CLEVELAND, OH- Foundation Software, the Ohio-based firm that helps thousands of contractors with accounting and payroll, just announced that, having outgrown their old offices in Brunswick, they will move into a state-of-the-art campus in Strongsville, a suburb of Cleveland, on April 1.

Their new home, the former CSC Group Building, a 48,600-square-foot building at 17999 Foltz Industrial Parkway, was vacated by a previous occupant, also a software firm, after it collapsed during the recent economic recession.

“A bank called their note in and soon after, they were done,” Mike Ode, president of Foundation, tells GlobeSt.com. But this opened up an opportunity for Foundation, he adds, since it left a nearly-new building specifically designed for a software company empty and available. It has about triple the space, modern offices, the extensive wiring needed by a software provider and a very large, secure server room. “We couldn't have dreamed up a building better than this one.”

According to Cleveland.com, the new headquarters was sold on Dec. 28 to an entity incorporated by Fred Ode, the founder and CEO of Foundation, for $2.3 million.

“I think people are very surprised at the company's growth,” Mike Ode says, since they specialize in software for construction companies, and no group got hit harder by the housing collapse. “One of the decisions we made early on was we were going to maintain and even increase funding for research and development when everyone else was cutting back.” Foundation officials also kept up funding for marketing efforts so that when those economic clouds lifted, contractors would think of them first.

These strategies seem to have worked. In 2011, when the economy was undergoing a very modest recovery, Foundation's sales increased about 49 percent and last year more than 20 percent, according to Ode. They currently provide roughly 3,000 clients in all 50 states with accounting and payroll software that can handle contractors' unique requirements, such as calculating job costing, and the effects of union and prevailing wage rules.

“Our goal is to stay in the construction niche,” and Ode expects even more expansion. Their new home can eventually accommodate as many as 285 employees. Foundation and Payroll4Construction.com, its sister firm, currently employs about 105. As long as the construction industry continues a modest recovery, he believes the firms will grow at about 16 to 19 percent per year. If the economy starts to really roar back to life, growth could hit 25 percent. “But I try to be realistic. I don't think we'll see a bigger recovery until 2014 or 2015.”

Instant Insights /

Software Provider for Construction Firms Expands Into Bigger Offices

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