Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/31791
18 COMMERCIAL & SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS www.securitysystemsnews.com JUNE 2011 SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS The Protection Bureau ups RMR with ‘weProtect’ The ideal solution didn’t exist, so this company built its own By Martha Entwistle EXTON, Pa.—The Protection Bureau has always had a rev- enue stream from the monitor- ing of commercial intrusion and fire accounts, but since it added its new “weProtect” integrated services offering six months ago, that RMR stream has picked up considerably, said J. Matthew Ladd, The Protection Bureau president. Its RMR stream is up 10-15 percent so far this year, and Ladd expects the new offer- ing “to eventually add 20 or 30 percent.” The new offering, wePro- tect, is an integrated and enhanced alarm, access con- trol and video protection sys- tem that the company customizes for clients. The suite of services includes build- ing alarm monitor- J. Matthew Ladd ing, video alarm verification, interactive video monitoring, virtual guard services, hosted, managed access control, inter- active managed access control, and virtual doorman. “When we went to find the best integrated solution for video and managed access as well as the alarms and inter- coms that we do, we found that solution didn’t exist. So we went out and chose the best manufacturers and worked with them and our highly trained staff to integrate it into one solution, which we then termed ‘weProtect,’” Ladd said. BUREAU see page 21 S.D. business warms up Dakota Security chief encourages social media By Martha Entwistle SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—Business is looking up in 2011, but it’s not business as usual, says Dakota Security president Eric Yunag. Yunag said he’s seeing more business opportunities in the first quarter of 2011 than he’s seen in the past three to five years, but it’s not coming from the same old places. “We’ve had a great start to the year, with higher activity levels across all the geographies, vertical markets and customer demographics,” he said. A systems integrator with 100 employees, Dakota Security is based here and has offices in Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Neb.; Phoenix; Minneapolis; Chicago and New York. Dakota Security offers tradi- tional and electronic security. “It’s one thing that makes us unique: We do a significant amount of work with traditional locksmithing, safes and vaults in addition to access control, alarms and video.” Yunag said current business opportunities are not limited to the traditional verticals where the company has previously specialized. “We’ve never been big into manufacturing,” he said, as an example. “But we’ve seen an increase in competitive bidding with manufacturing customers SD BIZ see page 19 McD’s sees security ROI By Leischen Stelter SAN DIEGO—Proving return on investment in the security industry can be difficult consid- ering it’s hard to quantify events that don’t occur. However, Rick Crady, direc- tor of operations for Project M Worldwide, a McDonald’s franchisee owner, figures the company has already made back the cost to put in a new surveil- lance system after it discovered three of its store managers steal- ing large amounts of money, small sums at a time. “Those incidents paid for the entire cost of the three-year lease, so essentially the system is free,” Crady said. The company integrated a video surveillance system with its point of sale system to audit transactions in its eight franchise stores. Now, Crady and other executives are able to remotely monitor activity in the stores. The system, by DTT Surveillance, overlays the receipt of the transaction over the video footage, allowing own- ers to see exactly what happened during each transaction. In addition to monitoring the system on a computer or mobile device, the company contracts Pro-Tec Design invests and reaps rewards Service expansion, move to IP pay off By Martha Entwistle MINNEAPOLIS—Access con- trol and network video are the bread and butter for Pro-Tec Design, but a third and increas- ingly important area of focus for the systems integrator is a grow- ing menu of service offerings, company president Tom Hagen told Security Systems News. “Everyone says RMR is the name of the game and for us that comes through our service offerings,” he said. Pro-Tec offers standard main- tenance agreements, which have several options such as taking care of any faulty equipment or software 24/7 or on an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. basis. It also offers a number of partner plans “where the cl ient purchases a block of time, 40 or 60 hour s Franchisee pays for upgraded security after discovering theft with DTT Surveillance to perform audits. “They conduct audits eight random times during the month and they monitor what’s going on in each store and send us reports with pictures and comments,” he said. The company is able to tailor those audits to address issues they consider most relevant. One of the things Crady likes to see is whether or not managers are visible in the front of the restaurant. The system also sends alerts any time an employee uses a promotional code, issues a refund or an over-ring, or an unauthorized return. SSN where a Pro- Tec service tech will be on the customer site to take care of moves, adds, changes, software upgrades, fix problems, etcetera. One account has someone [on site] fulltime and others have someone come in for one week or two each month,” Hagen explained. Pro-Tec offers a variety of discounts and he said clients love knowing that they’ll have that service tech available on a certain day or week. Tom Hagen “Many things clients want done aren’t emergencies, yet they are important to accom- plish on a timely basis. If they know that someone is coming in next Tuesday or the second week of the month, they can keep a to-do list,” he said. PRO-TEC see page 21 BRIEFS Cam-Dex adds mass notification KANSAS CITY, Kan. and PITTSBURGH— Cam-Dex Security Corporation, a secu- rity integration company in the Midwest, and Metis Secure Solutions, LLC, a pro- vider of emergency notification systems, in May announced a strategic reseller and integration partner agreement. As a result of the agreement Cam-Dex will market, sell, implement and support the Metis Secure precision emergency noti- fication system. “We are pleased about this new rela- tionship and the value it brings to our customers. With more than 50 years of experience designing, installing, and maintaining security systems, we see emergency notification gaps firsthand. The Metis Secure solution uniquely fills these gaps by providing unparalleled speed, targeting and reliability which strengthens the safety and security pro- gram for any organization,” said John Krumme, CEO and president of Cam- Dex Security in a prepared statement. HBE completes $2.2m access control project SAN DIEGO—Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, a national security solutions provider, announced in May that its wholly owned subsidiary, Henry Bros. Electronics, Inc. (HBE), has completed installation of a $2.2m global enterprise access control system for a multination- al university with campuses in North and South America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The system is based on the Lenel OnGuard System and all locations uti- lized the NEC ExpressCluster software for redundancy and database protection. The system included thousands of card readers, cameras, and other devic- es, as well as an existing database of over 200,000 cardholders. Custom scripting was orchestrated by the HBE engineer- ing teams, which allowed imports from disparate databases to assign, monitor and control access levels. HTSI Wins FAA contract COLUMBIA, Md.—HTSI (Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc.) announced in May that it has won a five-year, $38 million FAA contract to maintain security systems at more than 1,000 locations in the agency’s Air Traffic Organization Air Traffic Systems Branch. HTSI, the wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell, will provide corrective main- tenance for security systems at essen- tial FAA locations across the country. The contract includes security equip- ment such as video surveillance, physi- cal access control equipment, intrusion detection and barrier arms.