Go Daddy Hiawatha facility ready to grow

Hiawatha Mayor Tom Theis took Go Daddy President and Chief Operating Officer Warren Adelman aside after a ribbon-cutting at Go Daddy's new Hiawatha facility.

Theis handed Adelman his business card, and urged him to call if there was ever anything – anything at all – Go Daddy needed from the city.

After a brief but highly publicized duel with Cedar Rapids for a new Go Daddy facility, the company was up and running in Hiawatha, and Theis said later that he has every intention of making sure the company is comfortable there.

Adelman apologized for the unavailability of Go Daddy President Bob Parsons, celebrity spokeswoman Danica Patrick, and, the Go Daddy girls. He jokingly waved a skimpy Go Daddy blouse, saying his public relations department had given it to him with the suggestion that a volunteer could be found.

“We are taking customer care calls live now here in go Daddy Hiawatha!” Adelman told a crowd of over 100 employees and community representatives. He said one seven-person customer care team was operating, and the first customer care training class for others is in progress.

The company is looking to fill about 60 positions immediately, and expects to hire 150 more over the next year.

“I predict we will happily fill Hiawatha,” Adelman said of the 55,000-square-foot facility.

Most of the hires will be in customer care positions, which Adelman said typically pay in a range of $14 per hour exclusive of bonuses and commissions. He said the company will also hire information technology positions that will pay from $70,000 to $100,000, however.

References were made by Iowa Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge and others to the building's  history as the former home of Parsons Technology, a company founded in Cedar Rapids by Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons.]

Judge said the new facility, which eventually is expected to employ 500-600, will aid the state's economic recovery.

“Their decision shows faith in Iowa's people, in our economy, and our ability to provide them with the workers they need,” Judge said.

Adelman said Go Daddy's core market for its  web site hosting, domain name registration, e-mail and other services are small businesses.

“Over 70 percent of our customers are small businesses,” Adelman said. “they look at us as their IT (information technology) business partner.”

Adelman said the operation has begun with one shift, but will be adding a second customer care shift.

International business makes up about 16-17 percent of Go Daddy's total, a number the Arizona-based company hopes to boost with new data centers that opened in Amsterdam nine months ago and in Singapore last week.

Adelman said some of the company's biggest technical skill needs are in LINUX systems administration, MY SQL and SQL data bases, network security, Microsoft Windows administration, and C++ coding.

“We need the community colleges and universities to be focusing their curriculum on computer services and these specific areas,” Adelman said.

Adelman said fewer hard skills are needed for customer care positions, mainly “a good head on their shoulders.”