Press Releases

Stay up-to-date on the latest happenings at ARCOS, the leader in utility resource management solutions.

Mar 19 2019
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ARCOS automates callout for NorthWestern Energy

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COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ARCOS® LLC has implemented its automated callout system for NorthWestern Energy, a provider of electricity and gas to 709,000 residential and business customers in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. The utility runs ARCOS around the clock to call out first responders across its electric and gas operations to respond to system and customer needs. NorthWestern Energy also uses the ARCOS solution to determine which additional resources the utility should activate for restoration work.

Until implementing ARCOS, the utility relied on a manual process for calling out resources after hours. NorthWestern says the manual tracking done to tally the percentage of callouts accepted by an employee was prone to errors. The errors made it difficult to determine which employees weren’t accepting a reasonable amount of call outs.

ARCOS now helps with reporting and tracking and provides supervisors with an opportunity to understand who accepts callouts on a regular basis. According to NorthWestern Energy’s managers, the process has truly become the responsibility of the employee, which makes individuals more accountable. NorthWestern Energy’s supervisors also say the ARCOS solution gives workers the flexibility to make themselves available or unavailable for callouts during time periods that align with what’s happening for them professionally or personally. For example, if workers are in training or sick, they can take their name off the callout list. When employees have a commitment outside of work, they can set a callout schedule (covering a period of up to 72 hours) that accommodates time off.

With ARCOS automating callouts, the utility’s after-hours dispatchers in Montana have noticed that the time it takes to reach the utility’s first-responders has gone from several minutes to seconds. Since callouts are no longer handled manually, the dispatchers now have more time for analyzing and responding to situations affecting the system and their customers. With NorthWestern’s workers’ shifts contained in ARCOS, managers can better plan daily shifts, easily report on who is and isn’t working and efficiently respond to interruptions in service.

Feb 05 2019
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ARCOS to help EnergyUnited prep for emergencies, track rest-time for line workers

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – February 5, 2019 – This spring, ARCOS® LLC will implement its resource management solution to automate Statesville, N.C.-based EnergyUnited’s process for managing callout opportunities, providing emergency training and tracking rest periods for its line workers.

“Tropical storms Florence and Michael and snowstorm Diego and winter storm Gia directly impacted our system within a three-month period,” said John McMurray, chief operating officer for EnergyUnited. “With our present method of manually calling employees, it detracts from our dispatchers’ attention on storm restoration. Dispatchers are busy notifying crews, while outages are placed on hold to monitor and provide equally distributed employee opportunities for outage restoration.”

EnergyUnited, the largest electric cooperative in North Carolina, plans to launch the ARCOS Callout and Scheduling Suite during the second quarter of 2019. The utility will use ARCOS as its platform for responding to, restoring and reporting on outages. According to McMurray, equitably spreading callout opportunities among all qualified field personnel provides additional emergency training situations that boost workers’ skills.

In the future, when major storms threaten EnergyUnited’s system, says McMurray, the utility will know that all its line workers are better prepared to collectively respond to co-op members. The ARCOS solution will also ensure that when EnergyUnited’s field workers are between shifts they take the required rest period to recuperate and prepare for more work. With its manually handled rest-time process, EnergyUnited relies on its managers and employees to write down or recall the number of hours they worked and rested.

“We’re relying on people’s memory; we want to automate and document the process for rest time,” adds McMurray. “Automating the process with ARCOS means we’ll more efficiently distribute emergency work and track responses and rest periods.”

With the ARCOS solution, managers, dispatchers, substation personnel, line workers and a variety of other classifications will be able to plan, launch and track the status of automated, after-hours calls from their desktops, tablets and smartphones. EnergyUnited delivers electricity to approximately 250,000 people via 195 miles of transmission, 8,100 miles of overhead distribution and 4,300 miles of underground distribution lines. 

For inquires and questions, contact us here.

Jan 14 2019
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ARCOS launches Incident Manager software to automate emergency response

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – January 14, 2019 – ARCOS® LLC – a provider of resource management software and services for critical infrastructure industries – has released its new Incident Manager software to help utilities and other industries automatically plan for and respond to emergencies ranging from storms to security breaches.

“A company might have its own methodology for emergency response or follow FEMA’s Incident Command Structure, or ICS. Either way, supervisors can use Incident Manager to automatically activate employees for their emergency roles and carry out drills,” said Bill Brackett, vice president for Services and Support at ARCOS. “Executives can use Incident Manager to capture a real-time view of their entire organization’s state of operational readiness, including any gaps in resources.”

ARCOS designed Incident Manager for organizations to use in preparing for emergencies, including mobilizing staff to respond to emergent events. But the tool also plays a valuable role in recording real-time actions and data reports that are part of emergency response. As both an emergency and blue-sky, or daily, operations platform for any event, employers can use Incident Manager to replace paper files, emails and phone calls with dashboards, computerized ICS templates and IVR and SMS.

“With Incident Manager, company leaders can outline an emergency scenario and develop an organizational structure with the resources and roles needed for response,” added Matt Mikula, senior director of product management for ARCOS. “Organizations can then create a cloud-based action plan alerting personnel, confirming employee response and documenting progress during the event, including winding down operations and releasing workers from emergency roles.”

As employers either ramp up or scale back their emergency response, Incident Manager will fire off notifications to any grouping of employees, while determining employee readiness and location. Through APIs, ARCOS can integrate Incident Manager with an organization’s document management system to archive action reports (e.g., ICS Form 215A “Incident Action Plan Safety Analysis”) and written directives during an event, tapping this storehouse afterward for best practices. Executives can also draw from Incident Manager’s archive to quickly develop reports for government agencies and other third parties. Incident Manager’s ability to create templates and store documents gives managers closed-loop reporting and feedback that no manual process can mirror. Incident Manager complements the ARCOS Resource Management platform, which organizations use as a platform for responding to, restoring and reporting on daily operations and interruptions in service.

To see a sneak peek of Incident Manager in action, watch this video.

Dec 05 2018
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ARCOS named 2018 BizTech Award Honoree for Role in Keeping Utilities, Airlines and Manufacturing Plants Running

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – December 5, 2018 – Columbus Business First has selected ARCOS LLC as a 2018 BizTech Award honoree in the Outstanding Product category for the software maker’s resource management platform, which utilities, airlines and manufacturers use to respond to daily and extraordinary disruptions to service and operations.

“During daily operations and unplanned events, which interrupt service, companies use our platform to locate, dispatch and track workers who can restore service,” said Bruce Duff, chief executive officer of ARCOS. “The platform ARCOS has today was born in 1997 when our founder Mitch McLeod automated the process of assembling utility crews for emergency work.”

Since then, the ARCOS platform has grown to become a critical resource management system for airlines and manufacturers. Prior to ARCOS, there was no single way to fully automate contacting and managing crews. The process was almost exclusively a manual one, linked with phone calls, spreadsheets and paper lists. These manual processes result in cancelled flights, an inability to keep production lines running at capacity, and employee grievances sometimes totalling $100,000 or more. With complex rules for how and when employees get overtime, employers relying on manual processes often struggle to get workers where they’re needed, which can delay flights or extend a power outage. Flawlessly mirroring these rules and scenarios is a hallmark of ARCOS’s crew management software, damage assessment solution and automated callout system.

The BizTech Awards highlight companies, like ARCOS, that are technology and innovation leaders across Central Ohio. The Outstanding Product Award recognizes firms that have achieved success launching unique, innovative solutions.

“Our technology finds resources wherever they are and sends them to wherever they’re needed, often within minutes” added Duff.  “Utility companies say our technology is a ‘game-changer’ because it helps them better gauge restoration costs; airlines can use our platform to reduce canceled and delayed flights; manufacturers can automate the scheduling of hundreds, or thousands, of workers covered by dozens of bargaining agreements across multiple shifts, which ensures every line in a plant is covered.”

The ARCOS platform consists of solutions such as:  ARCOS’s crew management software, which managers use to automatically assemble available crews, analyze crew response and report outcomes; the ARCOS Damage Assessment solution for shortening from days to hours the process of surveying damage caused by major events like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma; and, ARCOS Resource Assist™, which automates the manual process of managing contracted or mutual assistance workers and equipment.

About ARCOS LLC

ARCOS is a leader in delivering SaaS solutions for managing the resources of critical infrastructure sectors. The ARCOS solution goes beyond the callout of crews and automatically plans for all types of events, and reports on the up-to-the-minute location and status of equipment and crews via mobile technology for utilities, airlines, manufacturers and industrial facilities. The ARCOS resource management platform helps utilities, airlines, manufacturers and industrial facilities save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction and the efficiency and accuracy of operations. Learn more about ARCOS resource management software at  https://www.arcos-inc.com

Nov 30 2018
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ARCOS automates call for help in ‘Land of the Midnight Sun’

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ARCOS moose

ARCOS® LLC – a provider of resource management software and services for critical infrastructure industries – will soon implement its solution for automating the way Fairbanks, Alaska-based Golden Valley Electric Association responds to, restores and reports on outages.

Using the ARCOS Callout and Scheduling solutions, GVEA’s supervisors, dispatchers and line workers, among others, can plan, launch and track the status of automated, after-hours calls for emergency crews from their desktops, tablets and smartphones. GVEA will begin rolling out the ARCOS suite to line crew sections, then plant workers and, eventually, non-union workers needed for storm roles.

Gary Betsill, vice president of Operations for GVEA, joined the utility from Georgia Power where his former colleagues still use ARCOS to mobilize crews for after-hours emergencies and storm response.

“When I arrived in 2017,” said Betsill, “the in-house callout program we used was rudimentary.  It could do a straight callout, but if you introduced a second- or third-man scenario, it didn’t work.”

With ARCOS, GVEA will ensure it calls out lineworkers according to the bargaining agreements in place with the locals of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and International Union of Operating Engineers. The agreements with the unions confirm, in part, the equitable distribution of overtime. In fact, mirroring complex work agreements is a hallmark of the ARCOS solution.

“I sold ARCOS to our management by telling them the product’s claim to fame is absolutely emulating the contractual obligations for callout procedures, every time,” added Betsill.

But Alaska will surely offer some new and unique callout circumstances for ARCOS.

“We’ve had snow drifts so high a moose has walked into the power line and caused an outage,” recalled Betsill. “We’ve had eight-foot drifts where caribou have walked over the fence, right into a substation.”

Based on his past experience, Betsill also believes the ARCOS solution will reduce GVEA’s System Average Interruption Duration Index, or SAIDI, which will be a bonus for the cooperative’s members. The ARCOS platform will also serve a role in helping union workers participate for the first time in GVEA’s Incentive Employee Program. Among the IEP goals for line workers is achieving a 50-percent callout acceptance rate, which the ARCOS solution will track.

According to its website, GVEA operates and maintains 3,216 miles of transmission and distribution lines, 35 substations and 8 generating facilities covering a 5,973-square-mile service territory.

About ARCOS LLC

ARCOS is a leader in delivering SaaS solutions for managing the resources of critical infrastructure sectors. The ARCOS solution goes beyond the callout of crews and automatically plans for all types of events, and reports on the up-to-the-minute location and status of equipment and crews via mobile technology for utilities, airlines, manufacturers and industrial facilities. The ARCOS resource management platform helps utilities, airlines, manufacturers and industrial facilities save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction and the efficiency and accuracy of operations. Learn more about ARCOS resource management software at  https://www.arcos-inc.com.

Oct 18 2018
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ARCOS among Central Ohio’s 50 fastest-growing companies

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – October 18, 2018 – ARCOS LLC has again won a place on the Columbus Business First Fast 50 – the annual list of the 50 fastest-growing emerging companies in Central Ohio. This year ARCOS ranks #38, at 31.8 percent growth. The Fast 50 Award recognizes companies for financial growth and performance over the past three years. ARCOS has made the list ten times in the last 12 years. Of the nearly 460 companies that have been on the list since it began in 1996, only two – Progressive Medical, Inc. (14) and Sequent (12) – have made more times.

“Being on this list year after year is a testament to our employees and their commitment, teamwork and responsibility,” said Bruce Duff, chief executive officer of ARCOS LLC. “They’ve built a bond with our customers that’s unheard of – 100 percent of our clients are referenceable; we have a 100-percent success rate implementing our technology.

“We’re committed to solving the toughest challenges for our customers working at utilities, airlines and other critical infrastructure companies,” added Duff. “We help them respond with crews, restore service and report response details during daily business disruptions or outright emergencies.”

Since appearing on the 2017 Fast 50 list, ARCOS acquired Des Moines, Iowa, RosterApps to expand its offering for the airline industry with ground crew-management and scheduling software.

Mitch McLeod, founder of ARCOS, laid the foundation for the company by identifying a crucial need in the utility industry that was critical to the firm’s early success. More than eighty-seven percent of U.S. households are served by utilities that use ARCOS technology to accurately track restoration time and speed up crew mobilization.

Today, North American electric, gas and water utilities along with power generation plants, major air carriers, manufacturers and industrial facilities rely on ARCOS to keep operations running. ARCOS resource management solutions help customers respond to after-hours and major events; restore service by quickly and safely assembling crews; and report the outcome, which informs executives, employees, first responders, regulators, media and the public.

ARCOS provides SaaS solutions solve resource management challenges that critical infrastructure companies face. The ARCOS Resource Management platform helps customers plan, respond, restore and report actions taken during normal operations or unplanned service interruptions.  Using ARCOS, utilities, airlines, manufacturers and industrial facilities improve response time and improve efficiency of resources while improving customer satisfaction.

Oct 09 2018
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ARCOS unveils first of its kind mobile app for utility workers

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – October 9, 2018 – ARCOS® LLC has released a mobile version of the ARCOS Crew Manager® software to give utility field supervisors and crews a real-time view into the location and availability of crews, vehicles, and equipment from their hand-held devices, so workers can improve collaboration and communication during construction, maintenance, and restoration work. This real-time view will save time and money for supervisors and crews who want to make decisions in the field about the availability of resources as circumstances unfold or change. Read More

Oct 02 2018
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ARCOS acquires RosterApps, expands airline industry solutions to include ground crew scheduling platform

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Columbus, Ohio – October 2, 2018 – ARCOS® LLC has acquired Des Moines, Iowa-based Sciengistics, Inc., doing business as RosterApps, a provider of airline ground crew scheduling software. This acquisition will combine RosterApps’ airline experience and shiftwork technology with the ARCOS resource management platform to fully automate the scheduling, shift-trading, callout and tracking of flight and ground crew staff.

“We acquired RosterApps to enhance our presence in the airline industry and build on our decades-long ground crew scheduling and resource management capabilities across multiple industries,” said Bruce Duff, chief executive officer of ARCOS. “The RosterApps product is very complementary to our existing ARCOS solution that helps airline carriers automate the process of finding qualified, available pilots and flight crew to fill open trips due to last-minute schedule conflicts or IROPS. Read More

Oct 01 2018
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ARCOS resource management software to help Cleco Power accelerate cost recovery

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Columbus, Ohio – October 1, 2018 – ARCOS® LLC – a provider of resource management software and services for critical infrastructure sectors – is implementing its solutions for automating the way Cleco Power: responds to storms and major events within its service territory; restores service; and reports on associated costs. Cleco Power employs approximately 1,200 people who serve nearly 290,000 retail customers in Louisiana via 12,000 miles of distribution lines.

“ARCOS will support our efforts to assemble and direct our internal and external crews,” said James Lass, general manager for Distribution Engineering & Emergency Management at Cleco Power. “ARCOS will help us provide data on response team personnel, including who was involved in the event, what they accomplished and for how long. That lets us quickly validate data and prepare a cost-analysis report.” Read More

Aug 15 2018
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ARCOS Software and Processes Certified by SOC 2 Type II Audit

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Columbus, Ohio – August 15, 2018

ARCOS® LLC successfully completed a Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type II audit for the period October 1, 2017, through March 31, 2018, to ensure the software maker is protecting its utility industry customers. Plante Moran, PLLC, a public accounting and consulting firm, conducted the independent SOC examination and evaluated and tested ARCOS’s internal operational controls and processes.

The six-month audit led to a certification, which ARCOS received in June 2018. The certification expires in June 2019. ARCOS has made its SOC 2 Type II reports available for clients and prospective customers since passing its first audit in 2014.

As hackers increasingly threaten power grids in the U.S. and abroad, software providers that serve utility companies must be vigilant about protecting their customers. According to a May 2016 article from The Hill, “There are more reported cyber incidents in the energy industry than in healthcare, finance, transportation, water and communications combined …” Read More

Mar 01 2018
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North American utilities make ARCOS Conference hub for fine-tuning emergency preparedness, resource management

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Columbus, Ohio – March 1, 2018

From March 4 – 7, 2018, in San Antonio, ARCOS® LLC will host nearly 200 attendees from North American utilities at the 15th-annual ARCOS Conference where industry speakers will present what they have learned about improving reliability, boosting emergency response and reducing restoration time. Rudy Garza, senior vice president of Distribution Services & Operations for CPS Energy, the nation’s largest municipally owned energy utility, will deliver the keynote.

This year’s agenda includes roundtables and scenario-based training with experts in emergency preparedness, operations and ICS management from gas, electric, power generation and water utilities including American Electric Power, NiSource, Southern Company and industry groups such as the Edison Electric Institute. Presenters will show how they’re able to quickly respond, restore service and report on outcomes daily and during major events using cutting-edge tools for assessing damage and automatically organizing and deploying resources and crews. Read More

Feb 13 2018
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Canadian Electricity Assoc. webinar features how and why utilities are automating callout

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Canadian Electric Association

Ottawa – February 13, 2018

The Canadian Electricity Association and its corporate partner ARCOS® LLC will host a one-hour webinar on February 13 at 1 p.m. EST with utility experts from Alectra Utilities and Eversource Energy who will explain the benefits of automating crew callout, scheduling and crew management.

The webinar will show attendees why Alectra and Eversource automated their callout and scheduling of lineworkers and how their systems work. Speakers will explain how automating these processes help get service restored faster for customers, improve equitable distribution of overtime work and give utility executives better insight into how their workforce is deployed. Read More

Dec 05 2017
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With ARCOS, Tennessee American Water reduces response time to fix water main breaks

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Columbus, Ohio – December 5, 2017

ARCOS® LLC has implemented its Software-as-a-Service ARCOS CallOut® and Scheduling solution at the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Tennessee American Water to automate how the utility’s distribution department responds to customer emergencies. For Tennessee American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, responding to emergencies includes making calls to the utility’s employees to locate available crews to restore water main breaks and shut off meters during after-hours, unplanned events.

“The ARCOS system reduces by as much as 30 minutes the time it takes us to get a crew assembled and out into the field to shut off water and begin repairs,” says Casey Allen, operations superintendent for Tennessee American Water. “With a large main break, water can quickly damage a road, adjacent land, or even surrounding structures. One break can exceed several thousands of dollars of damage.” Read More

Nov 16 2017
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With ARCOS, NOVEC looks to reduce length of power outages

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Columbus, Ohio – November 16, 2017

ARCOS LLC is implementing its ARCOS® Callout and Scheduling Suite to help Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC) expedite electric service restoration, focus on safety and reduce the utility’s System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), which is the total annual duration of outage interruptions per customer.

“The ARCOS software will automatically find and contact our employees. Instead of spending their valuable time on the phone, our system operators will be able to activate ARCOS with only a few clicks and then focus on critical tasks such as high-voltage switching or coordinating restoration work with service technicians in the field,” says Dan Swingle, vice president of System Operations for NOVEC. “We’re hoping that ARCOS will reduce our service restoration times, which will also help us meet our SAIDI goal.”

NOVEC’s 2016 SAIDI was 45.79 minutes, calculated without outages related to major events. The utility’s five-year average SAIDI, excluding major events, is 49.56 minutes. J. D. Power and Associates’ 2017 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction study placed NOVEC second among the 138 largest electric utilities in the nation. NOVEC also ranked second in Power Quality and Reliability, the largest contributor to overall customer satisfaction, according to the study.

“We always look for cost-effective ways to improve performance in the operations division, but at our high level of achievement, it’s increasingly difficult to reduce SAIDI. We expect ARCOS to give us an edge through automation,” adds Swingle. “If an automated callout process gets our people to work faster, then we’ll be able to restore power faster.”

NOVEC has been using a labor-intensive process to monitor minimum callout requirements for approximately 215 union employees. Through its partnership with ARCOS, the Cooperative expects to reduce the amount of staff time it takes to initiate callouts and track responses. According to Swingle, NOVEC administrators, on average, spend an hour per day documenting callouts; sometimes that climbs to three or four hours during a busy event.

“We’ve also had major events that required operators to spend 9 to 10 hours making callouts, which diverted their focus from their primary job – restoring power to NOVEC customers,” says Swingle.

With ARCOS, operators and staff can concentrate solely on service and safety, instead of tallying callout requirements and resolving complaints, which can easily require an hour per incident. Through automation of the crew assembly and deployment process, NOVEC expects to improve overall outage response and, thereby, reduce service restoration times, while maintaining its high employee safety standards. The data provided by the ARCOS system will also enable final event reports to be produced quickly and accurately. In addition to its union workforce, NOVEC plans to add another 107 employees to the ARCOS system. This will enable system operators to reach all or specific groups of employees with alerts, news or requests for assistance.

“Comparing the cost of ARCOS to what we’ve spent administratively on manual callouts clearly justified the investment in the ARCOS system,” adds Swingle.

About NOVEC

NOVEC, headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, is a not-for-profit corporation that provides electricity to more than 166,000 metered customers in Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford, and Clarke counties, the City of Manassas Park, and the Town of Clifton. It also supplies natural gas and energy products and services to consumers in the Washington, D.C., region. The utility serves more customers than any electric co-op in Virginia and is one of the largest electric cooperatives in the United States.

About ARCOS LLC

ARCOS is the North American leader in delivering resource management SaaS solutions to the utility industry. ARCOS automates crew assembly and resource management daily and during emergencies, ultimately helping to restore energy faster, yet safely, to communities. The award-winning solution helps utilities save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction. Learn more about ARCOS resource management software at www.arcos-inc.com. ARCOS CallOut® and ARCOS Crew Manager® are registered trademarks of ARCOS LLC.

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Oct 19 2017
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For ninth time since 2007, ARCOS one of Central Ohio’s 50 fastest-growing companies

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Columbus, Ohio – October 19, 2017

ARCOS LLC has again won a place on the Columbus Business First Fast 50 – the annual list of the 50 fastest-growing emerging companies in Central Ohio. The Fast 50 Award recognizes companies for financial growth and performance over the past three years. ARCOS has made the list nine times in the last 11 years, the most appearances by any of the 2017 honorees according to Columbus Business First. This year ARCOS ranks #25.

“Since we last appeared on the Fast 50 list in 2014 we’ve launched a variety of new products, acquired two competitors and expanded internationally into the Canadian utility market,” said Bruce Duff, chief executive officer of ARCOS LLC.

American and Canadian electric, gas and water utilities along with power generation plants rely on ARCOS to keep service running. ARCOS resource management solutions help utilities respond to both after-hours and major events; restore service by quickly and safely assembling crews; and report on the outcome, which informs executives, first responders, regulators, media and the public. Eighty-seven percent of U.S. households are served by utilities that use ARCOS technology to accurately track restoration time and speed up the mobilization of crews.

“With our solutions, contacting utility crews and reporting on the outcome of restoration work literally happens with the click of a button from a laptop and any mobile device,” adds Duff.

The flagship ARCOS® Callout and Scheduling Suite is a software-as-a-service platform that utility managers use to automatically assemble available crews, analyze crew response and report outcomes. The ARCOS Damage Assessment solution helps shorten the process of surveying damage caused by major events like Harvey and Irma from days to hours. The newest ARCOS product, Resource Assist™, automates the manual process of requesting and managing third-party resources and equipment for restoring services during major events or when needed. Other products from ARCOS chart crew staffing and time worked, so utilities can manage crew safety, gauge restoration costs and quickly respond to requests.

About ARCOS LLC

ARCOS is the North American leader in delivering resource management SaaS solutions to the utility industry. ARCOS automates crew assembly and resource management daily and during emergencies, ultimately helping to restore energy faster, yet safely, to communities. The award-winning solution helps utilities save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction. Learn more about ARCOS resource management software at www.arcos-inc.com. ARCOS CallOut® and ARCOS Crew Manager® are registered trademarks of ARCOS LLC.

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Oct 03 2017
1

ARCOS Resource Assist software gives utilities clarity about availability of contract crews

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Columbus, Ohio – October 3, 2017 

ARCOS has released a software solution called Resource Assist™ – a new addition to its Resource Management platform – that clarifies and automates the often manual process of determining the number of available contractors and equipment for restoring utility services and securing commitments for these resources, especially during major events.

Resource Assist replaces a utility’s myriad handmade spreadsheets, phone calls, texts and emails with real-time data including a contract crew’s make-up, location, availability and contact information. The solution automates requests for contract crews and the process by which contract crews become available within a utility company’s ARCOS platform.

“On average a utility looks to about 20 contract companies for restoration assistance,” says Matt Mikula, senior director of Product Management at ARCOS. “When managers face an event, they begin an hours-long, manual and bulky process to reach contractors and verify who can assist with restoration. For events like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, contractors and utility crews number in the tens of thousands.

“With Resource Assist, outreach and reporting literally happens with the click of a button from a laptop or mobile device; RA is a high value restoration assistance tool,” adds Mikula.

As a utility plans for a forecasted storm, managers can use Resource Assist to request the desired number of crew types and confirm their availability with a few keystrokes. Along the way, Resource Assist provides Notifications and Alerts to approved users, ensuring key information is waiting for them.

Contractors respond to utility requests via their own portal within Resource Assist. Once there, contractors can view where all their resources are, respond to utility requests, input information about their crews, pre-build their crews and even swap crew members in the event a worker with a particular skill is needed elsewhere or becomes sick. Since updating Resource Assist is an electronic process, any changes contractors make become immediate updates for any utility using the solution.

For contractors not yet in Resource Assist, a utility can still use it to document phone or email requests, allowing utilities to standardize on one process and tool. Utilities can invite their contractors to participate directly, via an integrated connection request and invite system. Resource Assist captures all relevant request data along the way and identifies trends, crew status and data for reconciling invoices.

“When regional outages spawn mutual assist events, RMAG governance takes over and Resource Assist supports a utility in identifying crews to offer the RMAG via output in a Common Roster,” adds Mikula. “If supported, utilities can import the Common Roster to other tools the RMAG uses, or Resource Assist can integrate via web services. Resource Assist does not overlap with the RMAG process.”

About ARCOS LLC

ARCOS is the North American leader in delivering resource management SaaS solutions to the utility industry. ARCOS automates crew assembly and resource management daily and during emergencies, ultimately helping to restore energy faster, yet safely, to communities. The award-winning solution helps utilities save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction. Learn more about ARCOS resource management software at www.arcos-inc.com.  ARCOS CallOut® and ARCOS Crew Manager® are registered trademarks of ARCOS LLC.

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Sep 11 2017
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EWEB picks ARCOS to standardize and computerize calls for restoring water and power

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Columbus, Ohio – September 11, 2017

ARCOS® LLC has implemented its Software-as-a-Service ARCOS CallOut® and Scheduling solution at the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) – Oregon’s largest publicly owned water and electric utility – to expedite the restoration of water main breaks and power outages.

“Before ARCOS, any report of a broken water main or electric outage after normal business hours came to our Operations Control Center,” said Larry Longworth, the transmission and distribution dispatch supervisor for EWEB. “We constantly kept track of which water troubleshooter was on call, and once notified, the troubleshooter would pull a paper list of crews and spend 45 minutes or more calling crew members to assemble a team to fix a water main or lateral break.”

EWEB now relies on ARCOS to automatically track all available water troubleshooters and the crews able to respond to and restore service interruptions. Water troubleshooters carry tablets in their trucks to access ARCOS. With the ARCOS app, they make an automated callout to assemble a crew from a list of available workers, while deciding which valves to shut off or throttle down.

“With automated callout, our water troubleshooters have more time to gather equipment from the yard or study maps to restore service in the quickest, safest way,” added Longworth.

According to Longworth, the flexibility of the ARCOS solution is its strength. Until ARCOS, EWEB’s electric operations relied on 21 paper lists indicating which crews across in which groups were available for after-hours work. Each group’s list owner regularly called and emailed the EWEB Operations Center to update crew members’ availability. By recreating these lists in the ARCOS platform, EWEB’s dispatch desk has given the list owners control to electronically update and change crew status. The ARCOS solution automatically tracks these changes, including the callouts. Longworth says electronic tracking eliminated workers’ complaints about missing a call or being skipped over to work additional hours.

“I can report on and analyze anything that’s happened with a callout,” said Longworth. “Until you have ARCOS, you don’t know what you can measure.”

According to EWEB, automated callout has saved labor every step of the way. While the utility acknowledges it is tougher to measure the impact on CAIDI, Longworth estimates it is conceivable EWEB has reduced that number by five to 10 minutes with ARCOS.

“ARCOS customer support is exceptional, too,” added Longworth. “Around the clock, people are there who can answer our questions about the system and get us back on track quickly.”

About ARCOS LLC

ARCOS is the North American leader in delivering resource management SaaS solutions to the utility industry. ARCOS automates crew assembly and resource management daily and during emergencies, ultimately helping to restore energy faster, yet safely, to communities. The award-winning solution helps utilities save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction. Learn more about ARCOS resource management software at www.arcos-inc.com. ARCOS CallOut® and ARCOS Crew Manager® are registered trademarks of ARCOS LLC.

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Aug 28 2017
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Suffolk County Water Authority automates response to water main breaks with ARCOS

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Columbus, Ohio – August 28, 2017

ARCOS® LLC has implemented its Software-as-a-Service ARCOS CallOut® and Scheduling solution at the Oakdale, N.Y.-headquartered Suffolk County Water Authority to automate how the utility deploys its staff when responding to customer emergencies.

“Until recently it took a significant amount of time to manually call union employees when responding to customer calls, taxing supervisors who made calls from paper lists while juggling other duties,” says Jeffrey Szabo, chief executive officer for the Suffolk County Water Authority. “Manual callouts delayed assembling crews, lengthening emergency response time.”

SCWA, which supplies safe, potable drinking water to 1.2 million residents on Long Island, has implemented an automated callout system for its Customer Service personnel as well as Construction Maintenance and Production Control departments that enables the water authority to expeditiously respond to, restore and report on water service interruptions. With a few keystrokes, the system automatically mirrors union agreements dictating the order of callouts and finds and confirms available crews in minutes.

When using the callout system after business hours, Szabo says the utility mobilizes crews and responds to work up to 40 minutes faster than the prior manual process. With the automated system, supervisors can now have paperwork ready, a “mark out” called in and be on site when crews arrive. SCWA has also used the ARCOS callout system to reach 800 customers who were without water for several hours, reducing its Customer Service workload from hours to minutes.

“Automated callout has also improved our reporting and analytics for callouts and overtime,” adds Szabo. “The automated callout system has eliminated union grievances on callouts and reduced legal expenses, along with improving our customer service.”

About ARCOS LLC

ARCOS is the North American leader in delivering resource management SaaS solutions to the utility industry. ARCOS automates crew assembly and resource management daily and during emergencies, ultimately helping to restore energy faster, yet safely, to communities. The award-winning solution helps utilities save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction. Learn more about ARCOS resource management software at www.arcos-inc.com. ARCOS CallOut® and ARCOS Crew Manager® are registered trademarks of ARCOS LLC.

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Aug 21 2017
1

ARCOS named to Inc. 5000 list for fourth straight year

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Columbus, Ohio – August 21, 2017

For the fourth consecutive year, Inc. magazine has named ARCOS® LLC to the Inc. 5000, a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. This year, ARCOS ranked No. 3,036 on the list, a move up of nearly 400 places from its ranking last year. ARCOS is the North American leader in delivering crew callout and resource management SaaS solutions to the utility industry, which relies on the Ohio-based company to help utility managers and crews respond to major events, restore service and report on the outcomes.

According to Inc. Media, “Companies that made the list, on average, have grown sixfold since 2013. A mere one in ten have made the list four times.”

“Our three-year growth is 109 percent, which is a testament to the dedication and customer focus everyone at ARCOS brings to our clients every day,” says ARCOS CEO Bruce Duff.

The Inc. 5000’s aggregate revenue is $206 billion, and the companies on this year’s list collectively generated 619,500 jobs over the past three years. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, is at www.inc.com/inc5000.

“The Inc. 5000 is the most persuasive evidence I know that the American Dream is still alive,” says Inc. President and Editor-In-Chief Eric Schurenberg. “The founders and CEOs of the Inc. 5000 tell us they think determination, risk taking, and vision were the keys to their success, and I believe them.”

The 2017 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2013 to 2016. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2013. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2016. The minimum revenue required for 2013 is $100,000; the minimum for 2016 is $2 million.

About Inc. Media:

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, Inc. is the only major brand dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies, with the aim to deliver real solutions for today’s innovative company builders. Winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in both 2014 and 2012. Total monthly audience reach for the brand has grown significantly from 2,000,000 in 2010 to over 18,000,000 today. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

About ARCOS LLC

ARCOS is the North American leader in delivering crew callout and crew management SaaS solutions to the utility industry. ARCOS automates crew assembly and management daily and during emergencies, ultimately helping to restore energy faster, yet safely, to communities. The award-winning solution helps utilities save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction. Learn more about ARCOS emergency resource management software at www.arcos-inc.com.  ARCOS and Crew Manager are registered trademarks of ARCOS LLC.

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Jul 24 2017
1

ARCOS acquires utility services division of Macrosoft  

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Columbus, Ohio – July 25, 2017

ARCOS® LLC has acquired the utility services division of Parsippany,
N.J.‐based Macrosoft, including the New Jersey company’s Resources on‐Demand (RoD) software and its
weather and utility news portal named Outagecentral.com.

“Macrosoft’s utility division aligns with how we help utilities across North America locate, assign and
track crews and resources,” says Bruce Duff, chief executive officer of ARCOS. “Our mission is giving any
size utility the technology solutions to respond to events, restore service safely and report on the
outcome. Macrosoft’s utility division adds to the ARCOS solution platform for resource management
that enables utilities to manage events large and small that occur daily.”

Resources on‐Demand customers will continue to receive support and maintenance for their product
from ARCOS.  Jason Singer, director of Macrosoft’s Utility Services Division, will join the ARCOS team as
director of resource management services along with those who developed and support the Resources
on‐Demand product.

“The RoD development and support team are excited to become employees of ARCOS,” says Singer.
“The combination of Macrosoft’s utility services division and ARCOS is well positioned to lead the utility
industry in providing state‐of‐the‐art resource management solutions.”

Macrosoft’s Resources on‐Demand software tracks and supports logistics requests during large‐scale
restoration events. ARCOS will draw from the features and functionality of RoD to aid utility managers
who want to more efficiently link crews with the equipment, lodging and other logistics needed for daily
work and service restoration in the wake of major events. ARCOS intends to leverage features and
functionality from Resources on‐Demand and ARCOS Crew Manager® to provide enhanced capabilities to
customers.

The Macrosoft product complements the ARCOS Resource Management platform, which provides
solutions for:  automated resource call outs, crew and mutual assistance management, mobile field
damage assessments, routine field inspections and resource tracking. The ARCOS Resource
Management platform enables utilities to use one system to manage “blue sky” as well as emergency
events requiring internal and external resources.

ARCOS counts more than 130 utilities as customers including America’s top 25 largest electric and gas
utilities that impact 87 percent of all U.S. electric consumers.

 

If you have questions about the acquisition, please refer to our F.A.Q. document or  contact us.

About ARCOS LLC
ARCOS is the North American leader in delivering Resource Management SaaS solutions to the utility
industry. ARCOS automates crew assembly and resource management daily and during emergencies,
ultimately helping to restore energy faster, yet safely, to communities. The award‐winning solution
helps utilities save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction. Learn more about ARCOS
resource management software at www.arcos‐inc.com.  ARCOS CallOut® and ARCOS Crew Manager®
are registered trademarks of ARCOS LLC.

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