History

Founding

EMSI was founded in 1987 as Robison and Associates, and became Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc. in 1995. EMSI specialized in regional input/output modeling, and began producing its own regional economic data throughout the 1990s as a basis for input/output models.

Directions

In February of 2000 CCbenefits, Inc. was formed as a sister company in collaboration with the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), to deal specifically with the data needs of community colleges. While producing Socioeconomic Impact (SEIM) Reports for community colleges, the company quickly realized the colleges' acute need for accurate and detailed regional economic data. Refining and improving on the processes pioneered during the previous decade, EMSI produced their first comprehensive national dataset for CCbenefits in 2003. Released first in a tool designed specifically for community colleges (the Community College Strategic Planner), a year later, the EMSI dataset was released in the Strategic Advantage toolkit designed for workforce boards, economic development groups, and government agencies with a role in regional development.

Today

In 2007, the companies were both merged under EMSI, and the tools were combined and comprehensively revised to simplify and speed access to regional economic data. Today, as at our founding, we continue to search out new ways to derive the most accurate dataset and formulate the most intuitive and practical ways of presenting it to our customers.