‘Xpanxion’ in Nebraska competes with global markets

Atlanta, India and Loup City, Neb. That list seems like an unlikely group but thanks to the work of Paul Eurek and Xpanxion Technologies, a major technology business was able to establish a successful local business in the heart of Nebraska.

Eurek, the chief executive officer and chairman of Xpanxion, has worked in the technology market for years. Initially, he established Compris Technologies which was later acquired by NCR corporation in the late 90s. Eurek eventually established Xpanxion in Kearney in an effort to promote local technology business.

“About four years ago, I made a pitch to my board of directors to take part in our organization to bring part of the business in India and bring it back to central Nebraska and we had a tremendous amount of support from the University of Nebraska,” Eurek said. “It wasn’t a start up business. We decided to take an existing business and expand our technical offerings into this division in Kearney. Shortly after that, we opened a second office in Loup City, Neb.”

Outsourcing has become the common trend for many businesses in order to save money and time. Eurek said his company works together with global companies instead of working against them.

“The trend over the last ten years has been for these large companies to look outside the United States,” he said.” “Today these same corporations are looking to see if they can view rural United States much like they view India and China, which is a lower cost for same services.”

“We’re a little different than a lot of these outsourcing companies,” Eurek said. “The best of both worlds is to use a combination of some offshore and some domestic sourcing. We promote the best situation and the solution for these clients is to look globally and locally for the best resources.  We call it cross sourcing.”

Eurek said that any businesses planning to start in the technology field should consider such moves in order to successfully compete and in the end, jobs are created locally.

“To be most competitive, I need to look at the rest of the global work force as a collaborative work force,” Eurek said. “I think that’s key as we move forward because [companies outside the U.S.] are competitors, but working together by creating a job in the United States it’s a net sum gain.”

Eurek said the push for technological development in Nebraska is not as widely accepted. He also said that once it’s tapped, Nebraskans prove to be as hard working at it as they usually are about everything.

“The other thing we’re experiencing and learning is that the rural areas in the U.S. haven’t been successful in the technology sector because we never move forward in the technology sector,” he said. “Once we’ve gotten into it, we’re good at it.”

Starting a technology company in the heartland begins with education. Eurek said the younger generations are likely to have more technology opportunities through education at the university levels and more local collegiate institutions are providing this training.

“For the younger generation, they need to seriously consider a technology career living here in Nebraska,” Eurek said. “In years prior, if one wanted a technology career, it meant leaving the area. But today with the connectivity with the Internet, we can sit here in Neb. and [perform the same technological jobs].”

Eurek said that business ventures like this one are similar to the pioneer settlers of the last centuries because many outside Nebraska view this area as one thing or another. While Eurek said the collaboration with international markets and larger metropolitan businesses is essential and beneficial for all businesses, he also said it’s possible to establish a business in technology in Nebraska while successfully competing with other markets.

“Based on the whole global makeup, we find that we can do it just as well here as we can in larger metropolitan areas or global areas.”