GroupEleven Plugs In, Finds Space to Thrive in Westerville

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

One of the Columbus Region’s “Fast 50” companies (2022 Columbus Business First), GroupEleven, located at 214 Hoff Rd., has called Westerville home for the last 16 years.

President and CEO Patrick Knott is answering questions about why they continue to choose Westerville and how they have plugged into the community for more than a decade.

Tell us about GroupEleven.

We are an outsourced IT department for small- to medium-sized businesses. We provide IT strategy, infrastructure, project management, and security services for businesses that can’t justify, or prefers not, to have full-time IT staff.

How would you describe your company culture?

We are a relationship-oriented business, placing a high value on employee, client, and partner relationships. We don’t have a lot of employee turnover and many of our clients have been with us for longer than 10 years. While we take our jobs seriously, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We enjoy the work we do and try to have fun while providing quality service.

GroupEleven recently celebrated some major renovations. Tell us about what was done and why.

We moved into the Hoff Road Business Park in 2018. At the time, the space was about twice as big as what we needed. As we have grown over the last few years, we needed to provide additional, and more comfortable, work areas for our staff. Also, coming out of COVID, we wanted to provide an open and welcoming space for our associates as they returned to the office. We worked with Dupler to design a modern, vibrant and functional space. Features include standing desks, lounge areas, white noise, shuffleboard, digital signage and a soundproof, two-person booth where associates can take calls or have meetings privately.

GroupEleven is a passionate supporter of local community groups. Why is it so important to your company culture to give back?

Being active in the Westerville Community is very important to us. [I am] a member and Past President of the Westerville Sunrise Rotary Club. I am also a past Chair of the Field of Heroes and the Chilly Open. GroupEleven provides all the IT support for the Field of Heroes, including the flag sales and dedication system. We encourage our employees to get involved in our community. We held a social event in December where we made blankets benefiting My Very Own Blanket, a Westerville-based non-profit.

Tell us about your experience working with the City of Westerville.

The City has been a great partner for us as we have grown. We were one of the first organizations to contract with WeConnect for Internet, Metro Fiber, and co-location services. These services are very important to our business as we use them to provide disaster recovery services for our clients. The City has also been very helpful in communicating its strategy for the future, allowing us to align with its goals. We have participated in the City’s Business Leader Breakfasts hosted by the Economic Development Team and participated in the presentation to the ICF in 2019 when Westerville was designated a Top7 Intelligent Community.

To learn more about GroupEleven, visit www.groupeleven.com