INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: CapRock Government Solutions

A: CapRock is a leading provider of fully managed communications services to remote and harsh environments. Prior to the acquisition of the government division in 2007, CapRock’s focus was mainly on communications to offshore rigs for oil and gas customers, as well as expanding services into the maritime market. Cap- Rock has grown from serving clients in the energy industry, to serving clients in the maritime, government services, mining, engineering and construction, and disaster recovery markets. While customers in these sectors have unique requirements, they all share the common need for reliable communications in some of the harshest and most isolated locations in the world. CapRock’s continued successful growth in these sectors has come from a strong focus on vertical market expansion, geographic expansion, and the acquisition of significant global outsourcing projects.

More recently, CapRock has acquired growth through its government division, which we recently rebranded as CapRock Government Solutions. The government group was acquired in 2007 as Arrowhead Global Solutions, shortly before I came on board as president. Our division is centered on providing communications to the U.S. defense, intelligence and government organizations. For decades, CapRock provided services to the government market through major U.S. government contractors, and this acquisition allowed the company to serve the government directly.

Q: What additional benefits and capabilities were provided to the company and your customers through the acquisition?

A: Our government and military customers benefit directly from the capabilities that CapRock has invested in and developed over many years of serving the oil and gas business. More specifically, this means new resources through the existing CapRock infrastructure to better support their operations, including additional worldwide points of presence. More and more frequently, the military is relying on contractors to maintain and sometimes even operate its mission-critical systems. As a result, many contractors have turned to outsourcing infrastructure and services that they provide to the government, which can lead to serious project management issues. The key to quality control is to own the critical infrastructure. CapRock’s self-owned and operated global network, which was established to serve CapRock’s customers, also serves our clients on the government side. This has allowed us to offer our government clientele added reliability and flexibility along with added information assurance measures, among other benefits.

The acquisition has also allowed us to provide customers with a broader suite of products, services and support, stronger engineering and systems integration capabilities, and an expanded team in more countries. From the company’s perspective, the acquisition allowed a direct relationship with the government and has opened new market opportunities previously unobtainable.

Q: Why did the company recently rebrand Arrowhead Global Solutions as CapRock Government Solutions?

A: The recent rebrand really marked a final milestone in the complete integration and assimilation of the government team. It has always been CapRock’s fundamental priority to integrate as a singularly focused company with our customer’s mission at the forefront, helping to guide our business. Along with a new management team, CapRock Government Solutions also represents a very different set of capabilities and value-added services than Arrowhead. The rebrand was a positive step for our internal focus as well as that of our customers. From a deeper level, the complete integration of Arrowhead into CapRock allows us to leverage the power of the CapRock brand, utilize our global infrastructure, and support both our existing and prospective customers with greater resources, better service and expanded capabilities. Our customers continue to trust and look to us for innovative, value-added solutions and creative deployment of our industry-leading technology. This integration has allowed us to expand significantly on this ongoing mission.

Q: Do you see any new products or services coming out of this growth that have yet to be launched?

A: Our customers’ requirements and market conditions are constantly evolving, so we are developing new products and services tailored specifically to government and military applications. One area in particular where we see significant growth is in military-only frequencies for commercial satellite communications. Our recently announced commercial X-band managed service offering, which was an industry first, was driven directly by customer demand. Not long after unveiling this service, CapRock announced that our government team was awarded two multimillion- dollar contracts to provide over 200 MHz of commercial X-band satellite services to two U.S. government agencies. This is a contract we would not have been involved with prior to the acquisition. To provide services on this contract, we are utilizing satellites that are reserved exclusively for government and military applications, which further illustrates our focus on customer needs and meeting and exceeding their requirements. These wins continue a series of industry firsts and recent large-scale global contract awards in both the commercial and government divisions of CapRock overall. ♦

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