About Mentor Engineering
An industry leader in transit solutions, Mentor Engineering specialized in ruggedized in-vehicle hardware and demand response/fixed route software solutions. Their premiere product for scheduling and dispatching, Streets ITS is currently employed by the top public transit agencies in North American. As well, their Ranger, Mobile Data Terminal has set the standard for in-vehicle technology in both the fixed route and demand response (On-Demand / Paratransit) industries. Director of Client Services, Steve Dewis has been with Mentor Engineering for the past 20 years. As such he’s seen Mentor grow from a 7-person operation to a company with over 130 employees. Since the beginning, Mentor’s philosophy has remained the same: to grow the demand response and fixed route business, to build long-term partnerships with customers and maintain exceptional service.
Snapshot
Mentor Engineering
- Specializing in fixed route software and ruggedized in-vehicle hardware for the North American transit industry
Challenges
- Continuation of growth within the company
- Maintain quality products and top customer service
Solution
- TripSpark partnership provided stability and financing
Result
- Business growth and market reach
- Maintained close customer relationships and service
Challenges
In 2013, Mentor found itself at a pivotal moment in the company’s 20 plus-year existence. They needed a long term plan to ensure stability for their employees and continue to grow their products and services for their customers that wouldn’t rely upon traditional “angel investment” strategies. There was a growing level of stress as the company began to navigate through untested waters and being financially stable was becoming more and more of an issue. As Steve Dewis points out, “growth is great, but it’s not sustainable without a solid plan.” As a company achieves its operational goals, it needs to take the next, logical, best step. For Mentor, this meant they needed to find a suitable way to move their already innovative and creative business forward. As such, they began searching for acquisition options.
Rather than getting more investors, this was the best way to go.
Results
Mentor has retained its fixed route clients and maintained the high quality of service each of its unique customers has come to expect. Streets ITS has become the cornerstone of TripSpark’s fixed route software solutions offering and continues to grow and develop alongside market demand. The Ranger ruggedized in-vehicle computer continues to be a market leader in functionality and robustness necessary for the harsh transit environment. Together, TripSpark and Mentor have partnered to create an extremely robust, industry-leading transportation software set of products, from software to hardware. Because of its partnership, Mentor now has the stability to offer best-in-class IT expertise in order to support and maintain systems for decades to come.
Overall, it’s been a success – helping keep the core business running along with maintaining our exceptional customer service.