SDI redesigns sales effort

CHICAGO—With two major acquisitions closed in the past several months, SDI has grown rapidly and is now turning its attention to its sales organization. It announced Oct. 17 that it has hired former Jeremy Howard, a former Avigilon VP, to set up a national vertically focused sales effort.

“We have a nice footprint around the country. It's time for us to up the game,” Brian Diver, president and COO for SDI, told Security Systems News.

“I'm thrilled to have Jeremy on board,” he said. “I've watched his success over the years.” 

SDI is opening an office in Dallas, which Howard will oversee. “He will set up the vertical market groups and take on a couple vertical markets himself [including airports and ports],” Diver said. SDI will direct its sales efforts at the following vertical markets: critical infrastructure, petrochemical, government, banking and finance, health care and education.

Diver said SDI expects to hire vertical sales team over the next two to four quarters. “We want to build out the sales organization as fast as we can, but what's really important is to find great guys like Jeremy. We have to be patient because the domain expertise [in vertical market sales] and the network is so important.”

Howard comes to SDI from Avigilon, where he was VP global business development. He previously worked at Verint, Honeywell, and at SEMCO, a systems integrator in Florida. 

SDI is headquartered here and has seven offices around the U.S. and one in Istanbul, Turkey. The integrator specializes in “mission-critical technologies and infrastructure” for airports, utilities, transit systems and other critical infrastructure. 

In June, SDI acquired isys. Two months later it acquired X7. It is now a $70 million integrator.

The vertical market sales effort is part of the integration of the three companies: SDI, which has historically done a lot of government work (airports, schools, transportation); isys, which specialized in financial institutions and ports; and, X7, which focused on education and transportation, Diver said. 

“The whole idea is to integrate the companies into one deliverable platform so any customer can take advantage of the [historical] expertise of any of the three companies,” Diver said.