TSS Inc

Company Overview

TSS, Inc. provides a broad and specialized range of integration technology services that enable enterprises and users to successfully implement, operate, and maintain their Information Technology systems. As a provider of technology services built on a platform of experienced program management, we have expertise in delivering complex, end-to-end IT technology solutions cost-effectively. These IT solutions can be deployed in various physical settings such as data centers, co-location facilities, server rooms, modular or edge-based solutions, security operations, and communications facilities. Our services include rack and systems integration, configuration services, data center and modular data center facility management integration, deployment and maintenance services, strategic procurement services, project management and technology consulting, and design and engineering services.

TSS was incorporated in Delaware in December 2004. Our headquarters and our systems integration and configuration services facility are located in Round Rock, Texas.

We support a broad range of enterprise customers who utilize our services to deploy solutions in their own data centers, in modular data centers (MDC), in colocation facilities or at the edge of the network. This market remains highly competitive and is subject to constant evolution as new computing technologies or applications drive continued demand for more computing and storage capacity. In 2023 these enterprises shifted their investment priorities towards artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerated computing infrastructure initiatives. Enterprises and data center operators face immense pressure to integrate and deploy the latest AI equipment and graphic processing units (GPUs). They must adopt these next-generation servers and custom rack-scale architectures to compete in the market successfully and quickly. Ensuring adequate power and thermal management systems are implemented to support these new technologies while meeting increasingly stringent sustainability requirements is critical to a successful deployment. TSS exists to assist these operators in achieving these benefits over the life cycle of their IT investments.

Over the last ten years, we have focused our business on providing world-class integration services to our customer base. As computing technologies evolve, and as we currently see new power and cooling technologies emerge, including direct liquid-cooled IT solutions and the rapid adoption of AI computing solutions, we will continue to adapt our rack and systems integration businesses to support these new products. We will also continue to offer expanded services to enable the integration, deployment, support, and maintenance of these new IT solutions. We compete in expanding market segments, often against larger competitors who have extensive resources. We rely on several large relationships and one US-based OEM customer to win contracts and to provide business to us under “Master Service Agreements”. The loss of this customer could have a material negative effect on our results. Our operational focus is to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Most of the components used in our systems integration business are consigned to us by our original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or their end-user customers, thus our revenues reflect only the services we perform, and the consigned components are not reflected in our balance sheet. We also offer our customers strategic procurement services whereby we procure third-party hardware, software, and services on their behalf. Our configuration and integration service businesses integrate these components to deliver a complete system to our customers.

In some cases, we also act as an agent and arrange for the purchase of third-party hardware, software, or services that are to be provided to our customers by another party. However, we have no control over the goods or services before they are transferred to the customer. In these instances, we are acting as an agent in the transaction. These procurement activities allow us to develop relationships with new hardware, software, and professional service providers and allow us to generate higher margins on integration projects by broadening our revenue and customer base.

Service Offerings

We have developed a unique set of solution offerings where we provide a range of services that enable our customers and partners to efficiently plan, develop, build, deploy, and maintain their IT hardware and software solutions. These solutions begin with strategies for the care of information technology assets that are housed in the facility or modular data centers, including power, cooling, and heat rejection, as well as disaster recovery backup systems. Our operating expenses are not exclusively aligned to each service offering, as shared resources such as sales, marketing, and general and administrative expenses support all services. Our solutions involve all aspects of the life cycle of both traditional and modular data centers and their related assets which are described in more detail below.

Systems Integration Services:

To assist our customers with ITequipment deployment in their data centers we provide what we call “systems integration” services. We provide integrated technology services and software tools designed to accelerate the assembly and delivery of complex information technology solutions. These services include custom configuration of a broad scope of information technology products including client products, enterprise products, clusters, and modular containers. The integration of this equipment at both a rack-level or facility or modular data center level is performed to our customer specifications and test criteria and may include imaging of software onto the hardware as well. We are generally not responsible for the performance of the related IT equipment in the field. In addition, we provide warehousing of high-value equipment such as servers, switches, and other information technology hardware that are generally provided on a consignment basis to us by our OEM and end-user customers.

We also provide second-touch configuration services for our OEM and end-user customers, such as adding software, hardware, or other features to end-user devices, bundling such devices with peripherals, pre-loading customer-determined application software, tagging, asset capture, and other fulfillment services.

We have added two new service offerings to assist customers with the ongoing management of their IT systems. These include services to move or relocate equipment between locations, and specialized cabling solutions to link or integrate rack-level products and customer cabling and labeling services.

Facilities Services:

Consulting:

During the initial phase of a data center project, we provide project development-related services that typically include establishing project goals and a preliminary budget and schedules, setting technical parameters and requirements, and determining project team members and the overall requirements of the team.

Design and engineering consulting services typically include critical power and mechanical load calculations, mechanical design and engineering, high and medium voltage electrical design and engineering, communications and security systems design and engineering, physical vulnerability assessments, force protection design and bomb blast analyses, fire protection system design and engineering, facility systems equipment selection and facility commissioning and testing. These offerings also include post-commissioning support for ongoing operations.

Our strategy is to increase the number of customers and modular data centers under contract so that we can increase the amount of recurring revenues from ongoing design, maintenance, and support contracts. Our mission-critical facilities experience and our personnel skills position us as trusted advisors to our customers and allow us to work on new opportunities as our customers grow or as their facilities mature and as partners introduce us to new client opportunities. We also intend to increase our efforts at establishing direct selling and business relationships within the market.

Deployment:

In connection with the deployment of a solution within a customer’s existing data center, modular data center or related equipment requirements, our capabilities include project management, value engineering and design management, bid negotiation support, subcontractor pre-qualification, and selection, long-lead equipment procurement, issuance of equipment and construction contracts, and refinement and management of project budgets and schedules. Our project managers mobilize the required expertise for the project, utilizing project superintendents, quality control and safety professionals, as well as qualified subcontractors and support personnel. Project managers supervise work by project team members, including subcontracted parties, including all aspects of the following: architecture and construction, electric power systems, heat rejection and cooling, energy management, and controls, cooling tower systems, security systems, voice, data and network cabling, fire and life safety systems, and process piping and plumbing systems. The project manager remains responsible for managing all aspects of the project until project completion and customer delivery.

In addition, this installation portion of a project has the largest number of outside influences that can impact project goals and objectives, such as weather, non-performance of subcontractors, equipment deliveries, unexpected project changes from the owner, and influence from local authorities and utility providers. Therefore, management experience, skill, and mission focus are critical during the project installation period.

Maintenance and management:

We provide a comprehensive maintenance and service offering designed to ensure that the multiple systems critical to sustaining online applications in enterprise data centers and modular data centers remain operational and functional. Typical facilities management services include overall management of the post-construction facility maintenance program, and on-site staffing of technical engineering positions (e.g., electricians, HVAC mechanics, control technicians, and voice/data technicians). Increasingly, data centers are being constructed in a modular format, whereby information technology, power, and other related assets are deployed in pre-integrated solutions. Modular data centers may have lower overall cost of delivery, lower energy consumption, and shorter deployment schedules compared to traditional data centers. Our on-site maintenance services provide additional project revenue for us and position us for involvement in any new facility planning, design, and construction initiatives that the customer undertakes.

In addition, we provide 24x7 network operations support from our Round Rock, Texas facility which has the capability of remotely monitoring our data center service contract customers’ facilities for systems operations and emergency events that could lead to outages. Temperature levels, humidity, electrical connectivity, power usage, and fire alarm conditions are among the items monitored. The system maintains all site documentation for repairs and maintenance performed on each critical piece of equipment covered under our services. The information is useful to our customers in assessing operational efficiency and causes of failure and enables them to make critical decisions on repair or replacement strategies based on the operating history of the monitored systems.

Our facilities maintenance service contracts can be tailored to customer requirements and typically span one to three years in duration with cancellation clauses for nonperformance and are typically billed annually in advance. Our service contracts take different forms including fixed-price equipment maintenance with an optional comprehensive warranty to fix failures in key components such as uninterruptible power supplies or batteries, ticket-based service provided at contracted rates in a master service agreement, comprehensive facility services agreements that include on-site staffing, scheduled equipment maintenance and nontechnical facility services, and direct job-specific contracts for additional moves, add, refresh, refurbishment and change work within a facility.

As computer density increases and data centers evolve into the use of modular form factors, we found that we could leverage our facilities' maintenance experience and infrastructure by offering maintenance services for modules being deployed into new data centers. The number of modular units under our service contracts has continued to expand. Our design services continue to evolve to support changing data center requirements including installation and maintenance of systems deployed on the edge. Ultimately, we started working with IT vendors to help them in the design and integration of their IT equipment into modular data centers, which typically leads to ongoing maintenance contracts as these modular systems deploy.

Strategic Procurement Services:

We generate revenues from fees we charge our customers to procure third-party hardware, software, and professional services on their behalf that are used in our integration services as we integrate these components to deliver a completed system to our customers. These procurement services enable highly customizable solutions for our OEM and end-user customers and enable us to expand our revenues and profits and our customer base. We recognize our procurement services revenue upon completion of the procurement activity. In some cases, we arrange for the purchase of third-party hardware, software, or professional services that are to be provided directly to our customers by another party, and we have no control of the goods before they are transferred to the customer. In these instances, we are acting as an agent in the transaction and recognize revenue as the amount of any fee or commission that we expect to be entitled to after paying the other party for the goods or services provided to the customer.

Customers

Our customers include IT OEM equipment, technology and service companies, and private-sector businesses that in some cases are the end users of the facility, or in other cases are providing a facility to a government or commercial end user.

Sales and Marketing

A key part of our selling strategy is entering into master service agreements with multiple partners and co-selling our range of services to our partners’ end-user customers, leveraging their customer relationships and broadening the scope of potential customers for us. Our go-to-market approach formerly relied on business generated by one major OEM customer. While this business was and remains valued, it has been difficult to forecast resulting in inconsistent and fluctuating quarterly results. This approach relied on expertise in information technology hardware systems, energy consumption, real estate matters, and facilities planning and operation from this primary demand source. This marketing approach allowed the end–user customer to contract for comprehensive facilities services or to contract separately for each project phase such as integration or fulfillment services.

Our updated go-to-market strategy is designed to capitalize on our investment in direct selling personnel and leveraging our OEM partner’s capabilities at the same time. Our ability to be involved in sales engagements earlier in the cycle and with end-users will allow us to positively impact demand and provide greater visibility into the integration schedules and future pipeline. This impacts our ability to better manage personnel schedules and ultimately optimize our production capacity. We also seek to enhance our name recognition using improved web marketing, trade shows, technical seminars, direct mailings, and social media.

Our headcount in sales and marketing has been very selective and targeted to align the skill sets with our evolving service offerings, leverage partner relationships and increase the consultative capability of our sales organization.

Maintaining key alliances and creating new partnerships is an important part of our sales development and growth plan. These alliances reside with various information technology consulting firms, specialty mission-critical engineering firms, application service providers, and internet service providers. Key alliance opportunities also reside in other firms within the market sector such as equipment manufacturers, product suppliers, property management firms, developers, information technology system integrators, and firmware providers. We are focused on expanding our strategic alliances with information technology corporations to provide engineering, design, construction management services, systems integration, modular solutions, and facility management services. As we expand our configuration services business, we expect this will help us establish alliances with new hardware and software providers who operate in the IT infrastructure market.

Competition

The mission-critical information technology solutions market is large, fragmented, and highly competitive. We compete for contracts based on the strength of our customer relationships, successful past performance, significant technical expertise, specialized knowledge, and broad service offerings. Our strength lies in our ability to deliver quality solutions on time and with high quality at a competitive price. These solutions can be complex or simple. We have gained traction by providing complex AI solutions utilizing GPU and advanced thermal management technology. We often compete against channel re-sellers and divisions of large information technology service and equipment providers. In some cases, because of diverse requirements, we collaborate with these and other competitors for projects. We respect competition in the information technology services sector, and we embrace what we need to do to compete and win to continue to increase in the future.

Strategy

Our goal is to profitably grow our existing businesses and to identify expanded service offerings to further our value add to our customers as we become a recognized leader in the life-cycle management of complex IT solutions. At a high level, the strategy we intend to use to accomplish this goal include:

Employees

On December 31, 2023, we had 81 full-time employees. Our future success will depend on our continued ability to attract, retain, and motivate qualified personnel. We are not a party to any collective bargaining agreement, and we have not experienced any strikes or work stoppages. We consider our relationship with our employees to be very satisfactory.

Available Information

We file annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and proxy statements relating to our annual stockholders’ meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Copies of these filings, including amendments to such filings are available, free of charge, on our website, www.totalsitesolutions.com*,* as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. Information contained on our website is not and should not be deemed to be a part of this Annual Report or a part of any other report or filing with the SEC. All reports that we file with the SEC are available to read and copy at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549, on official business days during the hours of 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. You may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an internet site atwww.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.