SYRACUSE — After doubling revenue over the past seven years, Usherwood Office Technology President Lou Usherwood plans to double it again in the next five years.

The information technology service and solutions and managed print company expects that it generated $35 million in revenue in 2019. Usherwood predicts revenue will hit $70 million in the next five years as the company continues to expand in the New England market.

“The growth is a result of becoming a better company,” Usherwood notes. By that, he means the company’s expansion as both an IT solutions provider as well as its geographic expansion.

Usherwood Office Technology began laying the plans for its expansion into New England in 2017, he says. At the time, the company had six branches in New York and set its sights on opening a branch in Burlington, Vermont. Locations in Manchester, New Hampshire; Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, Connecticut; and Boston soon followed. As a result, Usherwood serves customers across a six- to seven-state region with a territory of 120,000 square miles.

New England was the perfect market for the company, Usherwood says, because there was a genuine need for a company that provided the full spectrum of information-technology services.

“No one looks like us in any of our markets,” he contends. Along with its IT and managed print services, Usherwood also sells security solutions, video-conferencing technology, digital signage, and mailing solutions. None of its competitors bundle all those services together, which can mean a lower price point along with more thorough protection and security for clients, he stipulates. 

Having multiple vendors can lead to gaps in coverage and service, he says, and might leave a company vulnerable to attacks. One vendor might overlook something it thought another vendor was covering, he notes, and that doesn’t happen with Usherwood Office Technology.

One of the areas where Usherwood has seen significant client growth is from the legal industry in the Boston area.

Employment at the company has been expanding along with the number of locations. Usherwood says one of his main reasons for expanding the company was to provide a market for the third generation of Usherwoods — his three daughters — to manage. He fleshed out the staff with industry veterans, and the company’s New England locations now employ 22 people between the offices and a distribution center in Auburn, Massachusetts.

Usherwood Office Technology, which employs a total of 140 people, will also continue to hire people to fill the 23 new hires called for in this year’s budget, Usherwood says. To date, the company has filled six of those positions. He anticipates employment will reach between 175 and 200 employees over the next five years.

Usherwood expects the New England offices to drive much of the company’s growth, but says the firm will also expand with locations in secondary markets that fill in gaps between current markets.

Usherwood Office Technology will add 11 markets in the coming years, including areas in northern Pennsylvania; Rutland, Vermont; and Elmira. “I think we’re looking at Poughkeepsie as well,” Usherwood says.

Headquartered in Syracuse, Usherwood (www.usherwood.com) has offices in Albany, Auburn, Binghamton, Buffalo, Jamestown, Potsdam, Plattsburgh, Rochester, Utica, and Watertown, N.Y.; Boston and Auburn, Massachusetts; Burlington, Vermont; and Manchester and West Lebanon, New Hampshire. 

SYRACUSE — The five finalists selected to take part in the fourth round of the Genius NY will move into the Tech Garden in Syracuse to begin the competition.

Empire State Development (ESD) announced the five finalists on Dec. 11. 

Genius NY is a business accelerator program administered at CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden. Genius NY stands for Growing ENtrepreneurs & Innovators in UpState New York.

These startup drone and Internet of Things (IoT) companies will participate in the year-long program and will compete for a total of $3 million in direct investment, including a grand prize of $1 million and four $500,000 awards. 

Throughout the program, teams will have meetings with community leaders, mentors, and advisors from leading companies in Central New York while also participating in tourism activities. The goal is to encourage all participants to put down roots and stay in the region following the conclusion of the program.

“We are excited to welcome these innovative entrepreneurs to Central New York for round four of Genius NY,” Eric Gertler, acting commissioner and president & CEO-designate of Empire State Development, said in a statement. “This unique competition supports UAS startups and IoT companies developing the next-generation technologies that will accelerate Central New York’s growing drone industry and ensure the region continues to rise.”

The five companies will move into the Tech Garden in January to begin competing for $3 million in investments. The companies were selected from a pool of more than 400 submissions. 

The year-long competition is the largest business accelerator competition for the drone industry in the world. 

All five of the round-four teams will begin the program in January, focused on enhancing their business plan and will pitch their technologies at an event in April to a panel of judges and audience of more than 300 people, where the grand prize and runner-up awards will be decided and announced.

The finalists

ESD provided the following description of each Genius NY finalist:

Eget Liber of Syracuse uses an autonomous, semi-submersible remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to mitigate the life-cycle of cyanobacterium, also known as blue-green algae, in freshwater lakes. The ROV is designed to receive command coordinates from an aerial drone, which is configured to identify algae blooms via spectral analysis. 

BotsAndUs of the United Kingdom automates customer service and operations tasks across the retail, hospitality and travel sectors with a fleet of fully autonomous robots that work with employees to serve more customers as well as capture real time data. They provide a full stack solution of hardware, software, support, and data manipulation.

DroneSeed of Seattle, Washington seeks to make reforestation scalable and “make a dent” in carbon emissions. Using drone swarms, DroneSeed plants trees at a rate that is “six times more efficient” than manual labor planting. Their process decreases the response time to reforest and increases the total acres of reforestation that can be done per year by simplifying the supply chain.

Geopipe of New York City creates instant, immersive virtual copies of real cities for gaming, simulation and architecture. Their machine learning algorithms generate 3D maps and models with every tree, building, road and window labeled and realistically reproduced. These images are then licensed monthly, annually or via revenue sharing.

Skyy Network of Australia has a flight information management system that uses an open source data exchange network built on blockchain. It allows UAS (unmanned aircraft system) service suppliers and air navigation service providers to share and verify safety critical airspace data to allow drones to operate beyond visual line of sight.

A UAS includes a drone and equipment used to control its flight. A drone is also referred to in the industry as an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV.