West Des Moines-based RosterApps, a provider of airline ground crew scheduling software was recently acquired by ARCOS, a software company in Columbus, Ohio.
The acquisition will combine RosterApps’ airline experience and shiftwork technology with the ARCOS resource management platform to fully automate the scheduling, shift-trading, callout and tracking of flight and ground crew staff.
ARCOS will retain RosterApps Iowa office and employees, bringing ARCOS’s workforce to more than 100 people.
“Looking at the airline industry, we discovered airlines struggled at using all sorts of using manual ways of keeping track of who’s available for what,” said Bruce Duff, CEO of ARCOS. “And we thought, well, we can go into that space ourselves, but let’s see if there’s already someone there that’s doing a great job to compliment what we’re doing for pilots and flight attendants.”
“The technology was a good fit because we both provide SaaS solutions that help the airline industry streamline resource management, said John Brant, Managing Director of RosterApps. “ARCOS was expanding its presence in the airline industry, which is where RosterApps has made its reputation. After seeing ARCOS’s solution for scheduling airline flight crews, it was obvious we had a lot of synergy. I especially felt that adding ARCOS’s crew callout technology to RosterApps would create a lot of value for the airline ground crews we serve.”
Culture plays an important role in acquisitions
Successful acquisitions are not always about forcing a company to fit the acquiring company’s mold. It’s a mutual learning opportunity, Duff told Clay & Milk.
“Culture fit is important. They matched our culture and I think anytime you have someone who matches your culture, it’s an opportunity to improve because you’re going to see some ways that they’re doing things that we never thought of and will adopt and vice-versa,” Duff said. “If you don’t have the right culture, everything you think you’re getting technology-wise often doesn’t go as well.”
“In terms of culture, I went into the first meeting fairly skeptical because, being small, we depended on our customer-focused culture to keep us on the path to success. ARCOS also believed success came only when clients were successful. So I could tell they worked as a team and had a mutual respect for one another within their organization,” Brant said.