Matt Atwater, CEO of Glastonbury-based Tsunami Tsolutions, is used to confronting the unexpected.
Matt Atwater
He co-founded his company, with an initial focus on aerospace IT, just after the tech bubble burst in the early 2000s. In 2007, his business partner passed away, followed by the Great Recession a year later.
So when COVID-19 hit the global stage, decimating the commercial airline industry, Atwater was prepared to weather the storm. In fact, despite the initial negative impact from the pandemic early last year, Tsunami Tsolutions added 30 new employees during the back-half of 2020 and saw revenue increase by over 20%.
Atwater credits his company’s long-term strategic diversification of services – and a focus on two key Greater Hartford industries, aerospace and defense – with Tsunami’s success.
Since its founding, Tsunami has grown from IT services to providing data analytics, engineering support, regulatory compliance and business consultation within the broader aerospace ecosystem, which includes power generation, manufacturing and repair organizations and the military.
And it’s paying dividends. As a privately-held business, Atwater declined to reveal financials, but noted that revenue for the company has been growing 17% annually for the past five years.
As airlines look to rebound from the devastating impact of COVID-19 – which caused passenger traffic to drop by 90% worldwide at the height of travel restrictions in the second quarter last year and dozens of international and smaller carriers to file for bankruptcy – creating efficiencies driven by data analytics and prudent fleet management will be top concerns. That creates opportunities for companies like Tsunami, which helps businesses try to improve profit margins through data insights and forecasting.
A study by the International Civil Aviation Organization determined that a typical commercial plane’s maintenance costs — including the ordering of new parts — can account for up to 45% of a plane’s total operating expenses. Those are bottom-line costs that can be reduced through data-driven decision-making and real-time analytics.
International expansion
Don Yeo, a senior program manager for Peraton, a Calgary, Canada-based avionics supply chain and engineering company that provides repair and maintenance services, understands the importance of reliable data.
It not only drives decisions about when to order parts, he says, but also provides statistics and reports to government regulatory bodies.
“We have nearly $750 million of Canadian inventory in our system and we need to make sure we track that in the most efficient manner possible,” Yeo said. “We actually have over 80,000 line items in our maintenance [tracking] system.”
Peraton uses Tsunami’s data tracking tools, which generate custom reports that reflect an understanding of his company’s business-specific needs.
“It’s created a lean management on our materials [ordering],” Yeo said. “It helps inform our purchasing decisions and makes our supply chain more efficient.”
In fact, Yeo estimates that Tsunami’s applications have increased his company’s efficiency by up to 20%.
The in-depth knowledge and employee expertise in the aerospace sector is a real value-add, Atwater says, and with aerospace giants like Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford and Collins Aerospace in Windsor Locks, the Greater Hartford region provides a deep talent pool.
Tsunami has grown to 163 employees. That expertise – and its more nimble size – has enabled Tsunami Tsolutions to compete with bigger firms in both the aerospace business consulting and IT markets.
“It’s not just about price, but our capabilities,” said Atwater. “It’s not just that we bring a level of expertise, but we can provide it more quickly [than some of the bigger players].”
Atwater says his company’s client base includes a strong mix of long-term clients with ongoing support services — like Bristol-based Barnes Group, Pratt & Whitney and Stratford-based Sikorsky — and project-based work for clients looking to scale-up their capabilities.
His firm is also growing its international footprint both through subcontract work with multinational companies and inking its own international deals, including a large foreign client it secured during the pandemic.
Atwater sees the international market, especially in the Middle East and Asia, as a major future growth opportunity. While Tsunami Tsolutions’ growth has been organic to date, Atwater is open to exploring an acquisition given the right circ*mstances.
Despite the lingering impact of COVID-19 on the aerospace sector, Atwater says, he’s bullish on his company’s future.
In 2019, Tsunami’s investment in infrastructure upgrades enabled his employees to transition to remote work more easily, including use of online portals, dashboards and tracking tools for clients.
“We even adopted a new online platform to help our employees and clients, who were more dispersed, to collaborate,” he said.
It was fortuitous planning for a leader who’s come to expect the unexpected.
