Security Systems News is a monthly business newspaper that reaches 25,100 security installers, product distributors, central stations, engineers & architects, and security consultants. Our editorial coverage focuses on breaking news in all major se
Issue link: https://ssn.epubxp.com/i/891322
briefs SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS Nov EM b ER 2017 www.securitysystemsnews.com Monitoring 19 Rapid Response plans expansion for company's California facility SYRACUSE, N.Y.—Rapid Response Monitoring recently announced that it will be expanding its West Coast facil- ity in Corona, Calif. This news comes as the company is currently working on expanding its headquarters. "Our partnerships with dealers on the West Coast have increased steadily since the opening of our Corona facility in January 2015. The growth of our dealer network and our commitment to provide the high- est level of support for the industry is the driving force behind this proj- ect," said Spencer Moore, vice presi- dent of sales and marketing for Rapid Response, said in a prepared state- ment. In the announcement, Rapid said that the Corona facility—fully redun- dant with the company's headquar- ters in Syracuse, N.Y.—will be a total of 35,000 square feet after the expan- sion and "will include a state-of-the- art dealer and vendor training center, an enhanced employee training area and an expanded monitoring center," the announcement read. "We are excited to support our West Coast dealers and vendors in an advanced space completely dedi- cated to learning and facilitating their growth," said Moore. Rapid Response also announced that the company is nearing "phase one completion of their headquarters' expansion in Syracuse, N.Y., which brought the facility from 40,000 to 75,000 square feet and implement- ed technologies that were unprec- edented in a monitoring center to date. Phase two of the headquarters' upgrade includes a complete remodel of the previously existing space." New MONI CFO's appointment effective DALLAS—MONI Smart Security, a provider of home security alarm mon- itoring, announced that Fred Graffam will succeed Mike Meyers as chief financial officer effective on Oct. 9. Since announcing his retirement early this year, Meyers stayed on as CFO to make the transition between parties as seamless as possible, and he has worked closely with Graffam to ensure the continued success of MONI. In July, Graffam was named senior vice president and chief finan- cial officer of Ascent and its wholly owned subsidiary, MONI, and has since relocated to Dallas to join the company. The ultimate timing of the succession was dictated by the completion of Graffam's responsibili- ties in his prior role leading Investor Relations and Corporate Development at DigitalGlobe. By Spencer Ives FENTON, Mo.—American Burglary and Fire, a full-service security company based here, expects to finish the remodel of its facility in October, a project that first entered planning two years ago. "We had moved into this particular building in 1993, and it was originally three separate tenant spaces. But, as we kept growing as a company, we needed more space to grow into," Joe W. Polizzi, installa- tion and service manager for American Burglary and Fire, told Security Systems News. "About … 10 years ago, we took over the second ten- ant space, and then about two years ago, the last tenant moved out." Each of the original three tenant spaces was 4,000 square feet, giving ABF 12,000 square feet total. After the latest remodel, the company has added a second demo space. "We're going to showcase more of our speakers, sound bars, along with—obviously—secu- rity and fire [and cameras]," Amanda Cullen, ABF's residen- tial sales manager, told SSN. Planning for the remod- el started in 2015, and the remodeling began about seven months ago, according to Polizzi. In business since 1978 and Dynamark buys second monitoring center By Spencer Ives H A G E R S T O W N , M d . — Dynamark Security Centers in late September announced its purchase of Buckeye Protective Services, in Canton, Ohio, as a redundant central station to its monitoring center based here. The deal was finalized on Sept. 20, and financial details were not announced. In addi- tion to the central station, all Buckeye employees are join- ing Dynamark, including 12 operators. "Currently, the central stations are operating independently," Trey Alter, president and CEO at Dynamark, told Security Systems News. "The first step is: all of the billing and customer CRM information has been brought over into Dynamark." While the moni- toring centers could probably be integrated relatively quickly—as they both use Bold Technologies' automa- tion platform, Alter said, "We're looking to make some invest- ments in it right off the bat, so that our central stations look very similar to one another. … It will probably take us a full year before we are 100 percent redun- dant." A l t e r e x p a n d e d o n t h e upgrades Dynamark is consid- ering, "We're looking to do phone upgrades, some server upgrades, looking at how we can take our telecom pro- viders and put them together to do more load balancing in the cloud." B u c k e y e w a s founded in 1944; the company originally had a guard service— which was previously sold— and a security business with a monitoring center. Buckeye does interesting work with video monitoring, Alter said. "So, we're hoping to learn more about that from them and roll that out to our dealers here at Dynamark." Dynamark is planning a wel- come reception for Buckeye dealers at the Football Hall of Fame, "so we can just get to know each other. Every dealer has unique needs, and I think … Dynamark has a lot of programs and features that we can roll out to their dealers to hopefully make them a little bit stronger," Alter said. ss N By Spencer Ives LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y.— Tunstall Healthcare Group, through its subsidiary Tunstall Americas, acquired Providence Lifeline Medical Alert Service. Tunstall Americas provides healthcare monitoring services throughout the United States. "For us, we were looking at really filling in geography and covering pockets that we hadn't really had good distribution in," Ryan Fix, VP and general manager for Tunstall Americas, told Security Systems News. "We've been in discussions with them … for about two years now. So, it was a long process of really getting to know both organiza- tions and coming together to find the right solution." Providence Lifeline Medical Alert Service is a business unit of Providence Health & Services, with a presence in the Northwest U.S, as well as in California, Texas and New Mexico. Tunstall will be maintaining the offices and the staff, expanding its regional presence. "We service the same cus- tomers. I think we've got a broader service offering as far as product portfolio. So, we'll be able to bring that to the customers out of the gate," Fix said. "One of the synergies that American Burglary and Fire remodels family-owned and operated, American Burglary and Fire has about 17,000 customers. The company's account base is about 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial. ABF operates its own UL listed, TMA Five Diamond certified monitoring center, which gained biometric two- phase access control after the remodeling. "We now have facial recognition readers and a card swipe to validate going into the monitoring center," said Polizzi. The remodeled facility now has a more open, modern feel, according to Cullen. "We have a lot of glass in the building, so as you walk through, you can … see through the glass and see everything, and that's the idea we wanted." The open layout of the build- ing was designed to improve c o m m u n i c a t i o n b e t w e e n departments, Polizzi noted. "Before, our service depart- ment—the people who are actually answering service calls—and our monitoring were separate. Currently, they are together so that if there is an issue with the monitoring, or signals are coming in repeat- edly, they can immediately walk it right next door to the person in the service depart- ment that can schedule service calls," Polizzi said. ss N we had—that both organiza- tions believed in—was really that service aspect. Instead of mailing units out, we have feet on the ground and field technicians that go out and actually go to the customers homes and do the installation and do any of the service calls that are required," Fix said. Providence's accounts, which were previously moni- tored through Phillips Lifeline, will be brought into Tunstall's HIPAA compliant call cen- ters in New York and Rhode Island. Tunstall completed one other acquisition this year, a smaller purchase in the Midwest, Fix said. "Behind the scenes, we've been making investments into expanding technology, upgrading plat- forms and doing things that … we think, separated us from anybody else in the industry. Tunstall Americas was formed in 2012, after Tunstall Healthcare Group purchased t h e A m e r i c a n M e d i c a l Alert Corporation. Tunstall Americas currently has 500 employees. In addition to medical monitoring services, Tunstall also manufactures a range of medical alert, telehealth, and medication management solutions among other tech- nologies. ss N Tunstall makes PERS acquisition Company acquired Buckeye Protective Services, based in Ohio Trey Alter