CEO’S PERSPECTIVE SAM is Advancing the Industry

This is an exciting time for SAM. We have achieved our highest ENR ranking to date: ranked 88 of the Top 500 Design Firms. This ranking confirms that we keep pushing the boundaries and improving our client solutions. We are the most trusted provider for the complete lifecycle of infrastructure assets. Thank you all for your efforts to help us achieve this recognition.

As I discussed earlier this year, we remain on track for our long-term strategic goal to achieve $500M in revenue and $100M in EBITDA by 2026. Our overall growth strategy to accomplish this goal remains the same. We continue to grow organically in our existing offices while pursuing an aggressive acquisition strategy that strengthens our geographic footprint and service offerings. I would like to welcome our new team members from our 2023 acquisitions so far: Axis Survey & Mapping; Carolina Surveying Services, Inc.; GeoSolutions, LLC; MTPLS Surveying & Mapping; AXIS GeoSpatial and AXIS GeoAviation. Let’s make our new team members feel welcome and immersed in the SAM way.

In the first half of the year, we achieved $143.5M in revenue and $27.9M in EBITDA. While those numbers are higher than our performance last year at this time, we are still performing below the annual plan we set for 2023. It remains critical that we bill every dollar for all effort spent providing services and solutions to our clients.

As part of our focus to improve financial performance, the leadership team recently convened and identified five top tactical initiatives that will address areas where we have current challenges.

1. Accurate and Daily Timesheet Entry and Review

2. Project Set Ups

3. Proper Allocation of Equipment Costs

4. Improved Cost Management and Accountability

5. More Efficient Billing Process

We each have a responsibility to keep SAM financially healthy and on track to reach our financial goals, especially as we continue to grow.

A Digital Transformation

Technology has been at the forefront of SAM’s vision for years and has helped set us apart from the competition. Our emphasis on a digital transformation is setting SAM up for an even more powerful value proposition going forward. We are no longer competing with other firms. With proprietary technology like SAM Vantage™, SAM Inspect™, SAM Linewise, SAM Integrity™, and substation scanning, we are advancing the industry itself.

The key to our future growth and success is our ability to commercialize our technology. We have a talented Applied Technology team working with subject matter experts (SMEs) to improve upon existing proprietary technologies and develop new ones. As they partner together, I ask that you consider how you talk to clients. Rather than selling SAM’s services, I ask that you craft a message detailing the value, the benefit, and the how and why of our solutions. Explaining how and why our technology will benefit our clients is critical to SAM’s future. Our clients are interested in the outcome - the final deliverable. By understanding how or why a product or service works, our clients can assess quality, reliability, and the potential for suitability in other areas of their business. With this understanding, we allow our clients to make better-informed decisions. We become their trusted advisor.

Another ask that I have for each of you is to always look for ways for us to improve. Consider how we can be more innovative or more efficient in providing solutions to our customers. No idea is too small. Sometimes ideas that seem small at first evolve into a big idea that can help transform the company or even the industry. Please contact our Chief Digital Officer, Andy Scott, with any ideas and questions you may have pertaining to our current and future digital initiatives.

Sustaining Safety Standards

One area that we continue to improve is our safety behaviors and performance. This year alone, our field crews have submitted over 14,000 Daily Job Hazard Analysis forms. Our safety department, along with the Ops team, have conducted over 180 field visits through our CORE Observation Program.

To further enhance safety, we introduced the Good Catch Program in February. This program encourages our crews to identify and take necessary actions to eliminate or mitigate hazards in their work environment. So far, we have received over 285 Good Catches, and we have recognized many employees for their outstanding contributions through the Good Catch of the Week in Work Tango.

These combined efforts from SAM team members have contributed to our lowest Total Recordable Incident Rate in company history, currently standing at 0.16. Thank you all for your dedication to ensuring the well-being of your fellow employees and a big Thank You to Todd Baker and the entire Safety Department for helping keep us safe.

Let’s start the second half of the year with our best foot forward, thinking about our clients and the value we can bring to them, our people and how important each one of you is to the success of the company, and how technology can help us be better. Thank you for choosing to be on the SAM team.

If you would like to share an idea or would like to contribute, please contact the committee at newsletter@sam.biz.

Solomon, RPLS President & CEO

Contributors: Chris Solomon, Lorna Hicks, Kelli Howard, Shawn Dunn, John Braden, Avery Lloyd, Ethan Herbek, Ed Clow, John Watson, Emily Mitchell, Travis Bradley, and Matthew Foster

Newsletter Committee: Tammy Petrekovich, Alice Crain, Kristine Ritter Wilhelm, Laurice Yanar, Natalie Wade, Sarah Brown, Donna Josey

Welcome to our GeoSolutions Teammates

SAM is pleased to welcome all new employees from our acquisition of GeoSolutions, LLC on May 8, 2023.

GeoSolutions was a professional geomatics solutions company in The Woodlands, Texas with strong client relationships in the utilities, transportation, and local government sectors. The company’s thirty years’ experience delivering high-quality geomatics solutions in Houston has proved a great addition to SAM, and together we are leading the industry in providing spatial data solutions and intelligent deliverables to our combined clients.

SAM’s acquisition of GeoSolutions supports our strategic growth plan, to solidify our geographic presence and extend of our technical capabilities.

Welcome to our MTPLS Teammates

SAM is pleased to welcome our new teammates from our acquisition of, MTPLS Surveying & Mapping (MTPLS), on May 22, 2023.

MTPLS was a professional geomatics solutions company in Baltimore, Maryland with significant geomatics expertise, particularly in Unmanned Aerial Mapping, Inspection, and Geospatial capabilities in the utility sector.

SAM’s acquisition of MTPLS further strengthens our presence and strategic initiatives in the Mid-Atlantic region and will enable our teams to provide additional industry-leading spatial data solutions and intelligent deliverables to current and future clients.

Welcome to our AXIS GeoSpatial and AXIS GeoAviation Teammates

SAM is pleased to welcome our new teammates from our acquisition of, AXIS GeoSpatial and AXIS GeoAviation (AXIS), on June 19, 2023, which collectively operate as a full-service professional mapping firm in Easton, Maryland.

AXIS specialized in processing and delivering customized, application-specific geospatial data, and utilized remote sensing, and measurement technologies for integration into civil engineering and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications. As part of the transaction, we acquired a fleet of aircraft equipped with advanced remote sensing instruments that acquire high-resolution, multi-spectral imagery, and LiDAR, simultaneously.

Perspectives has gone digital!

SAM’s acquisition of AXIS brings a diverse client base across a broad spectrum of industries, including the utility, transportation, forestry, environment, and federal and state government sectors.

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