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SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR OF THE YEAR
Building the Plane While Flying It
What do a tattoo (and a tattoo parlor), an RV, and a church and have to do with this year’s SDM Systems Integrator of the Year?
When you have been doing these award programs long enough you start to see familiar patterns in the companies that end up winning: Family-oriented, close-knit culture (whether forged from years in the business or a detailed acquisition strategy); a solid approach to technology that is just the right combination of forward-thinking but proven; and repeatable and documented processes for everything from hiring and training to back-end software.
Which is why when you see a company do unexpected things that go against the grain and are contrary to conventional wisdom, and still have success, you sit up and pay attention.
Karyn Hodgson, Editor of SDM, is responsible for the overall editorial direction of the magazine.
That isn’t to say this year’s winner, Chimera Integrations, doesn’t have a great culture or good business sense. They do — along with an approach to community involvement that is truly noteworthy, and hiring practices that address some of the pain points felt by almost everyone in the industry. But the company’s path to success is definitely more unconventional than most.
‘When you see a company do unexpected things that go against the grain and are contrary to conventional wisdom, and still have success, you sit up and pay attention.’
Started just seven years ago in 2017 out of a space occupied by a former tattoo parlor (and with a name inspired by one of the owner’s tattoos), Chimera Integrations was founded with the idea of bringing cutting-edge — and sometimes intentionally bleeding-edge — solutions to its customers.
“Our newness brings a fresh perspective and a willingness to embrace cutting-edge technologies and methodologies,” says Justin Stearns, company vice president and partner. “We are not constrained by legacy systems or outdated practices, which allows us to innovate freely and adopt the latest advancements in security. This agility enables us to provide our clients with state-of-the-art solutions that are both effective and future-proof.”
Founder and President Casey White jokes that one of his skillsets is lack of planning, which makes Chimera’s success all the more impressive. In fact, the company’s first few years in business — overlapping as they did with a worldwide pandemic — could be compared to the analogy of “building the plane while flying it.”
When the pandemic hit, White took advantage of the fact that no one wanted in-person meetings to take an RV and head out west, traveling from state to state and working literally from the road.
When he left, the company had 12 employees. By the time he returned in August of 2023, the company had expanded to five branch offices and 35 people. One of those branches is headed by Thomas Quant, who was one of the hires White made from the RV, in addition to Stearns. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I realized he was running the business out of a camper in the west,” Quant recalls.
Quant’s own branch currently operates out of an old church he and his wife are renovating, but as that branch — and the rest of the company — continues to grow by leaps and bounds, he is looking to move in the near future.
Chimera’s headquarters finally moved out of the space that had housed the former tattoo parlor this past summer when it formally opened its new headquarters in Syracuse, N.Y. The company now boasts 56 employees, ranked No. 55 on the 2024 SDM Top Systems Integrator Report (up from No. 70 in 2023), and is on track to do $11 million in revenue this year. I found this company’s story and their path to fast-rising success fascinating and hope you will, too. //
