Techni Graphic Systems Inc., a software services company that converts maps and satellite photographs into digital data, was founded in 1993.
The following year, President and CEO Dee Vaidya tried to get subcontractor work from a division of Johnson Controls, a federal contractor based in Fort Collins, Colo. But Johnson Controls had begun letting people go from that division and was considering selling it or shutting it down by year’s end.
“So we said, ‘Hey, we might be interested,'” Vaidya says. “We talked to Johnson Controls, and by September 1994, we were the proud owners of this tiny little division.”
Techni Graphic Systems also inherited federal work from the Defense Mapping Agency, a support division of the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Geological Survey. Then in 1997 the government changed its contracting style — rather than deal with 200 or 300 companies of all sizes, it would work with a few large companies, and other companies would serve as subcontractors.
“During that five-year omnibus phase, we were not really federal contractors of the Defense Department, we were a subcontractor for the Defense work through one of the satellite companies,” Vaidya says.
Two years ago, the Defense Department relet that contract, and Techni Graphic Systems, which had revenue of $2.54 million in 1999, won a 10-year, $200-million contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
Today, the Fort Collins operation has grown from 10 employees to about 65, and space is tight at its 10,000-square-foot Wooster facility, where its employee numbers are expected to grow from 70 to between 200 and 300. With state and city grants, the company is building a 25,000-square-foot facility in Wooster and is planning a spring 2005 move-in.
“We’re financing our own land and building, but the city is putting in the roads, sewers, storm sewers and lighting,” Vaidya says.
The company is also diversifying its commercial software with PinPointer, which maps businesses; MxVision, which tracks nursing home information; and PlotFinder, which helps cemetery managers track sales of the real estate parcels. The federal Department of Homeland Security also uses Techni Graphic Systems’ technology to study U.S. “entities of critical infrastructure.” HOW TO REACH: Techni Graphic Systems Inc., (330) 263-6222 or www.tgstech.com
