Acuity Solutions

If you ask customers, expertise is what sets Acuity Solutions apart from the crowd. Florida’s Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) turned to Acuity to eradicate spam and upgrade the organization’s security strategy, and within months, the solution provider had reduced the number of daily spam e-mails the JTA received from 150 to zero.

Acuity also built a customized, thin-client remote access solution that enables JTA employees to retrieve information from anywhere with an Internet connection.

“We have gone from the dark ages to what is now arguably one of the fastest, most efficient and safest computer network environments in northeast Florida,” said Daniel Gulliver, CIO and CFO of the Jacksonville agency. “I am convinced that any major-name solution provider would not have given us the top priority and level of training and support we received from Acuity.”

When executives at Acuity decided in the summer of 2003 to switch from general integration to focus solely on security and security consulting, their goal was modest growth. Today, after 200 percent growth for the 12 months ended June 30, 2004, the move seems like genius. The three-year-old Tampa, Fla.-based solution provider notched $4.8 million in revenue last year and is on target to double its revenue again in 2005.

According to partner Dave Gilden, the success has surprised even him. “Choosing security was the best move we ever made,” Gilden said. “When we did it, I don’t think any of us realized how good a move it would be.”

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As Gilden explained, most of the firm’s growth has come from selling perimeter security solutions such as SSL VPN tools, firewalls, remote connectivity and compliance-driven solutions. More recently, Acuity has seen a need to secure the inside of customer networks and has responded with solutions to handle this as well.

In particular, Acuity specializes in products from vendors such as Aventail, Akonix, Trend Micro, Aladdin, RSA Security, SurfControl and TippingPoint, now a division of 3Com.

The 10-employee solution provider also sells tools from Redwood City, Calif.-based Check Point Software Technologies, where Bill Lavelle, vice president of U.S. sales, also praised Acuity for its expertise. “Aside from having technical salespeople, they have a great engineering talent pool,” Lavelle said. “Knowledgeable staff is what makes them special.”