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Edafio Technology Partners of North Little Rock had humble beginnings: It was started in 1999 by executives of Little Rock accounting firm JPMS Cox when they couldn’t find a local information technology company to meet their needs.
From there, Edafio has grown into a full-service provider and $20 million company with offices in North Little Rock, Conway and Rogers. It employs 107 and anticipates hiring 20 more in the first half of this year, according to Marketing Director Melissa Swann.
She said building a more diverse team would be the firm’s focus during the next three years.
Edafio provides “world-class IT services to businesses across the region. ... We’re located in their backyard. How we like to think of ourselves is that human touch with IT,” Swann said. “The level of and the extensiveness of our service offerings, I think, also is a unique differentiator.”
The firm has embraced offering private cloud and cybersecurity services. In addition, helping health care practices comply with HIPAA and other requirements constitutes about 60% of its business, Swann said.
Last year was a big year for Edafio, not only because of the challenges wrought by the pandemic, but also because Kenny Kinley took over as its CEO in January. He had been president of the company for two years before that.
Swann said the challenges Edafio faced because of the pandemic and have overcome include a supply chain disruption that affected the hardware it works with, having to respond quickly to an uptick in old and new clients needing help transitioning their employees to working remotely, and meeting client needs without putting its own employees at risk.
Fortunately, Edafio recently began focusing on providing cybersecurity services, which old and new clients needed when they became more vulnerable to breaches as they transitioned to a more remote workforce. Swann said new clients realized how thorough the firm was when it performed risk assessments and went on to engage Edafio in longer-term relationships.
