WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden has signed an executive order aimed at closing loopholes in existing “Buy American” provisions, which apply to about a third of the $600 billion in goods and services the federal government buys each year. An executive order signed Monday pushes federal agencies to buy more American-made products and services, and comes with new reporting requirements, a new senior-level oversight position and a new General Services Administration (GSA) website. “With this order, President Biden is ensuring that when the federal government spends taxpayer dollars they are spent on American-made goods by American workers and with American-made component parts,” according to a factsheet released in conjunction with the president’s executive action. “This executive order fulfills President Biden’s promise to make Buy American real and close loopholes that allow companies to offshore production and jobs while still qualifying for domestic preferences.” The factsheet cites federal agencies spend $600 billion annually in contract spending. The new executive order builds on existing laws — namely the Buy American and Buy America statutes, passed in 1933 and 1982, respectively — and instructs agencies to close loopholes that have made those laws ineffective over time. Revitalizing the manufacturing sector, which accounts for about 12% of the U.S. economy, is integral to Biden’s broader push to drive up wages, create more union jobs, support minority-owned businesses and strengthen U.S. supply chains, White House officials say. Former President Donald Trump issued similar “Buy American” rules in 2017; however, some manufacturing groups complained the regulations were not adequately enforced and did not result in real changes, NPR reported at the time. “The previous administration did not take it seriously enough. Federal agencies waived the Buy American requirement without much pushback at all,” Biden said before signing the order. “That is going to change on our watch.” Under the order, it will be harder for non-American contractors to qualify for waivers to sell products to federal agencies. The order also establishes: a central oversight mechanism, including a review board to approve waivers from specific requirements; a GSA-built website showing existing contracts with foreign companies; and a new director of Made-in-America position in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The order will also work to connect new businesses to contracting opportunities by requiring active use of supplier scouting by agencies, according to the factsheet. Agencies will be directed “to utilize the Manufacturing Extension Partnership — a national network in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, that supports small and medium-size manufacturers — to help agencies connect with new domestic suppliers who can make the products they need while employing America’s workers,” the factsheet reads. Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, lauded the order in a statement. “Any successful manufacturing policy must ensure we can lead our economic recovery by strengthening supply chains and accelerating onshoring, through incentives for creating the next job or investing the next dollar right here in America,” Timmons states. “We look forward to working with the Biden administration to grown manufacturing in the United States, while also protecting access to critical global supply chains and the resources that our lifesaving and life-changing products require.” The post Biden Signs Executive Order to Harness ‘Buy American’ Rules appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/business/industry/biden-buy-american-rules/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/biden-signs-executive-order-to-harness.html
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — CertaSite, based here, announces the acquisition of Great Lakes Fire & Safety Equipment, a family-owned business in Alpena, Mich., for undisclosed terms. The transaction marks CertaSite’s sixth acquisition in Michigan, and expands the company’s service territory into the Upper Peninsula. For more than 30 years, Great Lakes Fire & Safety Equipment has offered its customers a wide range of services and products, including fire extinguishers, restaurant hood systems, fire alarms, emergency lights, first aid and related safety products, and fire department gear. The company’s reputation in the region will allow the company to grow its customer base and expand into new markets under CertaSite, according to the announcement. “CertaSite is a company that we trust because they share our values and code of ethics for saving lives and protecting property,” says Tammy Buvia, the proprietor of Great Lakes Fire & Safety Equipment. “We are proud of the team we built, and the reputation we earned over the last 30 years. We fully believe that under CertaSite, our customers will continue to experience excellent customer service and will benefit from advancements like online customer portals, inspection management and reporting, expanded service areas, life safety maintenance programs, and multi-location support with a certified expanded life safety technician workforce.” Each of the acquired company’s nine employees are joining the CertaSite family. Great Lakes Fire & Safety Equipment will immediately assume the CertaSite brand. “We are grateful to Mick and Tammy and the Great Lakes family for their continued partnership throughout this process,” says Jeff Wyatt, CEO of CertaSite. “We are committed to preserving the legacy that these dedicated professionals built, and we recognize and respect their strong local presence. Our team will provide our new employees with development and career advancement, and expanded services and support to customers. We are thrilled to be expanding our unique brand of customer service, and look forward to serving this new market.” CertaSite, a portfolio company of Riverside Co., has acquired multiple fire protection and life-safety companies since being established in 2018. To date the CertaSite family includes: Starfire Systems and Starfire Extinguisher (Wis.); Advanced Fire Co. (Pa.); ABC Fire Extinguisher Co. (Ohio); Approved Protection Systems (Michigan); Approved Safety and Security (Indiana); Company One Suppression (Illinois and Iowa); County Fire Protection (Ohio); Erlich Fire Protection (Michigan); Field’s Fire Protection (Michigan); and Spears Fire & Safety (Michigan). The post CertaSite Snaps Up Great Lakes Fire & Safety Equipment appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/business/mergers/certasite-great-lakes-fire-safety-equipment/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/certasite-snaps-up-great-lakes-fire.html KANSAS CITY – StoneLock, a provider of contactless and privacy-hardened biometrics solutions, announces the official integration of the StoneLock GO biometric reader with Tyco Software House from Johnson Controls. Released in 2020, the StoneLock GO delivers a frictionless authentication of users and simplified enrollment intentionally built to protect the user’s privacy through its proprietary, “faceless” recognition technology for global enterprises, according to the announcement. The Tyco Software House C•CURE 9000 access control solution allows customers to integrate seamlessly with critical security and business applications, while providing customers with full control through a single user interface. The solution flexibility grants security professionals the capability to deploy a unique security solution for their entire business, the announcement says. When combined with the StoneLock GO, the security of C•CURE 9000 is enhanced to ensure only pre-authorized employees are permitted contactless access to secured areas. The integration offers a user-friendly, simplified operational interface, eliminating the need to carry a badge or present credentials to a reader, unless required by multifactor authentication. “Johnson Controls prides itself on its technological excellence through the ability to leverage new, innovative solutions, such as the recent launch of OpenBlue,” says Kelsey Bourk, OEM product manager for Tyco Software House. “The integration delivers our customers seamless access for ultimate security protection and answers the critical security issues of today.” As the need to protect personal security and sensitive information in a contactless manner grows exponentially due to the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, StoneLock’s biometric readers, including its newest product StoneLock GO, utilize near-infrared technology to ensure safe, fast and accurate authentication of enrolled users. The GO captures unique templates of enrolled users that are said to be unrecognizable outside of the StoneLock system, while making it universally compatible with all users regardless of gender, race, age or nationality. “The StoneLock frictionless, hassle-free solution offers one of the industry’s only enrollment and authentication solutions that completely eliminates physical touch by the end-user to capture necessary features while utilizing biometric templates that are 100% non-recognizable outside of the solution,” says Colleen Dunlap, CEO and co-founder of StoneLock. “Delivering robust security, user privacy and a contactless and simplified experience, we are confident this integration with Johnson Controls will enhance existing technologies installed in facilities worldwide.” The post Contactless Biometrics Provider Stonelock Integrates With Tyco Software House appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/access/stonelock-tyco-software-house/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/contactless-biometrics-provider.html The sophisticated supply chain attack of SolarWinds Orion software has surely shaken the cybersecurity world. Early reporting is that the successful cyber attack allowed adversaries to compromise the code within the Orion software which was sent to thousands of organizations within both the private and government sectors. By infiltrating the SolarWinds development environment, attackers were able to inject malicious code into the software with the ultimate goal of implementing a backdoor to end-user systems. The attack appears to have been well orchestrated from the start, from initially gaining access and using numerous camouflage and decoy techniques to avoid detection. SolarWinds has responded with an update to the software along with numerous recommendations and remediation techniques. It is still early in the investigation and as we learn more, there is no doubt this was a very sophisticated attack aimed at not only at breaching SolarWinds directly but also many other organizations in a cascading fashion. This incident brings up yet again the unique risk that cyber-attacks themselves pose. The fact that a breach often results in a one-to-many impact. A single cyber breach at a vendor not only affects them but may cascade and effect their customers, partners or vendors. We must acknowledge that the reality is, this kind of cascading impact is not always caused through sophisticated attacks like seen with SolarWinds. There are much simpler examples, one of which is the constant occurrence of business email compromise. With employees using weak or reused passwords and a lack of multifactor authentication being deployed, cyber criminals remain able to breach email user accounts and position themselves within an organization’s email systems. Once an email account is taken over, they continue their criminal activities by launching phishing campaigns from a legitimate email account towards an entire contact list of unsuspecting recipients whose traditional email protection systems allow the emails to slide right through. Unaware of a breach, these recipients are often fooled into changing invoice payments, bank account numbers or sending sensitive information. Why Cyberattacks Are So Hard to PreventQuite often it is the customers of these vendors who are most affected, and it is a reminder of how important it is to train teams to communicate and verify with the sender via a separate communication channel before conducting such requests. With systems integrators continuing to provide valuable managed services to support the systems they deploy, the number of customers they have remote connectivity to is growing. Having various remote connections to customer networks means there is an inherent risk that a single breach could provide access to numerous new targets for attackers; one of the biggest reasons why service providers are increasingly becoming attack targets. Recently, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released information about an advanced persistent threat (APT) group that is focusing on compromising managed service providers (MSPs) who utilize remote management tools with the end goal of launching attacks on several of their customer organizations. In the past, there have been successful one-to-many attacks on MSPs that allowed cyber criminals to infiltrate managed service providers then pivot to customer systems with final steps of deploying ransomware on those networks. That is why it is so vitally important that companies providing managed services establish and maintain safeguards to protect against these types of attacks. When a systems integrator provides technology solutions to large enterprise customer’s they often find themselves under the microscope of the customers security teams. As is common in a growing number of industries, systems integrators are now regularly receiving surveys asking that they clearly detail their data protection and cybersecurity posture. Consistently they are asked to undergo cybersecurity assessments and are required to agree contractually to policies that outline that they will protect the customers data and systems appropriately. It is with good reason as systems integrators have nearly unparalleled access to these organizations’ IT resources. They deploy IP enabled devices on the network, technicians plug their own computer resources into those networks to conduct programming and setup, they have access to a variety of sensitive documents including network topology diagrams, configurations, device passwords and building floor plans with device layouts. With this understanding, customer security teams are increasingly conducting vendor risk assessments and are becoming more adamant about only working with providers who have proper cybersecurity measures in place. A single systems integrator experiencing a cyber incident could easily cause a major cascading compromise effect to many of their customers. With that knowledge we have seen a rise in communication within the industry by organizations such as PSA and NSCA who have committed to continuing to educate and remind integrators about the cyber threats they face and that they pose to their customers. Cybersecurity involves a process of constant improvement. There will always be sophisticated attacks and successful breaches even if organizations take substantial steps to protect themselves (like we read in the news regularly, including with large enterprises). But that is by no means a reason to ignore implementing proper cybersecurity programs, rather a supporting reason to put proactive safeguards in place. It is all about a group effort as an industry which requires each company to make a planned and consistent effort to improve their own cybersecurity. Implement cybersecurity not only for your own business, but for your customers protection as well. Because while you may be the entry point, they may be the crown jewels. This article first appeared in SSI sister publication Commerical Integrator. Rob Simopoulos is the Co-Founder of Defendify, an all-in-one cybersecurity platform that makes cybersecurity possible for all businesses. The post Why the SolarWinds Cyber Hack Could Have One-to-Many Impacts appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/emerging-tech/cybersecurity-tech/solarwinds-hack-one-many-impact/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-solarwinds-cyber-hack-could-have.html We’ve seen no shortage of innovative solutions related to the pandemic the past year. From thermal cameras, to contract-tracing apps, to all kinds of back-to-work solutions. However, there is no magic meter that can detect COVID-19 particles in the air. Despite this, it is possible to get some sort of idea of the air quality in relation to how much of the virus may be in the environment. The COVID-19 virus travels via particles in the air that are expelled when people exhale. Another gas that is expelled when exhaling? Carbon dioxide (CO2). By installing CO2 detectors, a business can get a rough idea of how effective its ventilation is. If CO2 levels remain low, it is likely that fresh air is flowing. If levels are high, you know it’s time to become concerned about shared air. While this is by no means a bulletproof way to detect COVID-19 particles, it may be a solution worth mentioning to businesses such as restaurants and retail stores, which are desperate to remain open and attract customers. A solution such as IPVideo Corp.’s Halo sensor monitors not only CO2, but also volatile organic compounds (VOC) and (nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and can integrate with HVAC systems utilizing BACNET to adjust fresh air flow. “These are the challenges that people are facing,” says Frank Jacovino, vice president of product development and engineering at IPVideo Corp. “They’re looking at MERV-type filters and such and I think the market is starting to see the need for local monitoring within rooms to know what is the air quality that exists within a room and what is the most reasonable way to keep fresh air in the room, but also be economical same time.” The post Is It Possible to Detect COVID-19 in the Air? appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/automation/automation-systems/detect-covid-19-in-air/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-it-possible-to-detect-covid-19-in-air.html The old saying what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger was never more on the nose than this grueling past year — in both an individual sense and from a business standpoint. While security dealer and integrator companies have by and large had a better lot than a great deal of other businesses and industries amid the COVID-19 pandemic, few to none have gone entirely unscathed. And everyone has had to navigate completely uncharted territory. “We have never seen anything like this. Even with the recession in 2008 there were markets that were unaffected, but this is just hitting every imaginable area of business and people,” says Custom Alarm CEO Melissa Brinkman. “Factor in the health element and how you’re supposed to do work now and it’s so multifaceted. It’s nothing that we’ve ever experienced before … it’s just a <expletive> storm.” In these times of intense pressures and strife on owners, managers and employees of installing security systems firms the need to come together as a community has never been more critical. Sharing and supporting each other for psychological stability and practical strategizing is paramount. Here to help that process is SSI’s annual Commercial Dealer Roundtable, where executives from Honeywell Integrated Security Dealer companies discuss handling, healing and hopefulness relative to the pandemic. The Panelists▶ Tyler Blake is COO of Sioux Falls, S.D.-headquartered Midwest Alarm/BCI Integrated Solutions, founded in 1967. With 180 employees serving eight locations and 15,000 customers nationwide, MWA/BCI is a turnkey systems integrator that operates its own UL-Listed central station. ▶ Melissa Brinkman Brinkman is CEO of Rochester, Minn.-based Custom Alarm, which she joined in 1998 and worked her way up to her current post in 2014. Offering both commercial and residential systems, Custom was named SSI’s 2020 Installer of the Year (Small to Midsize Company). ▶ Dave Chritton is owner and CFO of San Francisco’s Microbiz Security Co., family operated since 1965. With more than 40 years’ security industry experience, he has been an ASIS member since 1984 and a Certified Protection Professional for 10+ years. ▶ John Copeland is an ex-U.S. Coast Guard operations specialist now a partner at ESI Fire & Security Protection in Channelview, Texas. Founded 20+ years ago, the firm not only offers security and fire detection & suppression systems, but also mobile security trailers. What have you seen in terms of customers’ challenges and needs relative to the pandemic, and how has that affected how you interact and communicate with them?Tyler Blake: The biggest challenge customers faced is not knowing what to do in terms of reopening. They didn’t get a lot of guidance and it differs so much from state to state. To get into some of these larger customers, enterprise customers that have sites across the entire nation, it runs the gamut because what California does is very different than what Florida does and what Florida does is very different than say what Minnesota or South Dakota and Nebraska does. They’ve really been looking to integrators as just providing a voice saying, “This is a technology you should use for opening up. Let’s maybe leverage your access control or add new access control and restrict your entrances, and let’s talk about technologies like temperature screening.” This is where you can really value add as an integrator and tell them what to do because they don’t know. Everyone’s flying through this storm blind and it’s about giving people direction and making them feel good with the warm-fuzzy. Many vendors have come forward with those types of solutions, the contact tracing, distancing and thermal monitoring. Have you found that’s creating a lot of noise or confusion?No, I think most of the technology is helpful. However, some manufacturers were looking at analytics for contact tracing and I just don’t think it’s realistic for organizations to start doing their own internal contact tracing with a camera. They may create policies and maybe track who is in the facility on what day, what officer and who they interacted with in case they do have a positive case. From our experience, almost universally our customers have embraced or at least wanted to learn more about temperature screening, contact lists, access control because it really is solving a big problem that they have in their organizations. ![]() John Copeland John Copeland: We do a lot of work for industrial chemical facilities. One of our customers is a construction company and last year they were a billion-dollar business. They were almost in every chemical plant in our area, all the top players. When all this first started everything was good. All of a sudden, April/May rolls around and they pretty much shut down all projects indefinitely and don’t have anything on the books until 2022. They went from having 20 projects going on to only one project in the company. That’s a large plant and supposedly it’s the biggest project north of the Rio Grande, which we’re lucky enough to be involved in. That helped us out but many places haven’t returned to their offices since March. That campus we work on has been vacant. It’s crazy but we’ll see what happens. Melissa Brinkman: We’ve obviously seen a slowdown to stoppage with restaurants and retail, but we have seen increases in a couple of markets, in particular manufacturing and senior living facilities. We’re seeing that with regard to access control and video surveillance. Also there’s some opportunities in daycare and churches. We’re seeing commercial being heavy but residential was slow to start with [during the pandemic], and it’s a smaller part of our overall revenue but we do a lot of activity there. We saw a slowdown until probably July and now we’re seeing an uptick with a lot of inter-active services. Did you have any requests or proactively do any fee deferments to help with customer hardships?At the beginning, we did put deferments into place for those concerned about financial obligations. This was before all the federal relief and stuff happened, but we would stop billing for three months. If somebody in particular, like restaurants, was having some difficult times we wouldn’t push on collections. We’ve continued to handle them on a case by case basis but our team has the tools to help our customers, especially those experiencing more financial hardship. Do you anticipate higher attrition?We see a fair amount of attrition on the residential side, just because of the market we’re in. It’s very transient with a medical facility here that has a lot of residents who are in and out. We’re trying to recapture it. I have seen on the commercial side that it’s up a little higher than I’d like to see. I don’t know what to anticipate, nobody does. Just try and adapt and figure out how to navigate around this next corner. ![]() Dave Chritton Dave Chritton: We’ve seen some projects that never started, but projects that did get started seemed like they’ve continued. Large construction projects continue to work their way through. We have had interest in the infrared cameras and the temperature cameras, but it seems like they’re not willing to commit at this point. A lot of these systems are expensive; they’re like $20,000 to set it up. It seems customers are not willing to commit yet because they’re waiting to see if the pandemic is going to go away or for how long it’s going to continue. As mentioned, a lot of the restaurants, nightclubs, places like that are shuttered. San Francisco is a large metropolitan area and there’s not a lot of places for outside seating. Anything inside in California has been shut down and I don’t know how the city’s going to pay the bill. We’ve had to adjust our billings for restaurants and going forward give them a lower cost, less complete protection if you will, but a lower cost that they can afford and we’ve had them prepay. I went to one of them and said, “Look, you’re not going to be open for the next six months.” So they prepaid through June 2021. Continuing with the opportunities aspect, and considering 25% of workers may never return to their previous working environments, what is something you’ll be able to sink your teeth into moving forward?Chritton: I think technology will drive some new opportunities, like contactless access entry. There’s some weird protections in San Francisco against biometrics and visual aids, but I think getting into a building or office with card access, there’ll be a lot of devices that will help you get in without having to touch doors or having to touch card readers. They’re going to do the biometrics, maybe hand or facial scanners to give you access. I think that will accelerate. There’s always opportunity but we as integrators have to change, being aware of what’s out there, adapting and jumping into these new markets as they emerge. ![]() Melissa Brinkman Brinkman: Something we had seen being slow to adopt in our area was Cloud services and the SaaS [security as a service] model, but that is changing as we see more and more businesses working remotely. They’re wanting to manage their business without physically having to be onsite. We’re seeing a lot more traction on that. People are understanding the value and it’s an easier conversation now to have because of the circumstances we’re all living through. Blake: I agree that security as a service is going to get pushed forward a lot more. A lot of organizations are realizing, “Hey, taking a bunch of money and putting it on a capex to invest in a security system maybe doesn’t make sense, but maybe let’s do it as a service for our access control or cameras because we don’t know in five years if we’re going to have 500 people in the office or 50, but right now we need it. Let’s find a different way to pay for it that makes a little bit more sense.” I think some of the national companies are going to struggle a little bit, the JCIs and the ADTs, because they have such a high overhead built into their organizations. I think you’re going to find some regional players are going to do really, really well picking off some of the larger enterprise and national accounts, because they’re going to be able to provide the same, maybe even better service at a lower cost to some of these organizations. The thing most organizations are concerned about going into 2021 is, “How do we conserve our cash? How do we control our budgets?” Most of them have had some hit during 2020 and don’t want to be out too far on a limb. Copeland: It’s been super crazy because we’ve had so many different products pop up all of a sudden. Our customers are asking us, “Hey, how do we do this? How do we bring our employees back to the office safely?” For us, there’s so much different technology you’re looking at, how do you pick the right one? How do you know which ones actually work? We’ve been fighting that battle and trying to help our customers adapt new standard operating procedures with visitor management systems. ![]() Tyler Blake As was touched on, the pandemic has accelerated certain technologies like managed services. Where does SaaS stand today with your businesses?Blake: Our Cloud services such as hosted access, hosted video is growing. But we haven’t found that a lot of customers are looking for actual management services to the extent of having us add cards to their access control or directly watching their cameras. I think where a lot of the big growth drivers in Cloud video and access control tend to be things like multidwelling units in an apartment complex because those industries are consolidating. They don’t necessarily have the IT staff on hand and they want an easy way to manage, say 150 properties. It’s definitely a growing part of our business. Have you noticed a spike in vandalism or crime related to vacant properties?Copeland: Yes, we just had one this morning. We do a lot of tractor companies, so it used to be all the old video crap if you will out there. Now we’ve gone to the Netwatch Proactive Video Monitoring service [from NMC] on all their sites and we’ve seen literally a 100% change of us being able to get them off the property before they actually take anything. Keep reading to see lessons learned in 2020 and what these dealers expect in 2021… The post State of Commercial Security 2021: Handling, Healing & Hopefulness Post-COVID appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/in-depth/state-commercial-security-2021/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/state-of-commercial-security-2021.html On the RISE is a bi-monthly column by the Security Industry Association (SIA) in partnership with Security Sales & Integration profiling the next generation of security industry leaders. This column is part of SIA’s RISE initiative, a community that fosters the careers of young professionals in the security through networking and career growth events, education and professional development offerings and scholarship opportunities. For this installment of On the RISE, SIA spoke with Colin DePree, residential business leader at Salto Systems. Tell us a little bit about yourself.I grew up in Michigan and moved to Minnesota in 2008. I currently live about 25 minutes south of the Twin Cities with my wife, five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son. I have a bachelor’s degree in economics and management and a master’s degree in management information systems. Outside of the office, I am a sports and travel enthusiast. What first got you interested in security and safety as a career choice?A job! Honestly, I had just finished college and was looking for a career in sales, and I wound up as a small business sales rep at a regional alarm/ security integration company. I had intended on that being a temporary position. After a couple of months as a sales rep, I asked to move into the tech support group, and that is where I fell in love with the industry. It all started to make sense from a technology and client need standpoint. I began to realize the impact that security technology could make at organizations, and a job became a career. What has your career path been?My path has been 100% in the security industry but has spanned a number of operational responsibilities. I have worked at three separate organizations — two on the integration/alarm company side of the business. I have held roles in tech support and customer experience, but most recently I have held leadership roles in sales and business development. Who has influenced or mentored you — either within the security field or outside?This is a section that could go on forever. Mentorship has been a huge part of my growth in the security industry. I was fortunate to have a number of great mentors at my very first job in the industry, and they helped drive me to expand my network and identify other mentors. Bill Wood, Eva Mach, Steve Hasbrouck, Bob Gibson, Steve Paley, Angela White and Robert Few are just some of the folks in the industry to whom I owe a ton of gratitude for guidance and support over the years. What advice do you have for young professionals just starting out in the industry?Get involved with local and national associations. This industry has a number of great associations that can help with both networking and training. On the mentorship topic, I do suggest to seek out and find not one but multiple mentors; my one caveat here is that mentorship is a two-way street. Mentorship does not mean a mentor just pours information and knowledge to the mentee — the mentee must bring something to the table also, for example ambition, a goal or ideas. What do you enjoy most about being at your company — and in the security industry?There are a number of things I enjoy about both my company and the industry. We are in a time of tremendous change as software and technology are driving innovation in our space. I enjoy the challenge of understanding the market demands and aligning the capability of our hardware and software to meet those demands. Many of these innovations are also allowing us to explore new uses for security technology that can impact businesses in more areas than just safety and security. How do you define success?This is the hardest question; success can come in a number of ways, both personally and professionally. I won’t attempt to define success, but my thought process to achieving success always starts with defining expectations. If expectations aren’t established, success is really hard to achieve. How do you think the SIA RISE community can help foster the careers of young people in the industry? What does the program offer that is most important to you/your company?The RISE community, in my opinion, serves the biggest purpose of giving young professionals a platform to grow outside of their organization. Different perspectives, viewpoints and approaches to leadership are not always available from inside an organization. This is relatively the same value that RISE brings to our organization; new viewpoints and ideas are also a benefit to the company. There is also the added value of providing awareness about our organization to the young talent in the industry. What are some key components of your role as residential business leader at Salto Systems, and how do you help guide Salto’s strategy and growth in the smart home and property tech space?In this role, our goal is to expand our market reach and grow revenues; my specific responsibility is to do this not through their direct sales efforts, but rather through understanding market needs, evangelizing our message, and aligning our products, solutions and initiatives to meet those needs. What are some notable accomplishments or efforts from your previous roles at a regional integrator and a regional alarm company, and how have you leveraged that experience in your current role at Salto?I’m not sure any of the accomplishments specifically have set me up for success at Salto, but rather a combination of working in many different areas of the business and being pushed by leaders to continue to learn and to own the deliverables within my role are what I focus on, no matter the position. What are some of the top trends, challenges and/or opportunities you’re seeing in the residential security space?The ecosystem and partnerships are becoming extremely critical in meeting the demands of the end user. The post On the RISE: How Colin DePree Leads Salto to Success appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/profiles/rise-colin-depree-salto/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/on-rise-how-colin-depree-leads-salto-to.html LONDON — State officials from Oregon and Illinois are calling for increased scrutiny of the potential takeover of G4S, which has pitted Allied Universal and GardWorld in an extended acquisition battle. The private-equity led bidding for London-based G4S has raised concerns among unions as well, with concerns that a takeover could harm working conditions for hundreds of thousands of low-wage security guards worldwide, the Financial Times recently reported. With operations in 83 countries, G4S staffs around 530,000 employees, providing guarding to embassies, prisons and justice services, sports stadiums and music events. If either Allied Universal or GardaWorld succeeds in the bidding, the combined company would be one of the world’s largest private-sector employers. The state treasurer of Illinois, Michael Frerichs, whose office manages about $35 billion and invests in private equity funds, urged institutional investors to demand greater transparency from both suitors, the Financial Times reported. “Neither bidder has disclosed to us key aspects of their business plan, including how to manage opportunities and risks in the event of a merger,” Frerichs said in an online forum. “The vast majority of these employees are essential workers, raising the stakes for all stakeholders to review this transaction.” Tobias Read, the state treasurer for Oregon, expressed he wanted to “learn more about how the companies will handle complicated questions”, including how to protect their workers’ health amid the pandemic. “Some corporations don’t really listen to smaller investors . . . as elected officials we tend to have a larger megaphone,” he said. Oregon and Illinois have both previously committed funds to Allied owner Warburg Pincus. The European Works Council, representing G4S employees, has also written to shareholders calling for bidders to both rule out job losses and adhere to pledges on ethical investment, according to the Financial Times. This past December, G4S reached a deal to be acquired by Allied Universal Security Services for $5.1 billion, after initially rebuffing a takeover bid from Allied Universal in November. G4S first announced Oct. 9 that it had received an expression of interest from privately-held Allied Universal for a possible offer for the company. Canada’s GardaWorld had also put forward an offer of $2.48 a share for the company, which was rejected. Allied boosted its offer to $3.26 per share, according to an announcement. G4S directors said they planned to unanimously recommend the deal to shareholders. The offer beat out GardaWorld’s latest proposal of $3.13 per share, representing a 68% premium to G4S’s last close before announcing the initial takeover approach. Allied has committed financing and signed a preliminary agreement for future funding of G4S’s pension scheme, according to the announcement. GardaWorld has said it is in discussions with its banks as to how much it could raise its offer for the G4S business. The post Latest on G4S Takeover: State Officials Want More Transparency From Allied, GardaWorld appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/business/mergers/g4s-takeover-greater-scrutiny/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/latest-on-g4s-takeover-state-officials.html SEATTLE — Amazon is disrupting the status quo once again, this time in the security and smart home businesses with several new services. It announced it has jumped into the security monitoring business with its new $4.99 per month or $49 per year Guard Plus service via Alexa Guard. The company is also launching its new free Energy Dashboard service that gives users details of the electrical usage by individual devices and systems in their home. These new Alexa features are designed to help customers keep their homes safe, energy efficient, and better understand the energy consumption of their smart home devices. Amazon Alexa Guard Plus Subscription ServiceAlexa Guard already is in place in millions of customers’ homes and the new Amazon Alexa Guard Plus subscription offer extends the features of Alexa Guard by giving customers hands-free access to an emergency helpline, smart alerts about activity and other potential emergencies in their home while their away, and new features to deter potential intruders. For example, using Amazon Alexa Guard Plus homeowners can ask Alexa to connect them hands-free to trained agents at an emergency helpline 24/7 where they can request the dispatch of medical, fire, or police assistance. With Amazon Alexa Guard Plus, Alexa can also detect and alert the homeowners about sounds of activity in the home while they are away and sound a siren from Echo devices. Further, Alexa can deter potential intruders by playing the sounds of dogs barking from Echo devices in the home if motion is detected by supported outdoor-facing smart home cameras. Customers in the U.S. can sign up for a free one-month trial, or subscribe to the service for $4.99 a month or $49 a year. Amazon Energy DashboardEnergy Dashboard is an Alexa feature that can help customers monitor and understand the energy consumption of compatible Alexa-connected smart home devices. Using the Alexa app, customers can see the energy consumed by certain smart home devices from a variety of manufacturers, including lights, plugs, switches, water heaters, thermostats and TVs. Customers are also able to see daily, weekly and monthly trends. Alexa Proactive HunchesAccording to the company, Alexa has helped millions of customers with hunches so they don’t forget things like locking the front door at night, or turning off the light in the basement. Now, customers can choose to have Alexa proactively act on her hunches without having to ask. For example, Alexa can automatically adjust the thermostat, turn down the water heater, or turn on your robot vacuum while you’re away from home. Learn more about hunches in the video below. Last year, Amazon added a new “Alexa for Residential” service that targets apartment dwellers with smart home functionality. This article originally appeared on SSI sister site CE Pro. The post Amazon Unveils $4.99 Security Monitoring Service for Alexa Guard appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/news/amazon-security-monitoring-alexa-guard/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/amazon-unveils-499-security-monitoring.html DALLAS — Monitronics Int’l (OTC: SCTY), dba Brinks Home Security, announced on Tuesday that it intends to voluntarily deregister its common stock under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The company intends to file post-effective amendments to its outstanding registration statements on Form S-3 and S-8 to deregister unsold securities under the stated terms with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) no earlier than Feb. 1. Immediately upon the amendments taking affect, the company intends to file a Form 15 with the SEC. As a result, the company’s obligation to file current and periodic reports under the Securities Exchange Act will be automatically suspended in accordance with applicable SEC rules. Monitronics says it is deregistering because it believes that its public company reporting requirements do not provide a discernable benefit to the company and is not in the best long-term interest of its shareholders. Following the delisting, the company anticipates that its common stock will be quoted on the OTC Pink Open Market (the Pink Sheets), a centralized electronic quotation service for over-the-counter securities, so long as market makers demonstrate an interest in trading in the company’s common stock. However, the company can give no assurance that trading in its common stock will continue on the Pink Sheets or any other securities exchange or quotation medium, according to the announcement. Brinks Home Security is one of the largest home security and alarm monitoring companies in North America. Headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the company secures over 900,000 residential and commercial customers. The companys has one of the nation’s largest networks of independent authorized dealers and agents, providing products and support to customers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as direct-to-consumer sales of DIY and professionally installed products. The post Brinks Home Security Announces Intent to Deregister Common Stock appeared first on Security Sales & Integration. from News – Security Sales & Integration https://www.securitysales.com/business/industry/brinks-home-security-deregister-common-stock/ via IFTTT Via https://westoninspace.blogspot.com/2021/01/brinks-home-security-announces-intent.html |
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