Hartford Business Journal

11 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | March 14, 2022 On The Record | Q&A GalaxE.Solutions' big bet on Hartford shows faith in IT worker reshoring trend By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com T im Bryan is convinced the United States is poised to experience a significant onshoring trend. But he's not a manufacturing executive frustrated by pandemic- induced supply chain issues, which have left key materials stuck on cargo ships or in foreign lands. He's a tech executive who believes back-office IT work — often shipped overseas during the last quarter- century to low-cost destinations — will come back to the United States, as companies go through a 21st-century digitization process, and the pandemic leaves behind a more decentralized American workforce. And that could mean more jobs in lower-cost cities like Hartford, he said. "We believe that offshoring, outsourcing as it has come to be understood over the last 25 years will change dramatically and come back to the United States," said Bryan, who is the CEO and founder of IT company GalaxE.Solutions, which has made a sizable bet on downtown Hartford. GalaxE recently announced plans to bring 180 new jobs to Hartford as part of an ongoing worker relocation project. The company originally planted its flag in the Capital City in 2019, opening up an innovation center downtown. It currently leases about 24,000 square feet — the entire 15th floor — in the City Place I office tower. About 100 of those new jobs will be service desk positions currently based in the Philippines, and they are coming to Hartford because GalaxE recently added a new local client (he declined to name the company). This will boost GalaxE's local workforce to 220 people. Somerset, New Jersey-based GalaxE is an IT company that focuses on automating business operations within large corporate employers by leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence. The 2,000-employee company targets the healthcare, insurance, retail and financial services sectors, and also focuses on developing a local workforce in areas where it operates. It has similar hubs in Detroit and Milwaukee. While larger outsourcing companies might have as much as 90% of their workforce outside the U.S., about 50% of GalaxE's employees are stateside. It targets smaller, less expensive U.S. markets to recruit workers to remain competitive on costs, and uses local partnerships to develop workforce development programs that yield a talent pipeline. As part of its Hartford expansion, GalaxE said it will hire 60 graduates from the Hartford-based nonprofit Girls for Technology's service desk training program, which will train young people — particularly Hartford residents between the ages of 18 and 29 who have a high school diploma or GED equivalent — for technology roles. The city of Hartford is helping fund the effort with a $600,000 American Rescue Plan grant. The so-called "Pipeline 4.0" initiative will offer a 10-week course that allows trainees to gain professional and technical skills through hybrid instruction, career coaching, mentorship and other avenues. Graduates will earn a job with GalaxE or other corporate partners. GalaxE was first attracted to Hartford because it had Express Scripts as a customer. The pharmacy benefits manager was purchased by Bloomfield-based Cigna Corp. in 2018. After that deal, Cigna became a key GalaxE client and Bryan said he established a relationship with the health insurer's former chief information officer, Mark Boxer, who convinced him to establish a Hartford foothold. Despite the hit Hartford has taken from the pandemic, Bryan said he remains bullish on the city's future. So much so that he's still contemplating buying an office building downtown to further cement his company's presence here. A deal isn't likely in 2022, he said. Bryan recently spoke to HBJ virtually from his home in Miami. Here's what else he had to say: Q. What does GalaxE.Solutions do? What's the range of services the company provides? A. We are an entity that uses automation to solve business technology challenges for extremely large corporations. Automation produces technological outcomes for customers in terms of building systems, delivering data, producing stronger business results, than human capital- generated systems. We have married automation with human capital and then rely on a more local workforce. We are tackling two major customer desires. One is they want their IT work focused on utilizing and developing automation, and two they are looking for workforce development in their communities — particularly underserved communities — at significant scale. Those are two markets we've addressed, at least until this point, better than most of the largest outsourcing firms in the world that are still focused on human capital activity, with most of that — 80% to 90% — in foreign countries. Q. What's the scope of automation? A. You hear all the time migrating from legacy applications or systems to the cloud, for example. GalaxE has automation that will analyze and capture a function as it exists today inside a corporate computer system, and understand how to migrate it. If you are doing that with human beings there is an enormous amount of guesswork going on, and oftentimes it breaks down, or takes longer and is more expensive to make the migration to the cloud. GalaxE's automation requires fewer people and is higher quality, which means greater savings, and if you overlay that activity with a greater reliance on domestic workforce, then you are looking at something that is very appealing for American corporations. Our services include systems development, quality assurance TIM BRYAN CEO GalaxE.Solutions Education: Bachelor's degree in political science, Rutgers University Age: 61 HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER GalaxE.Solutions CEO Tim Bryan with Mayor Luke Bronin and nonprofit Girls For Technology CEO Sabrina Tucker-Barrett discussing an initiative to add 180 IT jobs in Hartford with the help of a local workforce development program.

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