A visit to ASG’s Dallas branch

IRVING, Texas - Chad Dawald, vice president and general manager of ASG Security’s Dallas branch, and my host during a February visit to the office here, is a soft-spoken, even-keeled kind of guy who’s held almost every job title possible in a security company. “There’s something to be said for walking a mile [in someone else’s shoes],” he said. Dawald’s been an installer, service technician, run the central station for Network Multifamily (before it was owned by Pro One). He was general manager of Hawk Security in Fort Worth, and vice president of operations for Entrust. And he came to ASG as business development manager when ASG, a super regional security company with offices around the Mid-Atlantic, the Northeast and in Texas, acquired Entrust in 2006. In 2007 he was promoted to vice president and general manager. And 2007 was a good year for the Dallas office. The office exceeded its annual revenue goal by 20 percent. “It’s the best performance this branch has ever had,” Dawald said. When I visited, a group of sales reps (the most of any branch office in the company) were getting ready to go on a trip to a resort in Mexico that they won for sales performance. The Dallas office does about $800,000 in RMR. Its account base is a 60/40 residential/commercial balance, whereas ASG company-wide is closer to a 50/50 account base. Why did they have such a great year? Lots of reasons, Dawald said. First, he credits the team of 105 that work in the Dallas office, led by key personnel such as Kelly Turner, senior administrative manager; Jeff Page, service manager; Rick Gatlin, residential sales manager; Jamie Bell, operations manager; and Dave Thomas who is in charge of telemarketing. Dawald said the acquisition of high-end fire provider Abbot Security in 2006 was a “shot in the arm for the company.” Along with the acquisition came key staff members such as Jamie Bell, who now oversees the Dallas fire operation. This enables ASG to “pick up all the fire and security business in large projects,” Bell said. It “had a big effect on our RMR and installation revenue” in 2007, Dawald said. “It used to be that a $100,000 job was a big job; now it’s not uncommon for us to have a $200,000 or $300,000 job. It’s that combination of high-end fire with security.” Some of the company’s large projects include the fire and security for the Texas Motor Speedway, fire alarm and inspections for the city of Dallas, and security and fire monitoring for the City of Arlington. Dawald’s goal for 2008 is to increase revenues by 15 percent. “We’ve got a huge hill to climb. Fortunately, we’ve got everyone in the right place to accomplish the goal… but it’s gonna take everybody to get there.” SSN