February 14, 2003

Lowcountry to be to high tech firm

Jonathan Maze  /  Post and Courier

Software maker Modulant will merge California, N. Charleston operations

A West Coast software maker with a big local presence is consolidating its operations and moving them to the Lowcountry.

Modulant, which makes software that helps companies and government agencies share data, is moving its headquarters from San Francisco to Daniel Island. There, the company will consolidate operations with its North Charleston-based subsidiary, Product Data Integration Technologies.

In addition to managers and executives, Modulant will move research and development workers from Long Beach, Calif., to the area, and it plans to hire more in the coming months, said CEO Gene Eubanks. By the end of the year, Modulant plans to employ 180 people in the area, 30 more than it had before the move, Eubanks said.

Modulant will keep open its Long Beach and San Francisco offices. It also has offices in Chicago; Dallas; Virginia; London; and Stockholm, Sweden. "We already had a very strong backbone of the company here" in the Lowcountry, Eubanks said. "It did not make sense for us to uproot a large portion of our employee population."

There were other reasons. The company has strong ties with the Department of Defense, particularly through the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Eubanks said. He also cited the area's cost and standard of living, and its cost of doing business. "It helps our employees and the cost of operations by locating here," Eubanks said.

For years, the company was divided in two. Product Data Integration Technologies started in the area 14 years ago as a consulting company that helps federal agencies share data. The company's founders then developed software and started Modulant in California. Modulant became Product Data's parent company and focused on the commercial market while Product Data focused on government work. The two acted somewhat independently, Eubanks said. They had separate boards and executive management teams, which are being combined. "The move allows us to tighten our business model," he said. "We'll bring one message to the market."

The move will be complete by the end of April, said Eubanks, who was named the company's chief executive last summer. He also said the company will take over "a large building" on Daniel Island.

The address on the company's news release lists 146 Fairchild St., the same address as Cigna. When asked whether the company plans to move into the Cigna building, Eubanks would not comment. Lynn Shepherd, a spokeswoman for Cigna, said the health insurer still has employees on Daniel Island, but could not say whether the company is leasing space there.