D-Tools, Inc. and Portal.io just announced that they have merged, uniting the widely used software platforms for residential and commercial integration, audio/video and security professionals.
Together, the companies will give integrators a portfolio of purpose-built products that scale with their business, from their first proposal through enterprise deployment.
According to executive leadership, the organizations come together with a single purpose: to build the next generation of software integrators use to run their businesses.
What Will the Combined D-Tools and Portal.io Company Look Like?
G Paul Hess continues as CEO. Meanwhile, Kirk Chisholm, founder and CEO of Portal.io, joins as chief product officer, with responsibility for product vision and strategy across the portfolio.
Josh Willits, Portal.io’s COO, will also serve as head of Portal.io, continuing to lead the Portal business unit.
D-Tools and Portal.io Merger to Bring Together Integrator Network
The merger brings together the largest network of integrators in the industry, running from single-operator shops to enterprise teams with hundreds of users.
This scale gives the combined company a broader and more representative view of how integrators work, where they struggle and what they need from software, creating a stronger foundation for what it builds next.
For nearly three decades, D-Tools notes it has been an anchor platform for the integration industry. It earned its position by building the breadth and scale integration businesses need to bring structure, accuracy and control to their operations, across sales, system design, engineering, project management and procurement.
That capability, along with the trust that the company has built across the industry, will be the foundation of the new combined organization.
Portal.io has spent 15 years understanding how dealers sell and turning that insight into software they love to use. That focus has produced an intuitive proposal and catalog experience, robust customer support and a loyal customer base for the company.
What’s more, the two companies have been partners for more than a decade, since Portal.io’s managed product catalog was first integrated into D-Tools SI.
In a market this focused, they have long stood as two prominent companies without building their businesses at each other’s expense; neither has grown by targeting the other’s customers.
As a result, bringing the organizations together reflects a recognition that integrators are better served by one team investing in the tools they depend on every day than by two teams solving the same problems twice.
A Portfolio for Integrators at Every Stage
The combined company will bring together three purpose-built products, each designed around different ways integrators run their businesses.
- Portal.io: speed, simplicity and a client-facing proposal experience that wins the job. It continues as Portal.io, developed and supported by the team that built it.
- D-Tools Cloud: depth across the whole operation, including sales, system design, proposals, project management, scheduling, service and integration with the other tools integrators use every day.
- D-Tools System Integrator (SI): the enterprise-grade deployment for the industry’s largest and most complex operations, with nearly three decades of proven performance.
Rather than pushing every customer into a single system, D-Tools and Portal.io will continue to support each platform while working with integrators to match the right software to their needs.
“There is no forced merger or disintegration of product or eliminating a product,” Hess tells Commercial Integrator exclusively. “That’s not planned.”
Chisholm agrees, telling Commercial Integrator exclusively, “The market will be crystal clear on what it wants, and that’s where we’ll go.” He adds, “If it ends up being a single software, then great. But what I firmly believe in is not to go after a single software for its sake.”
Indeed, for customers of every platform, nothing will change overnight. Every customer continues on their current product, at their current terms, with the same support team they know. All subscriptions will continue on current terms.
What Will the New Product Catalog Look Like?
D-Tools operates a comprehensive product data catalog, with complete specifications and pricing from thousands of manufacturer and distributor suppliers. Meanwhile, Portal.io brings its own extensive managed catalog and established relationships with industry manufacturers.
Together, the combined company aims to improve accuracy, deliver more up-to-date product and pricing information, and strengthen specification workflows across the combined portfolio.
Building for an AI-Native Industry
The combined organization announced that it will be product-led and integrator-first, earning every dealer’s business through the quality of the experience — not the length of a feature list.
Both companies also share a conviction that AI will reshape how integrators sell, design, manage and execute their work. “It’s not just AI for the sake of AI,” Hess declares.
The united team intends to apply AI throughout the integrator workflow as a foundation for making complex business processes faster, easier and more intelligent, while using AI internally to build and ship for customers at a pace that neither company could have reached alone.
D-Tools and Portal.io Leadership Speak on Merger
According to Hess, “Bringing D-Tools and Portal.io together gives our industry something it has never had before: the most established platforms in custom integration, the integrator communities that have grown up around them and the most complete product data, now backed by one team. I came up in this industry as an integrator, and I have spent most of my career in product. And for me, this is a return to a product-led organization.”
He continues, “Kirk has spent more than a decade obsessing over what integrators need from software, and Portal.io reflects that in every detail. His product leadership complements the deep experience this D-Tools team has built over decades, and together we get to build the next chapter for this industry as one team.”
Chisholm remarks, “Portal.io was built on one idea: understand dealers better than anyone and build software they love to use. D-Tools has built the most capable platform in this industry and earned a place in more integration businesses than anyone. We have known and worked with D-Tools for more than a decade, and what has always been clear is how aligned we are on what integrators actually need.”
He adds, “Putting our two teams together is a real chance to shape where this industry goes and to build what dealers have always wanted. In a world of AI, an integrator should be able to run their entire business on software that is powerful, beautiful and intuitive all at once. If you had to hand-pick two companies to deliver on that, it would be D-Tools and Portal.io. That is the company I want to build, and it is why I am excited to take on product for the combined organization.”
Feedback from Integrators
According to Everett Katzen of Springboard Automation, “Portal.io changed my business, from proposals in Word and spreadsheets to dynamic proposals that close bigger deals faster. Bringing the Portal and D-Tools teams together gets me excited about what they will be able to build next for dealers.”
“We use Portal.io for the speed and quality of our proposals, and we’re excited about the possibilities that come from bringing D-Tools’ capabilities into the same ecosystem. Seeing these two teams come together under one roof is the best of both worlds for our business,” says Aaron Cowden of Fusion AV.
D-Tools and Portal.io Strengthen Commitment to Integrator Channel
The combined company will continue to serve the CEDIA channel, residential and light commercial custom integrators, while continuing to expand into commercial, pro AV, security and international integrator communities where both see growing demand.
Existing relationships with distributors, buying groups and industry associations will also continue. Indeed, Hess and Chisholm say they will be strengthened under the combined company.
D-Tools and Portal.io will both exhibit at CEDIA Expo in Denver next week. There, attendees can see live product demonstrations and meet the joint leadership team.
Learn more about the combined company at D-Tools.com/together.
