Local security company named best midsize firm in U.S.

This past June, Security Sales and Integration Magazine named Savannah-based security company scDataCom the annual winner for the Sammy Awards Installer of the Year for small to midsize companies. It is the most prestigious honor in the business.

“We’re very proud to be woman-owned and be a diverse team, but as a company, we’re not the best because of our subcategory, we’re the best because we are the best company awarded,” said Alaina Mayer who founded the company and currently runs it with her mother.

In order to be considered for the award, scDataCom was considered on metrics such as the size of their customer base, the range of installations the company performs and the corporate culture. The company specializes in customized security solutions for commercial customers, including video surveillance, access control, intrusion and the telecommunications cabling that supports these systems.

When Mayer founded the company in 2013 after graduating with a degree in English literature from Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida, she had found her passion working in an art gallery. However, the job market wasn’t particularly amenable to her when she graduated.

“I had the really unique experience of doing that which [I] loved which was working in an art gallery, [but] when I was staring down the barrel of graduating and not having parental support and youthful naivety, I made the jump from art to cameras.”

It also helped that her mother, Kathleen Ford, came on board. Ford had recently retired from a 26 year career in the U.S. Army and decided to return to the work force with her daughter’s company because, as she puts it, “I found myself missing being professionally challenged as I had been during my Army career.”

“We’ve been in business for eight years and that’s been a learning experience every year,” Mayer said. “[Especially] with my mother coming on board with a formal strategy.” “As a company we’re very team focused. We’ve achieved what we’ve achieved thus far because of our team and they are our best investment,” Mayer said.

When asked about the future, Mayer said she hoped that over the next three years the Savannah-based company could increase their global presence and provide a better quality of life to everyone on their team.