It's a Casper company whose year-over growth numbers would be the envy of most enterprises.

But many people in town probably don't know that ISC Corp. even exists, let alone understand what it does.

For the record, the core of ISC's business is computer networking, and reselling, installing and servicing Cisco Systems equipment.

Also for the record, ISC has routinely experienced 35 percent to 40 percent annual growth.

But making money is only part of the company's game plan.

"Our whole idea starting out the company was we wanted to build a fun place to work, where more or less we could hire all our friends, and we could all make a good living and eventually retire from ISC," said Jeff Ehrenhart, operations manager.

ISC was founded by CEO Win Farnsworth, who was joined in the venture soon thereafter by Ehrenhart. The company was launched on April Fool's Day 1998, which Ehrenhart says was appropriate: "There's a lot of people who thought we were fools for doing this."

Little did the skeptics suspect that in less that 10 years, ISC Corp. would grow into a company with offices in Casper, Denver and Salt Lake City and projected revenue this year of over $50 million.

One of ISC's original goals was to provide network expertise to smaller towns.

Over the years, Ehrenhart said Wyoming has become rather advanced technologically, considering the small population.

"We've got teeny, tiny little school districts that have absolutely state-of-the-art technology in their schools right now," he said, among them Pinedale and Big Piney in energy rich Sublette County. "We've kind of run out of things to talk to them about."

ISC's initial focus on schools and school districts has broadened to include governmental and health-care organizations, as well as corporations more generally.

Ehrenhart said since governmental and school budgets often are built around fiscal years that start on July 1, the corporate business has allowed ISC to smooth income flows across the rest of the year.

"The problem is as a reseller to those vertical markets, we have peaks and valleys based on their spending habits," he said.

Like many Casper employers, ISC has had a difficult time finding enough good workers, despite high pay and good benefits.

Ehrenhart said a person with basic skills fresh out of college might expect to start at about $30,000 a year, but with higher certification levels and solid field experience, that could increase to $120,000 or more over a period of five to seven years.

ISC casts a wide net to find skilled employees, both nationally and internationally. But Ehrenhart said Casper's small size has been a stumbling block. Most of the company's prospects live in major metropolitan areas and prefer that lifestyle.

"The vast majority of the people we go to hire want to go to our Denver office," he said.

ISC recently sold its Denver office facilities and will be moving to a new building.

Company officials also plan to construction a new headquarters building in Casper that will include an 84-seat auditorium for lectures and meetings. One site being considered is west of the Three Crowns Golf Course on the Platte River Commons.

No matter what turns cutting-edge technology may take, Ehrenhart said the future at ISC is bound to be interesting.

"If you're someone that likes to have a comfort zone, you like doing the same thing day in and day out, year after year, this is not the industry for you," he said.

Business Editor Tom Mast can be reached at tom.mast@casperstartribune.net, or call 307-266-0574.