Level Data, a company that provides information technology services to school districts, has become the newest tenant of the WMU's Business Technology and Research Park's Initech Building.
The nearly 3-year-old company with eight employees now occupies a 1,500-square-foot office space there.
Level Data manages data on enrollment, instruction, network management, food service, hiring, payroll and transportation.
The company designs solutions that eliminate data management problems for districts that range from 300 to 20,000-plus students. One of its clients is KRESA -- the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, which provides programs and services for 200 county schools.
The company's services reduce the need for IT staffers and some
computer systems. One area school district added up all the staff time
it saved by hiring the company and discovered its return on investment
was 4,000 non-instructional hours annually, says Matt Betts, Level Data
President.
Level Data operates in a cloud-computing environment hosted by Kalamazoo-based Secant Technologies, allowing Level Data to focus on development and customer support rather than hardware and network management.
Using Secant's cloud allows the company to have customers anywhere and the business to grow as needed. "When we need more space or a new server, we can have it in less than an hour," says Betts.
The company intends to work with the WMU departments of Computer Science and Computer Information Systems as well as faculty and students in education, business and engineering disciplines. Betts says he is particularly interested in recruiting young talent to his firm.
WMU's
Business Technology and Research Park focuses on the life sciences, advanced engineering and information technology. Launched in late 1999, the BTR Park is home to some 30 companies directly employing nearly 700 people.
Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Matt Betts, Level Data
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