Smart Business Magazine, October 2015

42 Smart Business Akron Canton October 2015 CASCADE CAPITAL CORPORATION 2015BUSINESSGROWTHAWARDS TECHNOLOGY HIGHEST SALES GROWTH AREA 51 DATA SOLUTIONS 330 374 0351 www ar51 com M arling Engle and Craig Sutphin have a lot to be happy about at Area 51 Data Solutions The IT managed services and cloud solutions provider has grown sales 267 percent since 2010 and is poised to grow even more in the years ahead The company has purchased a new office building to help with its current expansion efforts and provide better reach into the North Canton and south territories There are also plans to open a satellite office in either Independence or Brecksville in the near future to better serve clients in the Greater Cleveland and Mentor areas Engle CEO and partner and Sutphin COO and partner have lead Area 51 to achieve significant growth But a strong culture ensures that even when the times turn tough employees keep a positive attitude and continue working hard to serve their customers Engle and Sutphin have instilled a work hard play hard approach providing a number of extracurricular activities that allow staff to get to know each other on a personal level and when necessary blow off some steam When its time to get back to work Area 51 takes a hands on approach with clients and aims to be an IT partner that always has the best interests of the clients in mind These efforts particularly in disaster recovery and business continuity situations have helped the company continue to grow but have also provided a boost to the local economy TECHNOLOGY GREATEST EMPLOYEE GROWTH EXPAND INTERACTIVE 330 752 7902 www expandinteractive com A broader reach Expansion is on the way for Marling Engle and Craig Sutphin at Area 51 I t wasnt exactly the best of times when Expand Interactive opened its doors for business in 2008 The global recession was just beginning making the thought of opening a new business seem even more daunting than usual But that didnt stop CEO Eric Harsh and President Will Holland from building a business that has transformed how learning is done The result is a business that has grown sales 116 percent since 2010 Even more impressively the company has grown its personnel by 225 percent over the same period In 2014 Expand doubled its design team tripled its development team and added a project manager and marketing manager When the company was founded the mission was to rid the world of boring ineffective training Expand started as an e learning content company and over time realized clients needed a platform to host share and measure the content Expand has shifted away from operating as a traditional e learning company to one focused on impact with e learning used as a means to improve organizational performance The company builds beautiful fun and effective e learning courses but has also developed its own software platform to support its philosophy of continuous evolution ExpandShare is a knowledge sharing platform that allows content to be shared with individual users or groups and then tracked and measured to determine training and effectiveness The company aligns its metrics with each clients unique key performance indicators so it can demonstrate how training impacts business performance Knowledge is power Eric Harsh and Will Holland are building a strong team at Expand Interactive