Technology & innovation.

• Author: Henderson, Christina Quick
• Position: FASTER GROWTH FOR HIGH-TECH

In 2015, a University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) survey of Montana High Tech Business Alliance (MHTBA) members captured for the first time data measuring the size and growth potential of Montana's high tech sector. The report found that Montana high tech and manufacturing firms are growing eight to 10 times the rate of the overall state economy, paying twice the median wage--about $50,000.

The high tech industry in Montana is not limited by geography. While there are more prominent concentrations of high tech firms located in Gallatin and Missoula counties, these companies are boosting local economies across the state including the Flathead, the Bitterroot, Great Falls, Helena, Billings and Butte-Anaconda. Central Montana's manufacturing cluster in Lewistown has created upward of 500 jobs in a community of 6,500 people.

Montana's high tech firms are diverse, but software and software-as-a-service are by far the largest industry sub-group. Perhaps the most prominent is RightNow Technologies, which employs 1,100 people, half in Bozeman. The average wage was $86,000 when it sold to Oracle in 2011 for $1.8 billion. Other software leaders include EDULOG in Missoula, which was founded 35 years ago, employing 150 people, and Zoot Enterprises in Bozeman, founded 25 years ago and employing 250 people.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents in the high tech industry survey said Montana's quality of life provided a significant advantage to doing business. More than a quarter of firms cited Montana's high-quality...