Emergency Power Services Provider

Providing Emergency Power Generation Solutions Gives KC Electro-Mechanical Strong Growth

More and more companies are providing services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At times, peoples' lives or livelihoods depend upon 24/7 service.

Power is essential element in providing this expected high level of service. Electrical power operates key functions necessary to serve customers or clients.

One of Dr. McCain's clients - Hamilton, NJ-based K.C. Electro-Mechanical, Inc. - has become a recognized leader in the emergency power industry

Founded in 1988, K.C. Electro-Mechanical (KCEM) is a leading power systems integration company. It provides AC and DC power systems for standby, prime and co-generation use to a variety of industries including telecommunications, data processing, health care, water treatment and utilities. These types of companies, along with a range of other, more specialized businesses, use KCEM to meet their emergency power equipment needs.

The company's products and services provide a one-stop source for virtually any business that requires on-site power generation.

"I started this company 18 years ago in my garage," says company owner Dan Kulik. "Every businessperson has visions of what their operation should become, and I'm happy to see my dreams are coming true."

Back then, the main focuses of business were contract maintenance, emergency service, and repair of diesel and turbine generator systems. Today, he explains, "I can say we do it for more industries than we could have imagined back in the late 1980s."

"In fact, weve recently completed a very successful merger with another company, NextGen Power Systems. This makes us the leading national service company providing sales, service, installation and maintenance of AC/DC power systems."

For KCEM, it wasn't luck that made the company a success - it was hard work and a customer-service orientation that created the foundation for the $100-million nation-wide power supplier.

The various moves that the company has made to progressively larger facilities, the expansion into new market areas, and the addition of employees point to the success of the company.

KCEM grew steadily and, by 1997, the company had established a large customer base and expanded its products and services. To serve the growing number of customers gained through its expanding services, KCEM relocated again to Hightstown, N.J. This new location gave the company better access to the major highways and roads utilized to access customers and shorten emergency response times.

The next growth area was the addition of independent sales representatives. The new sales representatives helped grow the company by better determining the additional products and services desired by the company's ever-expanding customer base. As awareness grew and new customers were brought in, the company opened a new service center in Marietta, Georgia.

In 1998 KCEM opened a third service center, this time in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Demand for their services in the region was so strong that the Altamonte Springs location was quickly outgrown and moved into the central-Florida/Orlando area, operating out of a new facility with offices, warehousing and outdoor storage space.

At this time, Brian P. McGeary was brought on as Vice-President, and his efforts strengthened the company's wireless communications relationships.

Over the same time period, the company always looked for new opportunities. By 1999, the company had built a large business in the booming wireless telecommunications industry.

Today, KCEM is an example of the type of business that people rely upon. The emergency power supplied to cellular transmitting towers when utility power is out enhances reliability of today's cell phones.

The new wireless service business was quickly developed and integrated into the three KCEM service centers. Coupled with the generator systems sales and the service and maintenance business unit, the wireless business unit helped KCEM experience phenomenal growth and contributed to the opening of the company's Raleigh, N.C. service center in 2000.

KCEM now operates out of four centrally-located service centers on the East Coast. Products and services are provided to businesses of all sizes, including numerous Fortune 500 companies.

"A key reason for our success is the people we have," explains Dan Kulik. "The people on our sales and service staffs each have numerous technical and factory certifications. In fact, we are one of the very few companies to have in-house personnel to service both turbine and diesel generator systems, as well as the DC power market."

The successful businessman explained that one of the early values adopted in building and growing his company was a creative, "can-do" attitude.

"With this perspective, we can view every task as an opportunity to help the customer by providing multiple solutions," he explains.

Help from Dr. James A. McCain

Even with this powerhouse of a business, Kulik understood that there were certain areas in his operations that needed improvement with the assistance of outside experts.

"With our growth and the expansions we were involved in, there were areas that I knew needed more attention than we were able to provide. That is when I called in Jim McCain and his people."

"Growth was making us skip over some areas that I knew needed to be attended to. Things like effective sales reporting, accurate labor burden calculators and better cost analysis were necessary. Other issues including a weak employee handbook, incomplete job descriptions, incomplete incentive plans, and other human resources issues and procedures were eventually going to catch up with us."

"I feel the investment made with Dr. McCain was well worth both my time and money."

In April of 2000, KCEM and NextGen Power Systems merged into a nationwide organization to provide sales and service to AC/DC power market and distributed power markets. The merger brings new product and service offerings to its customer base and allows KCEM to offer a nationwide footprint to pursue national sales and service contracts.

"The marriage of the two companies," Kulik notes, "also provides tremendous opportunities for our employees to advance and develop throughout the entire national organization."

"Once again, it was with the teamwork of Dr. McCain and my employees, along with their work and dedication, that allowed K.C. Electro-Mechanical to take advantage of this latest growth opportunity."