3-13-01
FAST-GROWING ISIT.COM WILL MOVE TO KNOWLEDGE PARK.
ISIT.com, Erie's fastest-growing dot-com company, will relocate to
Knowledge Park at Penn State Erie in July 2001.
"The high-tech infrastructure of the park and convenient access to the
expertise and creativity of faculty, staff, and students make Knowledge
Park the perfect location for us," said Ann Krugger, senior corporate
recruiter of ISIT.com "We have grown from two salespeople and a
webmaster when we started in 1996 to thirty-four people, and we expect
to employ more than 100 by the end of the year. Unlike many dot-com
companies, we've been in existence for six years, and we remain
profitable."
The company expects to lease 14,100 square feet of space on the first
floor of the second multi-tenant office building now under construction
at Knowledge Park. The company will join Aalborg Industries and GE
Transportation Systems' e-Business Division in the 200-acre park, a
joint effort of the Greater Erie Industrial Development Corporation and
Penn State Erie.
"I am pleased to welcome ISIT.com to Knowledge Park," said Peter F.
Kay, president and CEO of GEIDC. "Its operations are well-suited to
Knowledge Park's technology, and the company will have the space and
infrastructure it needs to grow.
I also want to thank our partners, Penn State Erie and Harborcreek
Township, whose continuing involvement in the development of Knowledge
Park brings us great companies like ISIT.com."
Krugger said ISIT.com is the world's oldest and largest online technical
resource center of technology information. Its Web site is a searchable
online resource containing thousands of white papers, case studies,
articles, and worksheets for industries dealing in the information
technology and software markets. It provides users with solutions to
their information technology questions and is utilized by e-commerce
companies for extensive research.
ISIT.com's revenues for 2000 were $1.4 million, and revenues for 2001
are projected to reach $5 million. The Web site is host to more than
800,000 hits and an average of 30,000 visitors per month. It currently
covers ten different technologies including e-business, mass storage,
document management and imaging, customer relationship management,
security, bar coding, data collection, enterprise resource planning,
supply chain technology, and retail/hospitality. Plans are under way to
add at least eight more technologies by the end of the year.
"Knowledge Park will be home to our entire data infrastructure,"
Krugger said. "The state-of-the art data center will be
climate-controlled and will feature a keycard security system."
The raised floor in the data center will house Siemon-certified Gigabit
Ethernet wiring as well as fiber optic cabling. All communication with
the data center will be by 100 megabytes per second ATM, running on
single-mode fiber, using Marconi ATM switching equipment. This Verizon
TLC connection is the first of its kind in this region.
"ISIT.com is a excellent fit for Knowledge Park," said Dr. John
Lilley, provost and dean at Penn State Erie. "The company will benefit
from close proximity to the college's information technology programs,
including management information systems, computer engineering, and two
new majors, software engineering and computer science, that will begin
in the fall of 2001." Potential collaborations include student
internships; class and senior research projects; and faculty and staff
consulting, research projects, technology transfer projects, and
educational programming.
The company's strong growth requires a new location, Krugger said. The
company office is currently located on Peach Street, but its entire
operation will be relocated to the new Knowledge Park site.
-30-
Contact: Loretta Brandon
(814) 898-6063 (O)
(814) 864-9922 (H)
e-mail: lzb6@psu.edu