CDI Buys Clearpath, Expands Mid-Atlantic Presence

‘The mid-Atlantic region has a lot of players, but none have the digital transformation experience we bring. The CDI digital services team currently has about 125 people, including new hires in 2022, which is a higher count than the entire CDI team 10 years ago,’ says Rich Falcone, CDI president and CEO.

Computer Design & Integration, better known as CDI, Tuesday unveiled the acquisition of Clearpath Solutions Group in a move that improves CDI’s reach into the mid-Atlantic region and gives Clearpath a strong new set of managed and digital transformation services it can take to its customer base.

CDI, a New York-based solution provider ranked No. 61 on the CRN 2021 Solution Provider 500, acquired Reston, Va.-based Clearpath, ranked No. 309 on the Solution Provider 500, for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition is the latest in a string of acquisitions CDI has made since One Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in the solution provider in late 2019.

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Clearpath is important for CDI for several reasons, said Rich Falcone, CDI president and CEO.

The first, Falcone told CRN, is the opportunity for the solution provider to expand its mid-Atlantic presence.

CDI, with the help of One Equity Partners, previously made three acquisitions in the region including Plan B Technologies, P5 Solutions and Kintyre, Falcone said.

“Clearpath is a complementary addition to CDI,” he said. “Clearpath has deep expertise in Dell and Pure Storage, while Plan B brought deep expertise in NetApp and Microsoft. Neither had a digital transformation team, but we bring that to their customers.”

The second primary push behind the acquisition of Clearpath is the company’s reputation in the vendor community, Falcone said.

“Our friends at Dell, Pure Storage, Cisco and VMware could not speak [more highly] about the people at Clearpath,” he said.

Bringing digital transformation services to an expanded customer base is important to CDI, which has invested heavily in capabilities around the technology, Falcone said.

“The mid-Atlantic region has a lot of players, but none have the digital transformation experience we bring,” he said. “The CDI digital services team currently has about 125 people, including new hires in 2022, which is a higher count than the entire CDI team 10 years ago. Customers changing how they do business is a big focus of what we do. Clearpath and Plan B didn’t have the digital experience we have. Now they do.”

Outside the mid-Atlantic region, CDI last year also acquired Minnesota-based High Availability, which brought significant managed services expertise, as well as Candoris, which brought with it Salesforce capabilities to expand CDI’s digital transformation capabilities, Falcone said.

CDI has four primary businesses including its hybrid cloud infrastructure services team, managed services team, security services team and digital services team, he said. The all have their own dedicated salespeple who create their own demand and who can call for help from the other teams when needed, he said.

“Clearpath has a great data services and managed services business,” he said. “Now we’re bringing them security and digital transformation services. Their customers are looking for these services. Their clients have trust in Clearpath, and will now find Clearpath can offer them a modern services catalog.”

CDI in 2021 saw booking exceedings $800 million, which was up 35 percent over 2020 bookings organically, Falcone said. By “organically,” he said he counts the sales of acquired companies before and after their acquisitions.

Falcone said CDI is open to more acquisitions, but only if the culture is right.

“If CDI wanted to be a $2 billion organization, we could be,” he said. “A lot of companies have approached us about being acquired. But we pass on a lot of opportunities. It’s all about the right culture.”