Computer company plans to move to Iowa from New Jersey

A New Jersey computer tech company’s moving its offices from the east coast to Iowa. Protocol Driven Healthcare Incorporated got 320-thousand dollars from the state to help seal the deal. Jennifer Jolley, the company’s president, says they’ll move about five employees from the company’s New Jersey office and employ about 50 in a new downtown Des Moines office. P-D-H-I is a health care technology company that specializes in web-based services that help in disease management. H-M-Os, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are among the firm’s clients. In addition to the jobs, the company will move its data storage facility from Manhattan to Des Moines. Jolley says her company stores a lot of critical information for its clients, and the New York metro area is not the most secure location, and moving that data storage to Des Moines is a “high priority.” Jolley’s firm looked at Dallas and the east coast before settling on Des Moines. Jolley says Iowa has a well-educated work force, and the quality of life in Iowa will be an advantage for the company’s employees. She says it’s hard to recruit and retain employees in New Jersey because the cost of living is very, very high. Paul Greenwood, another executive in the company, says the average wage for workers will be 63-thousand dollars a year. Greenwood says there’s “wonderful talent” coming out of the state’s universities, and they hope to hire programmers, statisticians and medical experts. In addition, the company will move its data storage facility from Manhattan to Des Moines. Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie was on hand for yesterday’s announcement. Cownie says city officials look forward to the addition of more high tech jobs in Des Moines, which he says will hopefully keep more young people in Iowa and the city of Des Moines. P-D-H-I officials hope to open their Des Moines office in June or July.