Recently Columbus Inno featured ARCOS’s notable growth in an article that covers the Treverity acquisition and contract expansion with a key customer, AEP. Also included in the article are several comments and insights from ARCOS’s CEO, Odus “Boogie” Wittenburg, regarding further growth potential.
A fast-growing Columbus software maker has acquired a complementary company, part of a plan to amp up annual growth.
ARCOS LLC, which helps utilities and critical infrastructure companies deploy crews and equipment, can now upsell Treverity Inc.'s data analytics and collaboration software to its more than 200 customers – only two overlapped, CEO Odus “Boogie” Wittenburg said. And the joint engineering team will create new products that augment the total offering,
"It really is a holistic opportunity for us to expand our mission to serve utilities, and focus on bringing higher levels of safety (and) efficiency," Wittenburg said in an interview.
"One of the trends in the industry is there's not enough labor," he said. "This started 10 years ago – there is more work to be done than the number of people who are qualified ... to work on electrical equipment."
The deal follows a 50% expansion of the software subscription by ARCOS' largest and oldest client, American Electric Power Company Inc.
ARCOS revenue, which is not disclosed, has grown on average 22% over the past five years. Organic growth like work with AEP, the acquisition and the remaking of the C-suite over the past year have the company poised to top 30%, Wittenburg said.
"I consider ARCOS a small but mighty company," Wittenburg said. "We're very profitable."
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Treverity is based in Austin, where Wittenburg also lives, and its remote staff of nearly 10 all joined ARCOS.
"The people are really important," Wittenburg said. "They've been deeply embedded in (utility) operations. ... They will be an important part of our growth rate."
Treverity was 10 years old, but had focused on its software platform for the last four years after doing custom development for utilities.
The merged ARCOS and Treverity can help bring the highly manual or spreadsheet-managed systems of century-old utilities into the digital age, he said.
"Their platform is very modern, cloud-based, and really allows you to pull data from a myriad of systems and assemble it in ways to make better decisions and take action,"
Wittenburg said. Wittenburg is coming up on his first anniversary as CEO in February, having been recruited after leading high-growth teams at both private and publicly traded technology companies. He has recruited three C-suite executives in technology, product development and marketing.
While most of executives in the company live out of state, ARCOS opened a new Polaris-area headquarters last year and remains committed to Columbus, he said.
"We have the opportunity actually to deepen our ties with Columbus," he said.
Majority owned by Austin private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, ARCOS has made Columbus Business First's Fast 50 list of the fastest-growing private companies 11 times in 14 years. Founded in 2005, it last made a spate of acquisitions five years ago.
Could ARCOS have helped with last year's blackouts?
Utilities face the dual pressures of changing workforce demographics and the rise in severe weather events, Arcos President Ross Fuller said.
"We support them to help keep the lights on for roughly 80% of households in the United States," he said. "We’re bringing a software solution to make the utility workers’ lives easier."
AEP, with seven operating companies, since 2011 has used ARCOS software for calling out crews to emergencies. Late last year it added subscriptions for new products, including ones that apply to everyday construction and maintenance, Fuller said. The Mobile Workbench product, which managers and crews can access from smartphones, is expected to attract new clients.
Expanding use of ARCOS software to coordinate field crews are part of an ongoing digital transformation, AEP said in response to questions from Columbus Inno.
"From outfitting trucks with iPads to rolling out the ARCOS software across our service territory, we’re working to ensure team members in the field have the information they need at their fingertips to complete jobs safely and seamlessly ... with more intuitive technology solutions," the company said in a statement.
AEP Ohio had not yet expanded its use of ARCOS during last year's storms and heat wave that caused widespread outages when a transmission line went down, the utility said through a spokeswoman.
"I do believe, and the data backs it up, that folks who use ARCOS for call-out in ... transmission or distribution line failure, it allows a utility to assemble crews more rapidly and get on the job more rapidly," Wittenburg said.
"Those perfect storms, they're going to happen," he said. "The more any utility, whether using ARCOS or some other solution, can automate their business practices, the better off they will be."
The Treverity acquisition helps a parallel goal to ensure utilities turn to ARCOS on "blue-sky" days as well, he said.
"We want our software to be used every single day by our customers ... business as usual, and when there's an emergency," he said. "Treverity will allow us to enhance the capabilities we're already delivering."
