I.D. Systems Speaks About Acquisition

I.D. Systems, the vehicle asset management company headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. reported to analysts at the Cowen and Company Technology Media & Telecom Conference last week, discussing both the company’s ongoing activities and the results of its takeover of GE Asset Intelligence last year.

CEO Jeffrey M. Jagid described what his company does as taking a wireless device and attaching it to an otherwise unintelligent piece of equipment. The result is the ability to monitor the location of that equipment and comprehensively collect information about how it is being used. This can mean preventing unauthorized personnel from taking a forklift, for example, for a ride. For OSHA compliance, users are restricted from accessing the equipment until the operator completes a safety checklist. The data lets the company help customers use their fleets more efficiently.

Both Jagid and CFO Ned Mavrommatis discussed the GE Asset Intelligence (AI) acquisition which occurred in January 2010. The team at AI had been feeling neglected by GE since it was such a small part of that company, Jagid said. However, for I.D. Systems, this was a large acquisition. The company looked at head count and evaluated the skills, roles and responsibilities of the employees at both companies, Jagid added, which resulted in layoffs that reduced internal headcount from 183 to 87 people, saving $4.4 million.

 Another $4 million was saved in reduction in external third party services. The GE AI acquisition also helped smooth out a choppy revenue model for I.D. Systems, which now has approximately “$30 million in recurring revenue backlog,” Mavrommatis said.

The company is very excited about its recent announcement of a joint program with the federal government to develop a system to collect “health information” about a “certain type of helicopter,” Jagid said. Under the contract, I.D. Systems will integrate its commercial off the shelf wireless equipment management technology with Spectro Inc’s oil analysis sensing and machine health monitoring technology, the company said in a release. The goal is to provide “real-time, intelligent information on the oil condition” of Apache and Black Hawk helicopters.