BY ANNA GZIRYAN
From Armenpress
YEREVAN—ServiceTitan, an American company providing software solutions to home and commercial service companies, is expanding its Armenia branch. The Armenian founders of the company plan to transform this particular branch into an ideological center.
ServiceTitan was founded in 2007 by Armenian-American entrepreneurs Ara Mahdesyan and Vahe Kuzoyan. The idea of establishing such a company first came to Vahe, whose father worked as a plumber and had his own company. In order to simplify his father’s work, Vahe, a business manager, was constantly in search of software solutions. Unable to find a satisfactory solution in the market, Vahe decided to create one on his own. After meeting with Ara, they decided to collaborate and bring ServiceTitan to life. Although they faced many challenges, they managed to develop and propose a software solution that helps home services and construction companies. Vach Hovsepyan, Senior Vice President of ServiceTitan, said that they offer a solution that enables to ensure the concrete process from the beginning to the end.
“It enables [users] to follow the work, control sales, and keep contacts with the customers. Thanks to one of the proposed solutions, the employee has an opportunity to get information about the customer, his/her identity, [and] residence from the very beginning of the call. This allows [users] to avoid additional questions during the talk and serve them [customers] very quickly,” Vach Hovsepyan told Armenpress. According to another solution, before calling a plumber, the customer gets information about the latter – his work experience and jobs completed thus far. The customer can also track the plumber’s location.
The company is moving on with progressive rates, as the proposed software solutions are currently sold in the U.S. and Canada, with plans to expand to markets in other countries, as well. ServiceTitan currently has two offices in the United States, an office in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and in Armenia, as well as partners in Canada. The company employs a total of 800 individuals.
“The idea of opening a branch in Armenia has long existed – since 2015 – we even implemented several small projects. But, the real work started after the revolution. We got inspired after the meeting with the representatives of the government – Tigran Avinyan [Deputy Prime Minister], Hakob Arshakyan [Minister]. In 2018, we made a decision to implement our idea to open an office in Armenia and, already by the end of the year, the results were visible. From the very start, our idea is for the Armenian branch [was for it] to be a center for ideas, rather than that of fulfilling engineering tasks,” said Hovsepyan.
Ashot Tonoyan joined the team with the status of a General Director of the Armenia branch and gathered the top specialists of the field. The Armenia branch of the company initially opened with four employees, but, today, they have more than 30 employees – a number the company plans on increasing.
“When the company executives visited here, they were impressed on what kind of specialists they could find here. This inspired trust for them to link prospects with the Armenian branch. Today, the team has expanded at various directions. There is a customer service center, which directly [puts us in] contact with the American customers. This is an important step, because in this way our office is also communicating with the customers, understands their demands, which in turn can lead to new ideas. In other words, we are not working isolated,” said Tonoyan. He also commented on the great potential the Armenia branch has, emphasizing that, by getting better acquainted with the customers, their branch could propose better solutions for them. The company’s Yerevan branch is also increasing the number of employment opportunities in Armenia. Tonoyan spoke of their plans to boost Armenia’s educational programs by implementing professional courses. The number of experienced specialists in Armenia is not enough to ensure the company’s stable growth and pace. There are good IT specialists in the labor market, but only a few of those meet the company’s requirements. ServiceTitan plans to fill in these gaps by providing the Armenian youth with the knowledge necessary to one day secure these jobs and help the country further develop in these fields.
“You know what’s enticing about Armenia? That our average business employee is not just fulfilling a task, but seeks to offer new ideas and solutions,” remarked Hovsepyan.
