Company enjoys huge growth on Arsenal Island By Rita Pearson, rpearson@qconline.com May 20, 2008 Since it opened two years ago with a couple dozen employees, a high-tech document processing and storage company has increased the size of its operation on Arsenal Island to include more than 300 employees. AmCad Digital Conversion celebrated a 32,500 square foot expansion to its operation on Wednesday with a ribboncutting and open house. The company recently completed the expansion of a state-of-the-art certified Kodak micrographics and vault storage facility and has added more than 150 additional employees. The Rock Island Arsenal Development Group assisted in the building expansion with $4.19 million in federal funding. The RIADG previously invested $2.46 million in federal funding to convert vacant warehouse space built in 1918 into offices and a storage vault in 2006. AmCad, the largest of 20 private tenants on Arsenal Island in terms of space and employees, is an example of the type of growing, high-tech firm community leaders want to see in the Quad-Cities, said Carrie O'Neill, chairman of the Quad City Development Group and a partner in the public-private development. The company generates about $500,000 a year in rent that helps offset the Rock Island Arsenal's overhead by utilizing otherwise vacant space, said Tim Frye, site manager for the Rock Island Arsenal Development Group. AmCad offers microfilm conversion, document scanning, indexing, micrographic services and enterprise imaging solutions to its customers, including Deere & Co., Rockwell Collins, Modern Woodmen, TACOM and various county, state and federal government agencies. The documents stored on-site range from rare, one-of-a-kind paper documents of corporations to electronic data stored on floppy disks. AmCad performs customized scanning, indexing, document storage, film production, disaster recovery and web hosting services for its clients. AmCad has the largest collection of secured Social Security numbers secured in the nation, said company chief executive Ron Cornelison. The five vaults are temperature and humidity controlled and insulated with ceramic fiber panels to withhold the air temperature below 125 degrees Fahrenheit for up to four hours in the case of a fire. Firewalls outside the vaults can withstand temperatures up to more than 2,000 degrees, said Todd M. Smith,director of marketing for Firelock Fireproof Modular Vaults, Kutztown, Penn. A typical building fire can reach 1,800 degrees, he said. AmCad's work with sensitive data and documents fits well with the Arsenal's secure military base, which provides 24-hour security and fire protection.The former Advanced Document Conversion merged with AmCad LLC, a document and records management solutions company, and moved onto Arsenal Island from Rock Island in 2006. AmCad quickly grew locally from 24 to 65 employees. The company employs 320 people today. The 22-year-old company has transformed from a software development company to a fullservice software application solutions business. Company headquarters are based in Herndon, Va.