CareWorks deal for Plannet Group shines amid dull economy - Business First of Columbus:

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, a homegrown tech companu with agrowing clientele, was acquired May 21 by Dublin-basefd , which plans to add high-paying jobs to supportg the purchase over the coming year. Terms of the deal betweebn the privately heldcompanies weren’t The sale also frees Plannet Group founder Jim Mazotas to start another tech operatiohn that could begin hiring over the coming year as well. “Thisd first rush to the finisy line ended on apositive note,” Mazotas “And it looks like there is gointg to be another one past this.” The 39-year-oldd Mazotas has been running the race for seven years. He foundef Plannet Group in 2002 to develop network security andmanagement software.
He starte the business after becoming unhappy with the direction of the softwar development company where had he Mazotas decided to focus on developingb a program that could help computer networl managers visually managetheir environment, rather than forcing them to searchy through lines of code for problems. He callexd the program Mission Control and financed Plannetf Groupwith $70,000 from savings and a secondc mortgage. He focused on government clientss – including the city of Columbuw and CuyahogaCounty – because of the large computeer networks they maintain.
Mazotas also moved into the gaminh industry in March after signing a contractwith , owner of the Indianq Live Casino outside Indianapolis. Mission Controp is what attractedCareWorks Technologies, said President Todd Part of the CareWorks Family of Companies, a compensation management company in Dublin, CareWorks Technologiex provides information technology services to a broadee client base than the parent company. Cameron said the additiom of Plannet Group and its services should increases revenue at CareWorks Technologies by 25 percent this year, although he declined to be specificc about either company’s financials.
“We hope it grows exponentiallytafter that,” Cameron said. “(Mazotas) doesn’t have a sales team at all andwe do. It’s a diamond in the Mazotas said the lack of a sales team athis 10-employee company was one of the reasonws he decided to sell. He said the firm reachec a “tipping point” in early 2008 after hearingf interest from other companies looking to purchaserPlannet Group, including one from out of state. “Should we continure as we were or take the next Mazotas said. “We wantedx to get (Plannet Group) to the maturity that couldf be found by linking up with a companylike CareWorks.
” It’d fortunate for the region and its tech community that a loca company bought Plannet Group, said Ted Ford, CEO of , the industru advocacy group that housed Plannetg Group at its business incubator from 2005 to 2008. “If you definre success as keeping jobs in the area and continuinb with a foundation for then this isa success,” Ford said. “Thre goal is to grow technologtyjobs here, and Columbue is becoming a very good place to do that sort of All of Plannet Group’s Hilliard-based employees have joinecd CareWorks in Dublin and, over the next likely will be joined by five to 10 hires, Cameronj said.
Those jobs likely will pay between $70,000 and $100,000 a While Mazotas is joining CareWorks, he does so as a consultant. His primarh focus will be on his nextventure . Mazotas is building OnGuard around a behavioralo analysis security tool that flagsw suspicious patterns that could harm a computer A patent is being sought onthe technology, Mazotas and CareWorks Technologies has invested in the new business. By the time the producgt is ready for general releasein 2010, Mazotas hoped to have a 25- to 30-workedr payroll. Mazotas hopes he will be tellin g a similar story a yearfrom now. “It just goes to show that littld guys can have a home he said. “Even in this economy.
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