Small business of month: Acato Information Management

 

Acato Information Management, located at 173 Mitchell Road, is the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month for November 2021, a press release said. The award is sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union.

“Service, integrity, and joy—those are the core values of Acato Information Management,” the press release said. “Owner Cathy Toth says those values drive everything they do.”

Launched in 2010, Acato is a software company focused on software quality. The company provides software testing for clients and government contractors.

“Traditional software testing revolves around executing tasks and resolving defects,” Toth said. “The value we bring is figuring out how well you know if you got what you wanted and then how you will confirm that you got what you wanted. It’s that analysis and then building tests to do that is really where we bring more value to the client.”

Acato’s largest job is a project related to program management for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Acato has been part of several awards associated with that, the press release said.

“Another project we work on is called Eagle-I,” Toth said. “It’s a GIS system that monitors energy providers across the country. So, when there are natural disasters, it’s where local responders go to find out where we have outages, where we need help.”

The system was first used following Hurricane Sandy in 2002 and has been used since to direct local responses when natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires strike, the press release said.

In the future, Toth said Acato would like to look beyond exclusively focusing on software quality assurance.

“We’re looking at other aspects of software development, and even cybersecurity,” she said. “The easy way to say that is that we do want to diversify our customer base, but we also want to diversify some of the things we’re doing, some of our capabilities. How big is that? I don’t know.”

Toth said she is very proud of the contributions the company has made to the community by supporting organizations like Altrusa of Oak Ridge, Girls Inc., the Tennessee Science Bowl, the Love Kitchen, and the Oak Ridge Public Schools Foundation. Staff members also routinely volunteer in churches, schools, and the Boy Scouts, the press release said.

“We have an employee advisory committee, and one of the charges we gave them is: Here’s a budget, figure out how we allocate this,” Toth said. “Last year, the committee determined the biggest need was food and selected Second Harvest Food Bank to be the focus. Staff donations amounted to $5,000, which Acato matched. Monies were turned in on Second Harvest’s Double Your Donation Day, so the total donation from the 27-person team totaled $20,000. “I’m pretty proud of that. I like that math where one goes to four.”

To nominate a business like Acato Information Management for the award, visit Small Business of the Month under the Members tab on the Chamber’s website at www.oakridgechamber.org. Businesses with 50 or fewer employees that are current members of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce in good standing and show active involvement in the community and/or the Chamber are eligible for the award.

 

More information will be added as it becomes available.

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