Ruffdogs joins consultants in Holonyx kennel

Fort Collins-based Ruffdogs seemed to have a pretty good thing going. The Linux service, support and development company had the support of the Fort Collins Technology Incubator, awards from industry partners, a growing portfolio of software products and a high-tech brain trust of almost scary proportions.

But the company was missing an important element. While the technologically advanced team was proficient in development, it lacked expertise on the sales and marketing side.

“That was the missing piece of the business,´ said Ruffdogs CEO Garret Acott.

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Enter Rich Kopcho, a Hewlett-Packard Co. veteran who has spent the last 10 years consulting with major companies on business development and operations processes. Kopcho acquired Ruffdogs earlier this year and merged the company into his consulting business to form Holonyx Inc. Acott will serve as chief technology officer of Holonyx, with Kopcho as CEO.

The company was officially formed in February and already employs 17, including the team of eight that came over with Ruffdogs. The company plans to expand to a staff of about 22 immediately and will likely add another five by the end of the year.

Holonyx is a play on the term holonic, which refers to an organization that is complex yet resourceful and highly adaptable. It is often used to describe a method of manufacturing, which is where the company’s roots lie.

Kopcho’s partner, Mike Mahoney, literally wrote the book on low-volume manufacturing processes – “High-Mix, Low-Volume Manufacturing.” The book was published by Hewlett Packard Professional Books.

Fortune 500 clients

Since the late 1990s, Kopcho and Mahoney have been consulting with companies on operating processes. Large clients included Honeywell International Inc., United Defense and British Aerospace – now known as BAE Systems – and Celestica Inc.

Kopcho found that there were services that some of his consulting clients were asking for that didn’t fit in with his business development and operations expertise. He wanted to form a company that could handle not just business development, but also software and networking needs, Web development and branding and marketing.

“(Holonyx) has been gelling in my head for a number of years,” Kopcho said.

The vision began to fall into place with a particular consulting project. Kopcho was consulting with Dan Walter, a Denver entrepreneur who was seeking assistance in getting his product vision off the ground. Walter, through his Steward Software Co. LLC, wanted to launch a software product to serve the increasingly regulated banking market.

Walter had created a program in Microsoft Access to record and cross-reference the financial and non-financial aspects of commercial real estate loan and other financial products. The next step was to allow a function to create reports in the format that regulators would request. But he needed someone to develop that more sophisticated program.

Ready and willing

Kopcho had been hired to complete market research for the program, but got involved with finding a software developer to put the program together. Ruffdogs was more than willing and had the expertise to develop just about any type of program.

While Kopcho was in talks with Acott about development of the banking software, hints were dropped on both sides that a merger might be a mutually beneficial route.

To complete the company, Holonyx will also close on a deal to absorb a Loveland-based marketing and Web development firm called H3 Group. As a division of Holonyx the group will be known as RedOnyx and headed by Phil Hartley. Hartley will serve as the company’s chief marketing officer.

The group created PassIT, which is currently in early stage testing. Once it is ready to launch, the firm will help to market the product.

“It’s the number of features which is somewhat unique about (Holonyx),” Walters said.

But Holonyx is unique in other ways as well. In addition to offering consulting services, the company plans to launch its own software tools, including several that it acquired with Ruffdogs. It is also planning to develop a program around the algorithms developed by Mahoney to improve manufacturing and operations processes.

For Acott and his team, the acquisition was just what they needed.

“For our guys, it’s almost a relief,” he explained. “We get to concentrate on what we do really well.”