CalAmp Corp. Chief Executive Michael Burdiek says he’s found just the right person to help lead the vehicle-tracking and management company further from hardware and more into the software realm with the appointment of Silicon Valley veteran Arym Diamond as chief revenue officer.
“He brings a tremendous amount of enterprise software sales experience,” Burdiek told the Business Journal on March 9. Diamond’s résumé includes stints at Oracle and Salesforce.com.
Burdiek added: “He came from a wonderful training ground at Oracle, which is well known for grooming sales executives who go on to do great things in their career.”
Digital Transformation
The chief executive reiterated that the Irvine-based company (Nasdaq: CAMP) is “undergoing a transformation away from pure hardware products to selling more software and solutions, not only with existing customers but in new markets,” both domestically and in other parts of the world.
Notable CalAmp business lines include LoJack and Tracker. Chief revenue officer is a new position for the company. It incorporates some of the duties of a previous executive who was in charge of global sales.
Diamond, who grew up in Newport Beach, said he is “looking forward to helping our customers along their journey through digital transformation” as he uses his expertise with software as a service.
CalAmp said Diamond will “help drive its ongoing transformation into high-value subscription services and further expansion into international markets.”
Accolades
CalAmp has recently won several accolades including a 2020 Global Mobile Award last month for its “Here Comes the Bus” mobile app it developed through subsidiary Synovia Solutions, which it acquired last April.
Simple but important, the app lets parents see where a school bus is relative to its scheduled route, as well as seeing whether it’s running on time and whether kids boarded at the appropriate stop.
“Anybody who’s had kids understands if they’ve ever ridden the school bus,” Burdiek said. “It’s proven to be very popular and it’s given Synovia and us a great opportunity to expand those services with that source of competitive advantage.”
Coronavirus Update
Burdiek’s company, like many other OC firms, has been caught up in the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, pushing its revenue projection downward for the quarter that ended Feb. 29.
“We still have some manufacturing happening in China, especially with one legacy supplier,” he said. “Unfortunately, because of the coronavirus outbreak, the usual Chinese New Year shutdown ended up being extended through the entire month of February, which is an inopportune time for us given that it’s essentially our fourth quarter and year end.”
He foresees a widespread impact on other tech companies.
“Even if the primary manufacturing activity is outside of China, there are key components, things like batteries, printed circuit boards and, things like that, that for the most part, for all global manufacturers are sourced from China,” Burdiek said.
“So, we would expect to see other companies be disrupted and have some impact on their financial results if they’re manufacturing electronic products.”
World’s Reaction
“The world is hair-triggered in some ways. I think it’s easy to overreact,” he said on March 9 as the outbreak was still growing, saying he believes that “hopefully” the crisis will pass and “things can get somewhat back to normal.”
His advice:
“Take care. Be prudent. Be careful. Be cautious. But carry on.”
