Advantage.Tech (AT) and IT Mindshare (ITM) have merged and expanded into Morgantown, adding at least 40-50 new clients and five new employees.
The area location is 150 Clay St. in Morgantown.
John Goff, sales director at AT, sees the merger between the two businesses as having an important impact on Morgantown.
“The plan is to add jobs and grow Advantage there, and bring money and jobs into the economy,” he said. “It will also provide the businesses in Morgantown with another option for cybersecurity that they hadn’t had previously.”
AT has been in business for over 20 years, helping local businesses by providing them with information technology (IT) services. It currently has over 800 clients and 85 employees and has completed more than 10,000 successful projects.
ITM provides expertise in important technological practices for Morgantown, including cybersecurity and cloud solutions. Among the services the company has provided to customers are IT services, cybersecurity services and managed services.
Prior to the merger, AT had a relationship with the owners at ITM, who were looking to retire eventually.
“They were looking for an exit and they contacted me about merging the two businesses and taking over their clients,” said Richard Wilbur III, president and CEO at AT.
With the different fields of expertise that ITM has had over the years, AT is beginning to expand its services to its customers.
“Now we can provide much better and in-depth services with more technical skills,” Wilbur said. “It gave us the opportunity to immediately get 40-50 new customers, but those customers also get the better IT experience.”
Wilbur also noted they have been studying Morgantown for years and noticed that most of the economic growth in West Virginia has been happening in (and around) Morgantown.
“When the opportunity came to get 40-50 new clients through this merger, it was a perfect match,” he noted. “And it helped us get in the area where most of the growth is happening.”
Many of the employees at AT also had strong connections to Morgantown and are passionate about serving the community. Goff saw that this business decision was a great way to help the Morgantown community by providing more services, jobs and resources.
“We wanted to take an opportunity to help the people of Morgantown and bring them quality service that may not have existed previously,” he said.
Wilbur added that there are strategic benefits to having office spaces in an area like Morgantown – especially considering the distance between other locations, such as his office in Frederick, Md.
“Morgantown is just two hours from Frederick, so we can get the talent that’s trained up at WVU because we’re good partners with them,” he explained. “I can work back in Morgantown, and I can also get employees from Morgantown over here quickly – versus Charleston, West Virginia, which is 4 ½ hours away.”
With the new office space that the company has in Morgantown, AT is hoping to hire more employees for the new location.
“We got five people in an office where we could house 25 people,” he said. “Growth is definitely the plan.”
Wilbur added that he hopes to continue the trend of bringing more jobs, opportunities and revenue into the state.
“The company started in a little bedroom in Charleston, West Virginia,” he said. “And now we do $30 million in business, and it all comes back to West Virginia.”
AT also has locations in Bridgeport and Charleston. For any questions, people can contact them at 304-973-9550 or support@advantage.tech
