali. “When Tim Necastro, CEO of Erie Insurance—a long standing ValueMomentum customer—learned about our plans, he approached us and pitched Erie, Pennsylvania as the location. He invited us to meet various local authorities, who gave us an overwhelming response. Along came an opportunity to invest not only in ValueMomentum’s growth, but also that of the community we have benefited from. We are excited to select Erie as the location of our regional center as this is an important part of our plan to scale our business.”

ValueMomentum and Smart Communications Partner on Multichannel Communications