OATI Keeps Growing
Even in what almost all consider to be a “challenging” market for ETRM products, OATI is making a major investment in expansion. They recently announced the acquisition and development of what they are calling their OATI Campus.
It’s the site of the former Honeywell Camden Facility in Minniapolis. The facility covers 22 acres and will be the site of their new data center, as the company has reached max capacity on their current facility. The new campus will also house an Executive Briefing Center, Conference Center, Customer Care Center, Training Center, and will have room for up to 500 staff members.
I talked with Jerry Dempsey, OATI’s VP of Sales about the investment in the new facility. He indicates while they, like all vendors, have seen some softening of the market for new systems, their current client base and business model helps to isolate them in from the periodic ups and downs in the market, even one that is mostly down like this current one. Paraphrasing Jerry, he said that if they didn’t sell a single new system for two years (which of course “ain’t gonna happen” as they have closed several new deals recently and are close to several others), their business is diversified enough across the energy markets and structured such that they would have little or no problem sustaining all that they have in place now. Their investment in this new facility (which from what I can tell is the single largest dedicated facility in the energy software space) is certainly proof of that.