BELFAST - Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge submitted a grant application last week on behalf of Ashland, Mass.-based OnProcess Technology for $1.1 million toward setting up offices in Belfast. If that happens, the company has pledged to invest an equal amount of its own money and create 50 new jobs here.

That’s all “if.” And for now, the company is keeping quiet about its plans.

According to Kittredge, the results of the grant bid won’t be known for close to a month. In the meantime, here’s a summary of what has been made public:

• OnProcess has been working with Portland-based Maine & Company — the nonprofit business attraction group that helped broker the deal to bring athenahealth to Belfast in 2007. Peter DelGreco, President and CEO of Maine & Company, appeared before the Belfast City Council on behalf of OnProcess at a grant application hearing in January.

• The grant money would be used to buy equipment to outfit a new operations center in Belfast — possibly in a vacant portion of the Bank of America building. The money would also be used for working capital and job training. 

• Of the 50 jobs the company expects to create, roughly 40 would be entry- or near-entry level customer service positions starting at $11 per hour. The rest would primarily be in management. Wages there would be higher, topped by site manager who would reportedly be paid $45-50 per hour.
 

Penbaypilot.com contacted OnProcess Techonology this week and spoke with Candyce Plante, vice president of marketing. She hinted that there was a lot of excitement about the Belfast proposal, but said she could not add to what the company had already released.  

“Stay tuned,” she said.
 

What does OnProcess do?

Unless you already work in the field of corporate logistics, the OnProcess website is a tricky read. The FAQ page, which begins with the promisingly-dopey question “What do you people do?” turns out to be not much more clear.

The good news, according to Plante, is that OnProcess knows people are confused. The company is in the process of revising some descriptions, she said, including a short “boilerplate” statement about the company. She provided this updated draft:

OnProcess Technology is a managed services provider specializing in complex, global service supply chain operations – the flow of people, parts and services following the sale of a product. The company’s deep expertise, technology-driven delivery and continual analytics-based process improvement, enable clients to quickly optimize efficiencies, scale operations, grow revenue and profitability, and deliver superior customer experiences.  

Contact Ethan Andrews at: news@penbaypilot.com