It’s 1968. Just a few years earlier, computers were being introduced into enterprise operations, mainly supporting financial applications. A few process-oriented systems companies predicted correctly that computers would significantly improve industrial and utility operations – by collecting massive amounts of data in “real-time”, analyzing and reducing that data to accurate information about how their process was performing, and finally presenting that data in an organized and meaningful fashion to the personnel who operated their facilities.

A number of pioneering individuals were trying to persuade SDS 910/920 and SDS Sigma 2, Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-8, Data General Nova, and Bailey Meter Company 855 computers to perform functions they were never designed and intended to perform. After totally rewriting the operating systems for these different computer platforms, they were able successfully to perform process control functions and handle real-time (“priority interruptible”) events.

A group of five of these pioneers, working then to develop applications for these rudimentary real-time systems, also recognized that public utilities, transportation agencies, and private industrial firms might benefit from subject matter experts who understood both their operating needs and how computers might be applied to improve operations. They also believed that end users would need these experts to assist in formulating a statement of requirements, in assessing whether these new tools could achieve their vision, and in requiring a host of related services that would enable them to procure and commission this new technology. After a year or two of deliberations, some of these pioneers decided to form an engineering consulting firm that served these organizations. Macro Corporation was born.

During Macro’s first few years, our firm’s staff supported clients who were interested in installing Energy Management Systems (EMS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems that could monitor and control electric power switchyards and, to a limited extent, power generation. Macro’s first utility client was the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company. Through the 1970s, demand for performance and functionality from these EMS and SCADA systems was constantly expanding, especially as system platforms were released with more computing power and more capability to connect to remote device types (e.g. RTUs) and with other computer systems. Macro’s client base grew as they especially valued Macro’s independent assessment of their needs.

During the late 1970’s, rail transit agencies began to see the benefits of SCADA-like systems supporting train control. The original reasons for forming our firm were found to be readily applicable to the rail transit market too. Thus, the opportunity to support the planning, design, procurement, installation, and testing of centralized traffic control systems and the supporting field-related data acquisition and control systems became a new focus for Macro’s rapidly growing consulting services practice.

From the 1970s through the early 1990s, Macro developed and implemented one-of-a-kind information management and process control systems for several public utility and industrial clients. Our highly versatile and creative software design and implementation staff enabled our firm to provide our diverse clients with automation capabilities not available from products sold by traditional systems suppliers. Macro also began offering a consultancy service to private industrial clients—looking now from the direction of “operational need” for information management and process control applications associated with water and gas distribution, steel making, candy making, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. By the mid 1990’s, Macro chose to concentrate entirely on our engineering and project management consulting practice for utility and transportation clients, and transitioned our software and industrial engineering staff to focus on building trusted relationships with clients in these markets while also expanding our team of professional staff with very experienced personnel drawn from end-users, large-scale system integrators, and market leading suppliers.

About this same time, the original founders of Macro decided to retire and so began planning transition of our firm’s ownership. Very soon after starting this process, in April 1996 N.V. KEMA, an electric utility-oriented consulting and services organization located in Arnhem, The Netherlands, purchased Macro Corporation. Over the span of four years, KEMA also purchased several other consulting companies in the USA—some of them once our firm’s competitors. In 1998, KEMA formed an energy-focused consulting company serving electric utilities worldwide, called “KEMA Consulting”. In 2002, the USA arm of “KEMA Consulting” was changed to “KEMA, Incorporated”, which continues today as a sister company to Macro Corporation. Both companies today are subsidiaries of KEMA-USA.

During the early 1990’s...as a natural extension of its public transit rail systems engineering practice...Macro entered and quickly became the leading firm for the planning and engineering of emerging GPS-based automatic vehicle location (AVL) and computer aided-dispatching (CAD) systems, also requiring “smart bus” technologies, for transportation agencies operating fixed-route bus and demand-responsive vehicles. Macro’s first client in this new practice area was Portland, Oregon’s “Tri-Met” who also was the first agency to adopt this new fleet management technology anywhere the USA. Today, nearly every major U.S. public mass transit agency uses a CAD/AVL system offering powerful core features according to industry-standard requirements that Macro first established some 18 years ago. Macro has been involved in over 30 of these types of projects throughout North America that have been classified by the U.S. transportation industry as “Advanced Public Transportation Systems”.

During the 1990s and into early 2000, before the introduction of affordable, commercially available high-speed wireless access, communication needs for CAD/AVL systems between dispatchers and bus drivers relied on the same type of land mobile radio (LMR) systems used commonly by public safety agencies. Rather than develop a new competency in this complex technology, our firm instead sought the support of candidate firms offering a proven track record of engineering wireless communications systems and who also shared our client-oriented values, uncompromising business ethics, and acute attention to quality and accuracy. We found just such a firm: Frank Thatcher Associates Inc. (FTAI) headquartered in San Francisco, who was providing LMR and microwave datalink system engineering to Public Safety clients. After working closely together on several very successful transportation engagements over a few years, in 1999 Macro purchased FTAI and its professional staff engineers became part of the Macro family. Since then, our portfolio of new, long-term public safety clients has consistently grown.

Finally, KEMA’s acquisition of Macro in 1996 reopened opportunities for our firm to leverage the entire spectrum of our firm’s competencies back into the same market sector from where Macro first started: the energy production and distribution industry. Consequently, Macro now routinely offers its control center and communications expertise to select KEMA public and private utility operators.

Today, Macro enjoys industry-wide recognition as a systems engineering consultancy firm proudly serving public transportation providers, public safety agencies, utilities, and similar services-oriented companies. Almost all of our projects are focused on assisting clients with the procurement and installation of appropriate technology infrastructure and real-time systems designed to improve service operations, safety, and security.