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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowExecutives from Indianapolis’ largest computer consulting firm announced Tuesday morning that the company will get even bigger, with the addition of 200 jobs by 2012.
BC Forward, formerly known as Bucher & Christian Consulting Inc., also plans to invest nearly $2 million to expand and equip its downtown headquarters in Market Tower.
IBJ reported Dec. 2 that the information technology firm had received property-tax abatement relating to its job-creation and investment plans.
The company said in a filing with the Metropolitan Development Commission that the employees it plans to hire will earn an average salary of $63.38 an hour. The tax abatement also should help it retain 276 jobs paying an average of $55.11 an hour.
BC Forward will begin hiring in January. It employs roughly 450 at its downtown location and a total of 550, including employees at its Cleveland and St. Petersburg, Russia, locations.
The firm has enjoyed explosive growth and has added 150 jobs in the past three years. Based on local employment, it is the city’s largest computer consulting firm and minority-owned business, according to IBJ statistics.
“High-tech, high-wage jobs at a homegrown minority-owned business—it doesn’t get any better,” Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in a prepared statement.
Daniels joined Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard for the 11:15 a.m. announcement at company headquarters.
The 10-year abatement, on $600,000 worth of equipment, would become effective in 2010 and would reduce the taxes BC Forward pays on the computer hardware and software it plans to purchase by about $40,000, according to city estimates.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered the company up to $2.65 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $67,500 in training grants based on its job-creation plans.
Justin Christian and Tony Bucher founded the company in 1998. Bucher left the firm earlier this year.
Christian told IBJ earlier this month in an e-mail that “Indianapolis has served as our global headquarters for more than a decade and we are excited by the opportunity to invest in this marketplace for years to come.”
BC Forward’s clients include state government, and the manufacturing and financial sectors.
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