A high tech company is bringing 200 jobs to Vermillion. Eagle Creek Software Services along with the Vermillion Area Chamber of Commerce formally broke ground on a 32,000 square foot project center today.
In March Eagle Creek announced it will bring 1,000 jobs to the state in the next three to five years. Eagle Creek works with implementing technology- such as smart phone and tablet development- for global companies. The Vermillion branch currently has 15 employees which is expected to grow to 100 by the end of the year.
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Alongside an affiliation with the state of South Dakota, the company is partnering with the University of South Dakota to create internship and job opportunities with students.
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Ken Behrendt is the president of Eagle Creek Software Services.
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"We want to build our business in South Dakota. We want to build our company in South Dakota. We’re here for very simple reasons. Because South Dakota’s a great place to work and live in," says Behrendt. "We’ve been around- when we first started this 9 years ago looking at project centers we went to all the adjoining states- Minnesota- Iowa- North Dakota- and we have a project center in North Dakota but we went to adjoining states and we found at the end of the day that South Dakota is a great place to do business and that’s where we want to do business."
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Behrendt says about 80 to 90 percent of employees will come from outside of the state- most of them recent college graduates with a few years of experience.
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Eagle Creek has project centers in Pierre, Valley City, North Dakota, and Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Behrendt says the Vermillion Technology Center is expected to be completed in the Spring of 2014.
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