WALNUT CREEK, CA--(Marketwire - October 13, 2009) - American Reprographics Company (
NYSE:
ARP), the nation's leading provider of reprographics services and
technology, today announced that it has acquired certain assets of RCMS
Group, LLC, a highly respected technology services provider in the building
information modeling (BIM) market. RCMS specializes in providing
three-dimensional modeling and analysis of commercial construction projects
on an outsourced basis. The firm focuses on improving business processes
for construction professionals in every segment of the AEC industry. Terms
of the acquisition were not disclosed.
BIM involves the use of specialized software and analytical expertise to
represent buildings and building components in three dimensions on a
computer screen. Using various modeling techniques, BIM users build their
projects "virtually" in a computer model prior to actual construction.
Advantages include increasing the accuracy and speed of bidding, planning
workflow, project costs and schedules, and identifying conflicts long
before they are encountered in the field.
"RCMS is a perfect strategic fit for ARC," said K. Suri Suriyakumar,
Chairman, President and CEO of American Reprographics Company. "The
construction industry is experiencing a substantial increase in the
adoption of BIM technology, and the current economic environment will only
accelerate its use given how much BIM improves efficiency and reduces
building costs. We can scale RCMS's service offering using our national
platform and leverage the data we host in PlanWell across the country. From
a business perspective we can realize the synergies immediately, and the
technology service offering to our customers is enormously compelling."
Management noted that both companies address a common customer base and use
the same kind of drawing files as the bases of their businesses. RCMS can
leverage ARC's content to build its models, and thus increase its value to
customers. RCMS already shares several large clients with ARC including
Whiting-Turner and Gilbane Building Company. ARC also noted that while its
traditional reprographics company acquisitions remain on hold until the
economy begins to recover, RCMS represented a strategic opportunity to
extend its line of technology services with little risk.
K.P. Reddy, the founder of RCMS, joins ARC as the Vice President of BIM
Services, and has been tasked with growing a dynamic $2 million consultancy
practice into an enterprise-level business capable of serving ARC's
national customers while leading the BIM strategy for ARC.
"K.P. has built RCMS into a well-respected technology services company with
a deep understanding of the business advantages of BIM," said Mr.
Suriyakumar. "His expertise will add tremendous value to our technology
offerings and should help us broaden our technology revenue streams in the
future."
Mr. Reddy founded RCMS Group in 2002 to help improve building processes in
the AEC industry with BIM-related technology. Prior to founding RCMS, Mr.
Reddy was Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Verso
Technologies, Inc. In 2009 Mr. Reddy was named as an Adjunct Professor to
the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Architecture-Building
Construction. He is a frequently requested speaker and panelist on
BIM-related topics for organizations ranging from the American Institute of
Architects (AIA) and Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), to
the Construction Specification Institute (CSI), among others. He is also a
BIM task force member of the National Council of Architectural Registration
Boards. Mr. Reddy graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in
1994.
"Using BIM is becoming a necessity in construction," said Mr. Reddy. "By
offering an outsourced BIM solution to ARC customers, we can dramatically
reduce their costs, while delivering the critical decision support data,
risk mitigation, and building process improvement that come from using the
technology. For a customer base that generally prefers a project-based cost
model, it's an ideal way to amortize the adoption of BIM throughout their
business and a huge value-added solution ARC can offer throughout the
country. I look forward to driving the initiative forward and increasing
the value of ARC's offering in the AEC industry."
More About BIM: The use of BIM technology improves the building process for
owners, developers, designers, engineers and construction companies. In
"The Business Value of BIM," a study completed by McGraw-Hill Construction
in 2009, key findings include:
-- Half of the industry is using BIM or BIM-related tools today -- a 75%
increase in usage over the past two years.
-- One-third of all users utilize BIM on 60% or more projects today, but
twice as many expect to be using it at that level in two years.
-- 42% of non-users believe that BIM will be highly or very highly
important to the industry in five years.
-- One in five users who formally measure ROI see returns above 50%.
-- 9% of users who formally measure ROI see returns above 100%.
-- Gaining BIM capabilities and expertise requires investments in a broad
range of products and processes. Contractors are the most likely to see a
need to focus on nearly all areas of investment, today and five years from
now.
To download a free copy of the report, point your browser to:
http://www.bim.construction.com/
About American Reprographics Company
American Reprographics Company is the leading reprographics company in the
United States providing business-to-business document management technology
and services to the architectural, engineering and construction, or AEC
industries. The Company provides these services to companies in non-AEC
industries, such as technology, financial services, retail, entertainment,
and food and hospitality, which also require sophisticated document
management services. American Reprographics Company provides its core
services through its suite of reprographics technology products, a network
of hundreds of locally branded reprographics service centers across the
U.S., Canada and the U.K., on-site at more than 5,000 customer locations,
and through UDS, a joint-venture company headquartered in Beijing, China.
The Company's service centers are arranged in a hub and satellite structure
and are digitally connected as a cohesive network, allowing the provision
of services both locally and nationally to more than 160,000 active
customers.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on
current opinions and estimates of management regarding future events and
the future financial performance of the Company. Words such as "should,"
"will," "expect" and similar expressions identify forward-looking
statements. We caution you that such statements are only predictions and
are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking
statements. Factors that could cause our actual results to differ
materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements include,
but are not limited to, the current economic recession and downturn in the
architectural, engineering and construction industries specifically; our
ability to streamline operations and costs; competition in our industry and
innovation by our competitors; our failure to anticipate and adapt to
future changes in our industry, including changes to BIM technology and
services; our failure to take advantage of market opportunities and/or to
complete acquisitions, or failure to manage our acquisitions, including our
inability to integrate and merge the business operations of the acquired
companies and realize synergies therefrom, or failure to retain key
personnel and customers of acquired companies; our dependence on certain
key vendors for equipment, maintenance services and supplies; damage or
disruption to our facilities, our technology centers, our vendors or a
majority of our customers; and our failure to continue to develop and
introduce new services successfully. The foregoing list of risks and
uncertainties is illustrative but is by no means exhaustive. For more
information on factors that may affect our future performance, please
review our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission, and specifically the risk factors set forth in our most recent
reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. The Company undertakes no obligation to
update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.
Contact Information: Contacts:
David Stickney
American Reprographics Company
Phone: 925-949-5100
Joseph Villalta
The Ruth Group
Phone: 646-536-7003