Since its beginning, Black & Veatch has had close ties to the public sector. Engineers E.B. Black and N.T. Veatch had been in business for just two years when the U.S. government asked them to supervise construction of military training camps during World War I. Almost 100 years later, Black & Veatch is a $3 billion company with close ties to governments around the world. The firm also works with states, cities and counties, and this is where management saw opportunity emerging as the company entered its second century.
In 2015 Black & Veatch announced plans to buy RCC Consultants, a New Jersey firm that advises government officials on public safety contracts. With state governments evaluating participation in the federal FirstNet initiative, public safety consulting looked like a growing area that would fit well with Black & Veatch’s existing telecommunications infrastructure business. One year later, Black & Veatch is working with states that are conducting due diligence around the FirstNet requirements.
States need to decide whether they will join FirstNet or create their own public safety networks. The federal government has not yet said who will build the FirstNet network, but one apparent frontrunner is Rivada Mercury, a partnership that includes Black & Veatch. Other Rivada partners include Ericsson, Nokia, Harris Corporation, Intel Security and Fujitsu. Five former Sprint executives have taken leadership roles at Rivada Mercury.
Joining Rivada Mercury was a logical move for Black & Veatch, but what does it mean for the company’s newly acquired consulting business? Rivada Mercury’s CEO said that he thinks Rivada’s network proposal could obviate the need for any state to opt out of FirstNet. Public safety analyst Andrew Seybold said Black & Veatch is in a compromised position as a consultant, now that it is part of Rivada. Black & Veatch said it has a history of impartiality and that its consultants will never “sit on both sides of the table.”
Beyond FirstNet
FirstNet is just one part of the public safety picture, and jurisdictions have many other projects that are likely to be synergistic with Black & Veatch’s telecommunications infrastructure business. Baltimore County is a case in point. Black & Veatch is currently helping to engineer a radio system reconfiguration that the county hopes to implement within the next two years. County CIO Robert Stradling said he turned to Black & Veatch because the RCC consultants helped cut his costs significantly several years ago when the county replaced its 911 call center and upgraded its radio system.
“The project started out as an upgrade of analog to digital,” said Stradling. “Lo and behold the county needed to replace its 911 center, too. … They saved us money because the minute they hit the ground running they were able to produce. They didn’t have to have a learning curve.”
Stradling said the county spent $44 million on its radio system upgrade and roughly $32 million on its new 911 call center. He said his team relied on the RCC consultants during negotiations with the radio vendor because RCC could help the county differentiate the “need-to-have” elements from the “nice-to-have” elements.
Cost control is clearly a priority for jurisdictions, but the No. 1 concern is of course public safety. Stradling said working with outside consultants helped his team achieve a smooth and safe transition to its new systems.
“We threw the switch and … we didn’t have any problems,” said Stradling. “I’m talking about a new center and new 800 megahertz radio system all going live on a Saturday morning, at 4:00 in the morning, without any hitches.”
RCC provided engineering, quality assurance, vendor oversight and project management for the multiyear project. Black & Veatch hopes to combine those competencies with its own project management expertise.
“When a lot of communities purchase a land mobile radio system, they go to the big vendors and expect the vendors to deliver everything,” said Chris Krafft, VP of public safety at Black & Veatch’s telecom unit. “A lot of those vendors will subcontract those specialty services at a cost premium and a time premium. We find that by controlling and doing that work ourselves, you have better control over the quality, over the schedule, and you can kind of decrease that margin layering.”
The consulting business gives Black & Veatch an even more comprehensive offering for public safety customers at a time when the market for public safety solutions appears poised to grow. In addition to the federal and state spending related to FirstNet, municipal public safety budgets are likely to increase with the advent of smart city technologies.
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