Godbout warns, though, it’s not as simple as expressing an interest in becoming part of the group.
“We vet them hard,” he says about the approach to potential partners, especially in new regions. “One of the biggest concerns is cash flow. Just because I’m loaning you money, you have to be comfortable with not having a paycheck, maybe for a while, depending on how quickly things get up and running.”
And just because Godbout or one of the other owners knows a potential partner, that doesn’t mean the vetting process is any less stringent.
“Everyone has to go through the process,” says Riberi. “You really want to know these people. Anybody can start a business, but it’s hard to run a business.”
That vetting process isn’t restricted to potential partners either. It took Landrum more than a year to convince Godbout and CCS to work with him after a previous sour experience between the two companies. To date, CCS and Mitsubishi have partnered on many large-scale installs, including for the Scottsdale school system and a massive project for Intel, among many others.
“I’ve always admired the way John runs his company and his partners,” says Landrum, who had been working with Kalinsky before he joined the CCS team. “It’s one of my most prized relationships. He represents my company and my products very well and has always been very honorable. But it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t given to me. That’s what makes our relationship what it is now. He puts you through the paces.
“What’s unique about CCS is their recognition of the marketplace; as the market has changed, John’s changed with it. They do some very complex integration and use some high-end products on those jobs,” he says.
“They were at the forefront of selling whiteboards into classrooms and creating service agreements for their customers,” says Landrum. “They’re not just about doing the so-called hang-and-bang type of projects. They like to teach their customers how to get the most out of what they’re buying.”
Streamlining the Future
Arizona will remain the hub and the headquarters for CCS going forward, but that doesn’t mean all ideas about how the partners should run their operations come from the Southwest. CCS is in the process of getting all offices on the same computer system in an effort to streamline the operation, says Godbout.
“In today’s economy, you have to increase your revenue and reduce your expenses,” he says.
Although Godbout doesn’t travel as much as he used to, several members of the management team go to every office in the CCS network for three or four days every year or so, he says. They bring best practices from office to office.
In the Kansas office, the MacGees were talking about creating a centralized network operations center (NOC), says Godbout. “He took that idea and ran with it,” he says.
Now, the NOC is managing about 50 or 60 installations and the model will be rolled out and implemented across the company, says Godbout.
In the last several years, CCS has done a lot more multi-office installs, says Riberi, including for customers such as Northrup and Lockheed Martin. The partners are “starting to leverage our power where it makes sense and becoming more efficient,” including by centralizing marketing and accounting operations.
CCS has tried to remain as diverse as possible in terms of the markets in which it works, says Godbout. They haven’t focused on a particular niche at this point.
“It does cross my mind that it’s something we should think about, but we have a talent pool we think can handle just about any job,” he says.
