Convergint is experienced with many types of government entities, including state agencies, local municipalities, primary and higher education institutionsairports, public housing authorities, and non-profit organizations. State & local security solutions provided by Convergint include integrated security, fire, and life safety systems designed to protect assets and mitigate risk.

Convergint’s state & local team is led by Richard D. Shook, a security veteran with immense industry experience. Here Richard shares some of his thoughts on emerging trends and provides real-world insights for security professionals who are looking for answers on how to solve their most pressing challenges.

Tell us about your professional background and your role at Convergint.

I have worked in the security industry for 36 years in positions ranging from operations, service, installation, sales, and executive management. This has given me a wide range of different experiences in building solutions for businesses. As the National Senior Director of Business Development, dedicated to the state & local government market sector, I am responsible for developing strategic roadmaps and business planning for this business division.

My team supports each of our Convergint Technology Centers (CTCs) through strategic plans and tactical actions that help our customers reach their business objectives with innovative solutions that solve their critical security & life safety operational issues. As the state & local government subject matter experts, we support our national sales organization by staying abreast of emerging industry trends and pressures that are forcing customers to make difficult, long-term building solution buying decisions.

What types of organizations do you work with?

My team works directly with state agencies, local municipalities, primary and higher education institutions, airports, public housing authorities, and non-profit organizations. Procurement organizations that support, serve, and take a proactive role in helping state & local government customers improve their ability to serve their constituents.

What are the biggest security challenges in the government space?

The biggest challenges in the government space include:

  1. Crime, security threats, & active shooter – situational awareness and the ability to quickly ascertain, locate, and minimize threats.
  2. Aging infrastructure – changing technology & lack of internal resources with knowledge of available solutions to mitigate long-term facilities solutions.
  3. Contracting compliance and regulation – ease, cost, and confidence of procurement that meets state, local, & internal purchasing requirements.
  4. Reduced budgets and lack of funding sources – reduced maintenance & repair costs and increased revenue streams.
What role does cyber security play?

In the past five years, hackers have gained sophistication with constantly evolving attacks. For IT professionals on the front lines, battling cybersecurity threats has been a daily challenge. The motives of hackers appear to be as varied as the methods they use to break into systems. Every day presents new and challenging threats to the backbone of government infrastructure that, when breached, cause network shutdowns, risk to daily operations, and costly downtime.

Convergint a deploys a vast array of technology solutions to combat cyber attacks. From on-board camera analytics to identity management, the ability for hackers to penetrate a network is becoming much more difficult with these solutions.

What do you see as the next big threat for government agencies and why?

State & local government agencies are facing baby boomer-age staff that will most likely be left to attrition, leaving technology expert resource gaps when they retire.  These gaps are most notable when agencies are making decisions for highly complex, ever-changing, security solutions. Agencies have been relegating these types of decisions to their IT departments, with most of these resources focused more on network bandwidth and survivability.

Convergint is an organization that prides itself on working with each individual organization and identifying a specific solution that meets with not only current needs but has built in contingencies to accommodate future security integration expansion requirements. As a part of our portfolio of purchasing programs, including notable cooperative and state contracts, Convergint can offer an approved procurement process that can make the manner in which they buy simple and risk-free.

What solutions does Convergint have for government entities?

Convergint has a team dedicated to serving all government customers: federal and civilian agencies and state & local government authorities. This team offers our CTCs expert government resources to support customer strategy, business development, estimating and engineering, proposal and contract management, and operations and implementation management. The overall objective is to help our government customers make informative, value-added buying decisions when facing increased government regulations, ongoing security threats, and aging infrastructure improvements specific to the implementation of complex, long-term technology solutions.

How can organizations best procure Convergint’s products and services?

We work closely with each of our CTC offices, and programs in our portfolio, to ensure state-of-the-art technology solutions and Convergint services are offered at competitive pricing levels. Our rich customer base of state & local government customers recognize that Convergint offers superior value at an affordable price. We give them the confidence to make the right buying decisions through our previously-negotiated cooperative purchasing programs.

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