MapInfo Charts New Opportunity in Tech Valley
Published Apr 15, 2006
Location-intelligence is the forte of MapInfo, whose software assists the work of criminal justice agencies and others.
MapInfo’s business success has placed it on the map in myriad ways.
The Troy location-intelligence firm can be found on the Nasdaq, its software can be found powering files of the FBI and the New York City Police Department, and telecommunication leaders Nortel and BT Group (formerly British Telecommunications) tap MapInfo’s expertise for network planning and customer demand.
But MapInfo’s own location is a tribute to the Empire State’s entrepreneurial spirit and stellar higher education.
Four students and a faculty member at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute founded the company in 1986, and they remained true to their RPI roots – expanding again and again but staying in Tech Valley.
Others are joining MapInfo, which has grown into a $125 million-a-year company before its 20th anniversary.
Recently, Expansion Management magazine rated the Tech Valley setting MapInfo calls home as the 15th-best metro area in the nation for business expansion or relocation. That topped New York City and Rochester in the Empire State and more than 300 other areas nationwide.
“A lot of the infrastructure existed for years, and the visionaries around Tech Valley have been smart enough to recognize that and build upon that,” says Bert Tobin, MapInfo’s vice president for human resources. “It’s caught fire.”
Led by multibillion-dollar investments by the state and industry in nanotechnology, semiconductor research and biotechnology, Tech Valley earned the high marks from Expansion Management for a variety of strengths. Among them are patents issued, college sophistication, workers with higher education degrees, and the percentage of workers in science and engineering sectors.
Health care, public education and transportation also figured into the magazine’s ratings.
MapInfo operates in a sophisticated sphere of the site selection business itself, showing its customers how to tailor their marketing and sales to specific zip codes and addresses.
The company’s paradigm works well for Tech Valley, says Tobin, citing his mantra for the region: “Keep good people in this area, grow them in this area, and bring them into Tech Valley.”
Story by Gary Perilloux
Photo by Stephen Cherry
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