Former Voplex building
new home for WNYCS

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Tired of tripping among five separate buildings, Western New York Computing Systems Inc. is relocating under one roof.
The Rochester Top 100 leader is unpacking its bags at the mushroom- shaped Voplex Corp. building in Penfield. Most of the firm’s 100 local employees moved last month, President Raymond Hutch said.
The computer retailer’s service department will join them in late July, when a 6,000-square-foot addition to the building is completed. Plans call for a storage facility to be added by October, bringing the total floor space to 35,000 square feet.
Meanwhile, WNYCS is looking for ways to offset the loss of its Xerox Corp. business. Last June, Xerox awarded an outsourcing contract to Electronic Data Systems Corp., which now handles worldwide data processing and computer network services for the document company.
“We’ve lost revenue there, as have most local suppliers,” Hutch said.
Last year, WNYCS reported $55 million in sales, up from $46 million in 1992. For the past two years the company has claimed the Rochester Top 100’s top spot.
Profitable for 24 years, WNYCS finds margins in the computer retailing business narrowing, Hutch said, noting that product prices are diving 20 percent every year.
“Now it’s a challenge just to stay even,” he said.
The firm’s move into higher-margin data processing services helps soften that pinch.
WNYCS does selective outsourcing for a range of firms in this region, including Goulds Pumps Inc., Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. and Fay’s Inc. The company also handles all data processing and computer services for smaller firms.
In addition to its Rochester operations, WNYCS runs a 16-employee office in Syracuse and another in Buffalo, with 28 workers. The firm might open a third branch in Corning to handle its computer support contract with Corning Inc., Hutch said.
Hutch plans to sell only one of the four buildings that previously housed his company.
The building on Five Mile Line Road that was home to Hutch’s start-up company in the early 1970s now holds the firm’s data center. Western New York Medical Systems Inc., which handles billing for radiology departments in several local hospitals, also is located there.
The old Penfield library, formerly used as office space, now is earmarked for project overflow. And the red brick house next to that serves as headquarters for a new magazine being published by his daughter, Kristina Hutch.
WNYCS is leasing warehouse space until the storage facility at its new location is completed, Hutch said.