Rearden Raising R&D Spending

Rearden Commerce plans to increase its 2009 research and development spending by 15 percent to 20 percent over 2008 levels as the company moves further into its "hyper-growth mode," said CEO Patrick Grady.

Product releases planned for the first half of the year include new mobile applications in the first quarter and a small business "out-of-the-box" product in the second quarter.

The technology development expenditure increase comes at a time when many companies are scaling back their own technology development initiatives and other cost-cutting measures, including workforce reductions.

In mid-November, Rearden implemented its own layoffs, pink-slipping 10 percent of its workforce or about 40 employees, Grady this week confirmed to Business Travel News. Most of the cuts were in redundant positions created from its 2008 acquisitions of expense management software provider ExpenseWire and ground transportation reservation services company Global Ground Automation.

"Not just due to the economic downturn, but in the ordinary course of business we from an HR perspective made changes to the organization," said Grady. "There were top performers and we let go of others and optimized where we are going to invest."

With the company targeting its R&D for investment, Rearden is "hiring aggressively" and even with many travel technology companies seeking cheaper labor through outsourcing such competencies as basic software development and maintenance, Grady said, "We will never ever outsource research and development."

In October, the Foster City, Calif.-based company secured a distribution agreement with payroll and human resource services company Paychex to resell Rearden-owned ExpenseWire. The agreement gives Rearden access to a network of more than 500,000 small and midsize businesses, according to Grady.