Bart Didden's new venture to help dealers with DIY

PORT CHESTER, N.Y.—Bart Didden, president of USA Central Station, on March 2 announced the launch of a new venture: Security Dealer Network, which will aid dealers in entering the DIY market with its DragonFly offering.

“It's a program designed for alarm dealers, to allow them to affordably participate in a different niche from the traditional alarm system,” Didden, also president of Security Dealer Network, told Security Systems News. He underlined that DragonFly is not a professional system; instead, he called it a “DIY solution for alarm dealers to be able to sell into the millennial age bracket, and to those who do not want installers in their homes.”

Didden is confident enough in DragonFly that he's thought about the possibility of USA opening another central station in the South East, which would be “part of the USA network of central stations, with a primary emphasis on DragonFly, but it will also serve as a fifth center for us.”

“If DragonFly really starts to shoot off … we have the ability to put a facility in and make it operational and get a [UL] listing on it in probably under 75 days,” he said.

DragonFly's equipment is manufactured by RSI Video Technologies, and Didden said he doesn't expect any impact from Honeywell's plans to acquire RSI. “SDN has a contract with RSI for the DragonFly project, and everyone is still going full speed ahead.”

The DragonFly project was first announced as an initiative from USA Central Station at ESX 2015.

Dealers who sign up get “individual websites which are built, branded and targeted to consumers with DragonFly's extensive marketing and messaging,” the announcement said. Customers buy and install the equipment, selecting either a professionally monitored option or an entirely DIY model. Dealers receive RMR through the systems' monthly monitoring fees.

USA Central will provide the monitoring for DragonFly systems, though the offering is not an exclusive partnership. “The DragonFly is not limited to USA customers—you don't have to be a USA dealer,” Didden said.

DragonFly will be exhibited at ISC West. Didden said DragonFly will be rolling out in April, “shortly after ISC.”