Geoforce plans to increase its headcount by 15 to 30 workers - Geoforce

Geoforce plans to increase its headcount by 15 to 30 workers

A Coppell developer of technology that helps companies monitor far-flung equipment across the globe plans to boost its 25-person headcount by 15 to 30 people over the next year.

Geoforce Inc. will kick off the staff additions with a planned acquisition, scheduled to be finalized this week, that will add five people and improve the hardware component of its offering.

Geoforce’s technology is aimed primarily at oil and gas producers who need to monitor the location and status of gear in temperature extremes such as 40 below zero and 120 degrees above.

Geoforce executives declined to reveal details of the corporate purchase before the deal was done but said the announcement will include specifics on new asset-tracking hardware they’ve built.

“There’s a lot going on with us right now,” said founder and CEO James MacLean III.

Two weeks ago, Geoforce moved from Lewisville into 6,500 square feet of leased space in Coppell. That deal, which includes an option on 3,000 more square feet, roughly tripled the company’s real estate.

MacLean and CFO Vincent Hsieh declined to reveal revenue for the privately held business but said Geoforce has at least doubled sales every year since its 2007 inception. Between 2009 and 2011, Geoforce’s revenue grew 321.58 percent, landing it at No. 6 on the Fast Tech list of North Texas technology companies. That list encompasses businesses with revenue between $2 million and $500 million. (For the complete list, see Page B16, inside the special Tech Titans publication.)

Geoforce is cash-flow positive for the moment, but that could change depending on growth initiatives it tackles, Hsieh said.

The company’s roughly 300 customers include BP, Schlumberger, ConocoPhillips and Chesapeake Energy. Clients have used Geoforce technology on six continents, in locations including offshore Brazil, west Africa, Australia and southwest Asia.

Major rivals include Numerex (Nasdaq: NMRX), Skybitz and Telogis. Geoforce separates itself in large measure from its competitors by focusing on the oil and gas industry, officials said.

The pending acquisition will give Geoforce a stronger hardware component to its offering, officials said.

Beyond that, the deal will bolster Geoforce’s hardware engineering staff. Those new engineers will be combined with Geoforce’s existing hardware and software engineering staff. That combined group will be able to quickly address customer needs on the hardware and software fronts, executives said.

Green Energy Oilfield Services, a Fairfield-based supplier of fluid management services for major producers in the oil and gas industry, uses Geoforce technology to monitor the whereabouts of between 600 and 650 pieces of equipment, including trucks, tractors and hydraulic fracturing tanks.

After adding some custom software that Green Energy requested, Geoforce’s technology provides a host of information to the company’s dispatch center about where its trucks are and what they’re doing, according to Joni Nevill, Green Energy vice president of safety and risk management. For instance, if an oil company generates excess fluids from its drilling or production operations and needs to dispose of it pronto, the Geoforce system can find the nearest empty truck.

Geoforce technology also can provide turn-by-turn directions to any of the 4,000 wells that Green Energy serves and helps dispatchers keep track of how long drivers have been in the cab.

“Their support and customer service have just been stellar,” Nevill said of Geoforce. “It’s worked out very well. We’re very happy with it.”

Read the article in Dallas Business Journal.

About Geoforce

Combining a cloud-based software platform with ruggedized GPS tracking devices, Geoforce’s Track and Trace solutions bring control to even the most remote field operations. Our asset tracking devices are built for the world’s toughest field operators in these industries: oil and gasrailconstructionminingtransportationgovernment/defense, and agriculture. Today more than 1,300 customers track 150,000+ assets in almost 100 countries. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Geoforce operates a research and development office in Bozeman, Montana. Sales and support offices are maintained throughout the U.S. and in Brazil, Australia, and Canada.

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