More good news for the Metro economy.

I've always thought Norman has tremendous potential for these types of companies... I hope this is just the beginning.




Software firm plans Norman office


By The Associated Press

NORMAN -- A software testing company plans to open an office here that will eventually employ about 200 people in jobs with salaries averaging $45,000 a year .

San Jose, Calif.-based Software Development Technologies will draw its work force from University of Oklahoma graduates and students, said Edward Kit, the company's president and chief executive officer.

Company offices will be in the former Saxon Publishing Building near Norman Business Park. Kit said he expects the hiring process to take 18 months to two years to complete.

"We evaluated a dozen U.S. urban areas and chose Norman for its high availability of technically trained people, central location and ease of doing business," Kit said.

He said cities like Norman are becoming more popular as businesses rethink relying on offshore locations.

About a dozen SDT employees have been operating in space leased from Moore Norman Technology Center, which has a contract to train the company's future hires.

SDT develops and markets software testing tools. The company has other operations in Manchester, N.H., and Hyderabad, India.

Kit founded SDT in 1992 to help customers implement software test best practices, tools and methods to improve return on investment for software development. He said the company serves many Fortune 500 companies in industries ranging from manufacturing to financial services and telecommunications.

The Norman Economic Development Coalition helped arrange state incentives for SDT, the training arrangements with Moore Norman Technology Center and other location details.

SDT will qualify for the state's Quality Jobs Program, which provides incentives to companies expanding or locating to Oklahoma. The program, administered by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, provides quarterly cash payments of up to 5 percent of new taxable payroll for qualifying companies, for up to 10 years.

The bad thing is they did not list the requirements for these jobs. Do they require a college degree? How much experience, if any? Other requirements? What we need are well paying jobs that do not require college experience or much on the job experience. Ones that will train people who desire changes in careers.

This is terrific news. All those MIS graduates are going to find some interesting opportunities with SDT. I can't help but think Norman's placement as a finalist for the Dell facility helped move this deal.

Mranderson, I'm afraid the opportunities for a middle-class living without a college education are dwindling. Oklahoma policymakers know that in order for Oklahoma to pull out of its perennial cellar dweller status, more people have to be creating their own opportunities instead of waiting for somebody to give it to them. That means starting your own business or training in skills that are needed in the marketplace. Depending on manufacturing and other jobs based on large-scale employment from out-of-state companies is not a good economic development strategy. The state economy needs to work harder at creating lots of jobs from more small to medium local companies that have stronger ties to the community. The state needs to be more self-sufficient.

Besides, Oklahoma doesn't have a culture of easy money. Maybe for that reason, Oklahomans are said to have a great work ethic. For well-paying jobs without much skill, you either have to do something unusual physically or in terms of lifestyle, or move to California, where a great bod, pretty face, or hummable melody can make you very good money.

Good to hear, that building is very nice and has been vacant too long since Saxon was bought out by an Austin publishing company. Hopefully more tech jobs will come out of this, along with the pharmeceutical and weather research jobs already in Norman. The area around the South Campus and National Weather Center is ripe for this type of development. If the state ever ends up building a dam on the Canadian River it would create a great lakeside research district just a few minutes south of OU, Campus Corner, and downtown Norman.

Couple things...

- Very good news for us here in Norman. The building is a great facility and should serve them very well. I doubt they'll take up much of the facility - so still plenty of room to grow. Also there is additional development back by the Office Max and Client Logic call centers that will bring in some more jobs. One is a manufacturing facility that will pay people around $20/hr.

- Education wise...they stressed they will hire OU grads...so naturally a degree is a must. Unfortunately expecting to get paid much without a degree and little experience just won't happen. I'm not a college grad, just started working on it again actually, but I have about a decade of time in doing start ups and about 5 of those focused on running call centers - which is where I am today. If you wanna make good money with out the years...you'll have to do it yourself.

- Last thing...why does Moore and Edmond have their own board, but not Norman? :) Last I checked we were the 3rd largest city in the state and definitely have more going on then those two. ;)

^ I wondered that too, especially Moore.