DXC Technology announced Tuesday that it will expand its workforce in Conway from about 450 employees to 1,650 over the next three years.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who had a hand in the announcement from DXC's 12.5-acre campus in the Meadows Office and Technology Park south of downtown Conway, said about 200 of the new hires will occur in the next six months. Hutchinson also predicted that many of the 1,200 new employees will come from out of state, giving a boost to Arkansas' overall population.
Several dozen campaign-style yard signs lined the way Tuesday to the company's facility at 355 Ledgelawn Drive just off Arkansas 365. They sported the DXC logo, as well as that of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. About 500 people, including many DXC employees, attended the event on a clear, fall morning full of sunshine.
Based in Tysons, Va., DXC is a spinoff of Hewlett-Packard, which first arrived in Conway in 2009 to open a customer-support system. DXC provides health and human services to clients across 43 U.S. states and territories, offering Medicaid management information systems, eligibility counseling services and more.
The 1,200 new jobs will allow DXC to establish a "center of excellence" to serve the Medicaid business in 30 states, including Arkansas, and other clients, the company said.
The Conway facility is one of two DXC Medicaid services delivery centers in the U.S. The company said it works with 16 Arkansas colleges and universities to develop and recruit employees.
The company will be eligible for the state's "Create Rebate" program, which provides cash back based on the number of jobs created.
DXC didn't provide a range of salaries that will come with the new jobs, citing competitive security reasons. Its corporate website lists dozens of Arkansas listings for jobs in information technology, computer coding, software development, cybersecurity and other areas.
Hutchinson said DXC's plans are evidence that his administration's emphasis on computer-science education is paying dividends.
"When we started our state computer science initiative, there were those that said that just means we're going to train our students in technology and computer coding, and then we'll lose them to the Silicon Valley and to Austin [Texas] and other places," Hutchinson said.
"This demonstrates the tremendous success of that program, because we would not be able to achieve expansions like this without chief executive officers who see the pipeline of talent that will be coming through our institutions of education," Hutchinson said, referring to Andrea Fiumicelli, vice president and general manager of Healthcare and Life Sciences at DXC.
Fiumicelli, who is based in London, attended the Conway event. He cited the experience and dedication of the Conway workforce in the company's decision to expand there.
"They've got 6,000 different partners, 138,000 employees, located in 70 countries," Hutchinson said. "So, in today's world, whenever you make a decision as to where you're going to expand, you've got all kinds of options. And they chose Conway."
DXC also will expand into cybersecurity, Hutchinson said, partly because of the success of an expanded cybersecurity program at the University of Central Arkansas. Hutchinson said UCA now offers a bachelor's degree in cybersecurity, with enrollment in the program growing from five students in 2017, to 30 students last year, and to 57 in 2019.
In August, DXC reported first-quarter net income of $168 million, down from $266 million for the same quarter last year. Revenue was $4.9 billion, down 7% from $5.2 billion in the same quarter the year before.
DXC Technology also is known in the sports world for its sponsorship of the DXC Technology 600, a race in the IndyCar series held each June at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. DXC's website noted that last year's race was the first anywhere in which a drone delivered the green flag to the starting line.
Hewlett-Packard in November 2009 moved 400 employees from temporary offices in Little Rock to its new 153,000-square-foot facility in the Conway office park, just as Conway was seeing 500 job losses at bus manufacturer IC Corp., better known locally as Ward Bus Co.
Hewlett-Packard had some 1,400 employees in Conway at one time, a job count that fluctuated as consumers turned to devices smaller than the Hewlett-Packard desktop computers.
DXC was created in 2017 by the merger of Computer Sciences Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.
Hutchinson noted that the Conway event was the first of three jobs-related tours he's making in the state this week.
He plans to be in Jonesboro today for a 1:30 p.m. grand opening of a plant that manufactures machine parts for Caterpillar, Volvo, Komatsu and other manufacturers of heavy equipment. Hefei Risever Machine Co., a family-owned company in Hefei, China, announced plans to build the plant two years ago.
The company said then that it would invest some $20 million over five years to build the plant and hire up to 130 workers. The plant is in Craighead Technology Park on East Highland Drive in Jonesboro.
On Friday, Hutchinson plans to be in Blytheville for a 10 a.m. ceremony for the opening of Nucor Corp.'s $230 million specialty cold mill.
A Section on 10/23/2019