By Scott Boyter / Dallas-Fort Worth TechBiz (Sept. 3, 2001)

Inside a 16,000-square-foot facility in Richardson work 40 “geniuses” who can design anything from next-generation telecommunications switching components to talk doorbells.

The company’s president thinks its time his employees get some recognition.

Micro Technology Services, Inc., or Mitsi, has been around since 1976, designing products for prestigious companies such as Southwestern Bell Inc., Texas Instruments Inc. and Compaq Computer Corp., and governmental organizations such as NASA and the U.S. Air Force. However, Mitsi has historically kept quiet in terms of self-promotion – the company never advertised during its first 20 years of existence, and none of the products it designs for customers carry any kind of reference to the Mitsi name.

“An awful lot of these (customers) don’t want people to know they don’t design their own product,” said Mitsi President Fred Beckhusen.

What started as a consulting firm teaching people in the late 1970s how to use then-newfangled microprocessors has evolved into a $10 million a year engineering think tank. Although his customers have made billions of dollars using Mitsi-designed products, Beckhusen gives no hint of remorse that Mitsi is not a huge conglomerate itself.

“We are proud to be a part of their successes,” Beckhusen said.

Mitsi-designed products include a bowling ball tracker for Brunswick Bowling and Billiards Corp., a radio frequency dog training collar for Texmark Inc. and a power distribution monitoring and control system for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.

Mitsi also produced an integrated burglar alarm key ring for Ford Motor Co. a heat pump controller for Carrier Corp. and an “intelligent” ceiling fan for Casablanca Fan Co.

“We were one of the first companies to design a computerized microwave oven, and our ceiling fan design has been used for nearly 20 years,” Beckhusen said. “Who knows how many they’ve sold – I lost count around 1990 at 115 million.”

“I love going into a Home Depot and fooling around with the switches on the wall because I make the fan go into demo mode,” he said. “It starts playing this little tune, speeding up and slowing down.”

Mitsi comprises three divisions encompassing engineering, manufacturing and development of security products. The percentage of telecom-related products has plunged, but that deficit has been balanced by military and aerospace jobs.

“They’ve done an outstanding job for me every time I’ve used them,” Tom Hazelton of Fiber Systems International said. “They can react to a situation extremely quickly.”

The biggest area of recent growth for the company, however, has been through its security division. Hospitals, horse racing tracks and public transportation authorities are but a few of the customers for Mitsi’s video surveillance and security system technology.

“A hospital in Texas hooked one up in a supply room and caught an employee stealing drugs,” Beckhusen said. “They were thinking about taking it out until they caught another one the next night.”

A Mitsi security system installed at a racetrack in California helped nab a ring of employees stealing thousands of dollars. For $3,150 – the cost of the Mitsi system – the track was able to save $385,000 in lost money, according to Beckhusen. Also, he said, Los Angeles transit authorities used the system to catch an employee who had been stealing bus tokens and selling them for seven years.

Beckhusen declined to divulge them, but said Mitsi will unveil new security products at a trade show in San Antonio this month.

Beckhusen isn’t saying his company is recession-proof, but did note that the downturn in the telecom industry hasn’t really hurt Mitsi.

“Companies are cutting back on (research and development), except the smart ones,” he said. “That’s really a bad place to cut.”

“Look at the oil industry a couple of years ago,” Beckhusen said. “We were doing millions of dollars’ worth of equipment, very sophisticated stuff (for a company that he did not want to name).”

“A group of lawyers and accountants bought my client and canned the whole thing (Mitsi’s project) literally days before it was ready,” he said. “Now the oil industry is back – and look at where their stock is — $6 or $7 a share. The stock of the other guys we were working with that didn’t kill off their R&D is way back up now.”

“People put way too much focus on last quarter’s results,” Beckhusen said. “You should ignore last quarter’s results, and look at one-, three- and five-year performances before you just how management is doing.”

Customer Tom Hazelton of fiber optic connector manufacturer Fiber Systems International Corp. of Richardson said Mitsi has consistently been able to provide quick and cost-effective service to his company for years.

“They’ve done an outstanding job for me every time I’ve used them,” Hazelton said. “They can react to a situation extremely quickly.”

“If we have odd requests, they have the talent and wherewithal to come up with solutions for us,” he said. “The real value they bring is that I don’t have to staff an entire electrical design department to get my projects done.”

This article was originally published by Dallas-Fort Worth TechBiz.