Keeping the Commitment to Connection

Excellence in procurement helps broadband industry leader Armstrong keep its service promise

The construction business that Pennsylvania’s Jud L. Sedwick founded in 1946 has grown into a well-diversified group of companies spanning industries from HVAC to ice pop manufacturing.

Still owned and operated by the Sedwick family, Armstrong Group is composed of five brands: Guardian Protection, a premier provider of smart security and automation solutions for residential, commercial, institutional, and multi-site customers; Armstrong Comfort Solutions, a creator of competitive, expert solutions for any plumbing, heating or cooling need; 4Front Solutions, which offers Electronic Manufacturing Services for manufacturing and supply chain solutions for OEMs across multiple industries; and the Ziegenfelder Company,  one of the largest manufacturer of ice pops in the world and makers of the Twin Pops brand.

Armstrong Group is also home to the nation’s 11th largest broadband multiple service operator (MSO), known simply as Armstrong. Their state-of-the-art fiber network delivers broadband internet, streaming video, and telephone services to more than 400,000 customers in Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Anthony Scarpino

The largest company in the Group, Armstrong is an undeniable industry standout for a number of reasons, not the least of which is their true dedication to servant leadership. They are one of the last – if not the last – broadband providers to have general managers in system offices throughout their service areas. “We feel it’s very important to have a presence in the community where competitors have shut down,” said Anthony Scarpino, Armstrong’s director of procurement. “We’re here to help serve and support them.”

Their 24/7 customer service operation, located in Bedford, Pa., is 100% stateside, in keeping with the company’s desire to stay close to the people they serve.

Then there’s the matter of their net promoter score (NPS), which, despite much modernization in benchmarking, is still a valuable indicator of customer satisfaction in their industry. In telecom, an above zero score on the 1-100 scale is considered good, and a score above 50 denotes excellence. Armstrong’s NPS is 71, far eclipsing the biggest names in the business.

A strong procurement and supply chain organization underpins their success. Scarpino and his two-member team are responsible for acquiring the fiber that runs through their system to buying the modems in their customers’ homes and offices, and everything in between. The ultimate objective for each purchase is to bring the highest speed fiber to their communities.

From a general risk management standpoint, Scarpino is tasked with mitigating supply constraints, which will be especially critical as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program gets into gear. BEAD provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed internet access to underserved areas of rural America by funding planning, infrastructure deployment and adoption programs. Disbursements are scheduled to begin in late 2024 or early 2025.

“As that project gets underway we see the potential for supply chain to get difficult again with all of this money flowing into the system,” he noted. “One major focus is planning for that, looking out over the next three to five years to make sure that we have enough supply.”

The team is responsible for sourcing and purchasing all of the technology associated with bringing high-performance broadband to their customers, from optical network terminals to television remotes. “We work with our technology team and our engineering team to make sure that we have the very best devices with most up-to-date software and hardware and security,” he said. “As we increase our focus on public private partnerships as the money from the states and the federal government starts to come into the system, we have specific guidelines that ask us to purchase American-made products.” There will be exceptions for overseas suppliers such as chip makers, but those rules are not yet finalized.

“Almost all of our products specific to construction are made in the U.S., so a lot of our bigger partners are located here,” he added. “We make sure that we can also fully support any audit that would happen due to where their products are made.”

Risk management across the portfolio is also in Scarpino’s wheelhouse. “How do we mitigate risk? How do we mitigate cost issues? How do we mitigate security in any type of firmware that would cause us issues? We focus on those three things and make sure that the business is up to date on any changes or developments that would impact our ability to service our customers,” he explained.

Scarpino is adamant about treating vendors as extensions of the Armstrong family. “We try to incorporate them into the business as closely possible so that they can help us make decisions,” he stressed. Supply Solutions, a wholesale distributor of telecommunications products and supplies for broadband communications providers and their contractors, is one such partner.

“Their team really looks after us in terms of materials. They come to us with many recommendations on inventory levels and finding new things,” he said. “They’re a very important strategic partner across the board, whether it’s our optical transport network, which is a backbone of our new fiber deployment, to equipment that goes into the consumers’ homes. We have a true partnership that goes both ways versus just looking for the best price.”

Armstrong does not single-source. “We work with manufacturers to ensure that pricing and supply for the material or device they can supply is equitable to an incumbent. That gives us flexibility,” he said. “We’re not slowing ourselves down, and we do that with our partners as well. That balance is really effective because we’re not hampering ourselves by single-sourcing.”

As Scarpino put it, the company is very deliberate in its approach to cost containment. “When we’re deploying an application, we are very specific for two reasons. One is consumer satisfaction. We ultimately want them to have the best service and the highest speed internet that we can possibly offer them, but we do it in a way that is fully vetted,” he said.

“When we’re going out to market to find new ways of doing things we focus on how the application will function, then work to drive that price either by volume purchases or some kind of commitment over a period of time,” he said. As the company undertakes more and more miles of construction every year, long-term ROI is imperative. “We want to make sure that we’re doing the right thing, not just the most cost-effective thing for the sake of being cost-effective.”

At present, Scarpino and his team are working on an IT due diligence project, targeted heavily on cost containment to ensure they get the absolute best cost for every single capital project they plan to undertake. Their risk mitigation strategy involves creating a comprehensive master supplier agreement to protect themselves and the consumer. “We have multiple OEMs and vendors that that touch the same device so reading all that documentation is laborious, but we want to make sure that our risk strategy is well deployed.”

After a long-term RFP process to carefully evaluate vendors, Armstrong chose optical and routing systems, services, and automation software experts Ciena to partner with them in a project that, when completed, will provide remarkable insight into and performance of their fiber network. “Ciena are the leading optical transport provider in the space, and we are extremely excited to be working with them on this incredible advancement,” Scarpino enthused. The project kicked off in February.

As an employer, Armstrong excels at being a great place to work. With an average tenure of at least 12 years in service, it’s clear that they keep their 900-plus strong workforce satisfied. “That loyalty and dedication is incredible. It’s a natural offshoot of our reliance on a servant leadership model. But I would say that from the Sedwick family all the way down, the care and the focus on the individual is a high priority that I’ve never seen before,” Scarpino confirmed. “Our leadership is excited and concerned and wants to help you grow as an individual. And I’ve felt that since I started.”

Connecting people via internet, telephone, and streaming isn’t just about technology for the
community-focused company. Their dedication is exemplified by a pair of initiatives designed to help and heal. In six years, Breaking Bread, which collects funds and food for families in need, has spent roughly $200,000 in donations and distributed 250,000 pounds of food in Pennsylvania.

They also sponsor the Healing Heroes program, partnering with Guardian Angels medical service dogs to support veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. “We raise money and pair the dogs with those well deserving heroes,” Scarpino said. “We’ve raised more than $350,000 to that cause. It takes a long time and a lot of money to train a service dog that can help a veteran heal.”

At the end of the day, Armstrong truly is about making and keeping strong connections. “Armstrong’s commitment and dedication to providing the best broadband internet to our consumers is a huge project that brings everybody into one room as we build out hundreds of miles of new fiber to people’s homes,” he concluded. “That project is widespread. Everybody has a piece of it in some way, and that is going to continue to be our mission for the next five years.”

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Founded in 1946, what is now known as the Armstrong Group began life as Armstrong County Line Construction, contracting work for power and telephone utilities in Western Pennsylvania. In the 1950s, we began to own and operate independent local exchange telephone companies. We expanded into the cable television industry in 1963. The 1980s saw us move into the security, restaurant and real estate development industries. And we’ve continued to expand and diversify. Our most recent addition has been Armstrong Comfort Solutions, a full service residential and commercial heating, cooling and plumbing provider.

Seven decades old, the Armstrong Group remains a family owned and operated business, now employing over 2,300 people across the nation. Strong management, fiscal responsibility, careful planning and diligent research are hallmarks of the businesses that make up the Armstrong Group of Companies, ensuring the mission statement of our founder; Growth and Perpetuity.

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Corporate Office

One Armstrong Place

Butler, PA 16001

Phone Number: 724.283.0925

Homepage Link: https://agoc.com/

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