In the midst of some massive investments taking place in the utility industry, InfraSource Technology (Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.) and Enspiria Solutions (Denver, Colorado, U.S.) have formed a strategic business alliance. The two companies offer a complementary set of capabilities and, by joining forces, their presidents believe they will be providing a comprehensive set of solutions for T&D operations.

“There's probably more that needs to be done [in terms of utility investment] than can actually be physically accomplished,” said Ivo Steklac, president of Enspiria Solutions. “So, there is a need for alternate solutions to a lot of these problems. In bringing our two groups together, I think we have the knowledge base and the ability to implement many of these alternate solutions and help utilities through some of these issues that they're facing now and in the next 5 to 10 years.”

According to Steklac and Damir Novosel, president of InfraSource Technology, the two companies share a similar business model in which their companies strive to hire the best and the brightest in the business. “By having these top-notch guys working together, we are able to offer to customers the best solution; it helps both companies to provide a better offering that we otherwise would not be able to do if we were just doing it on our own. We're putting offerings together now that, at the end of the day, will be greater than the sum of their parts,” Novosel explained.

The idea behind the alliance is to be a one-stop source for utilities. Prior to joining forces, the companies may have been looking at the same types of solutions, “but from slightly different perspectives and capabilities,” Steklac noted. “By bringing these two sets of resources together, we're bringing not only the analytical hard technical engineering and detailed understanding of the problems … we're also looking now how we can institutionalize that kind of capability and render it to a client in a form that the client can continue to use.”

With the alliance formally announced in January 2007, both InfraSource Technology and Enspiria Solutions are now working with clients, existing and prospective, to detail what the partnership can bring to their businesses. “For us to be able to grow, we need to be able to be seen as companies that can really serve the important customer needs,” Novosel said. And meeting the customers' needs is exactly what the alliance is intended to do.