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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Optym Plans Nearly $5 Million Expansion Of Its Gainesville, Florida, Operations Center

04/07/2014
Optym, formerly Innovative Scheduling, a developer of planning and scheduling software for the transportation and logistics industry, will invest nearly $5 million to expand its operations center in Gainesville, Florida, creating 100 new jobs.

A home-grown Gainesville company, Optym was founded in 2000 by Dr. Ravindra K. Ahuja, a professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering department at the University of Florida. Since then, it has grown from a sole proprietorship to a worldwide company with nearly 100 employees and offices located in Gainesville; Yerevan, Armenia; and Bangalore, India.

“Gainesville was a perfect place to start our company due to the terrific pool of talent coming from the University of Florida, as their engineering programs are regularly recognized as some of the best in the nation,” said Ahuja. “As the company grew, we opened offices in other cities that are similar to Gainesville. They offer amenities, beautiful surroundings, rich cultural offerings, a pleasant climate and a low cost of living. So it made perfect sense that this significant expansion would happen where it all started in Gainesville.”

The expansion in Gainesville allows for IS’ to further evolution of its current offerings. It will also facilitate the company’s ambitions in city planning and development, with the goal of providing optimization and automation software to cities to improve efficiency, said Ahuja.

These plans have prompted a major milestone – the renaming of IS to Optym, a name chosen to reflect the broader focus of its work over the years. With the company’s evolution and goals in mind, Ahuja explained that it was the right time to have a name that better reflects what the company does. Going forward the company will now be known as Optym with a tagline of “Live Efficiently.”

“It is great news that Optym will create 100 jobs for Gainesville families,” said Governor Rick Scott. “With the help of businesses like Optym, we are continuing to build an opportunity economy in Florida. Let’s keep working so Florida families and businesses have every opportunity to succeed and invest in their future.”

The Council for Economic Outreach has been working with Optym since January, 2014 to help retain the company and ensure that the jobs created would be in the Gainesville region. “Optym is a fantastic success story about a startup company being created in Gainesville, growing a presence regionally and throughout the world, and now creating more jobs locally,” said John Carlson, Chair of the C.E.O. “We are pleased to assist Optym in this expansion and boost our local economy through job creation and capital investment, and look forward to their future growth and expansion in the Gainesville region.”

“Florida’s IT sector continues to grow and impact the state economy thanks to industry leaders like Optym,” said Gray Swoope, President/CEO of Enterprise Florida. “This expansion shows that Florida’s resources, including a strong workforce, expansive infrastructure and strategic partnerships, have created one of the top business climates in the country. We will continue working to strengthen the IT sector in Florida and look forward to seeing Optym’s achievements.”

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