Tom Hoff, Founder of One Call Concepts

Tom Hoff (retired) founded One Call Concepts, Inc. (OCC) over 40 years ago. At the time, he knew there was opportunity in the emerging one call industry, but he never foresaw the impact the company he founded would make. From developing innovative technologies to building valuable relationships, Tom’s ongoing commitment to damage prevention helped redefined the industry as a whole. It has ultimately resulted in the prevention of immeasurable numbers of damages and lives saved – numbers that only continue to grow.

Tom ended his 19-year career with the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company and incorporated “One Call Concepts” in September 1982. OCC began with a team of six employees at an office in Hyattsville, Maryland, and a single client: Miss Utility. The center set out with the mission of the rapid receipt, recording, and dissemination of a notification of excavation in mind, and OCC took its first call for Miss Utility at 12:01 a.m. on December 15 of that same year.

Much of OCC’s first year was spent establishing a corporate structure, a challenge Tom took head on while focusing on three principles he held close: customer service, performance, and reliability. He spent 160 nights away from home that year while traveling the country to promote OCC. Thanks to his commitment, the business grew rapidly and new clients soon chose OCC. Today, OCC supports 20 811 clients across the nation, making it the largest provider of damage prevention center services in North America.

Innovative, user-focused technology has always been central to OCC’s success, and the company’s early custom-developed technology pioneered what has become today’s industry standard. When one call systems were operating on assigned grids, Tom and his team identified a need for facility operators to be able to draw irregular shapes to represent the excavation area or the facility operator’s notification database. As a result, OCC placed the first system to use polygon comparison to identify the facility operators that needed to receive a ticket. The commitment to innovation has remained unwavering since 1982. OCC remains an industry leader, providing clients with software solutions grown from technologies its team once pioneered with Tom’s guidance.