By Rodney Bosch
LAS VEGAS — Interface Security Systems (ISS), a specialist in cloud-based managed services, announced at ISC West it has acquired Westec Intelligent Surveillance, a leading provider of interactive monitored video solutions and virtual business management tools. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
ISS is an industry trailblazer in marketing cloud-based managed physical and logical service offerings. The firm operates more than 20 offices throughout North America and has about 650 employees. Based in Coppell, Texas, Westec is credited for originating interactive video and audio monitoring in the physical security industry. Westec has about 200 employees.
ISS and Westec customer bases include several Fortune 500 clients in the retail, QSR and hospitality industries. Merging the two companies creates the only nationwide managed service provider of security solutions along with VoIP and secure broadband in a cloud-based architecture, says Jeff Frye, vice president of sales and marketing for St. Louis-based ISS.
“Some of the interesting synergies between the two companies is the fact when you are dealing with video surveillance you are faced with delivering a product and not controlling the way it is transmitted. If a jewelry store, for instance, is using a third-party broadband provider to support the CCTV application, they are reliant on that third-party provider to do things like guaranteed throughput, bandwidth availability,” Frye tells SSI. “What Interface does by owning the connection to the customer, we provide managed WANs for multisite organizations. We own that connection for the agent of record and we own the router that sits at the customer premise. So we can provide quality of service on the router. We can carve out bandwidth for the video application [to ensure high quality video]. And yet we manage the other part of the bandwidth to make sure that everything else in the store interoperates appropriately. We created a new level of quality of service for CCTV that didn’t exist before by joining the two companies.”
ISS manages a broad range of secure, IP-based solutions for retail, commercial, small business and residential customers through a UL Listed Secure Operations Center and a nationwide full service branch network.
Frye said ISS generated almost $6 million in recurring monthly revenue (RMR) last year, and Westec brought in about $1.7 million in RMR. The two firms will continue to operate under their respective brands. The Westec executive team, including President and CEO Kelby Hagar, will remain with the organization.
Westec is particularly strong in the hospitality industry and quick-service restaurants, including
Jack in the Box and Subway’s. Organizations such as these are increasingly looking to standardize their security and business solutions on a common system and hardware platform, Frye explains. ISS and Westec will now be able to offer multisite clients a total product set.
“Standardization is what it is all about. One of the reasons Interface was so committed to owning the network service – providing and owning the broadband connection so we can manage it – is because by 24/7 management of the broadband, we are able to ensure a higher level of standardization and consistency in operations to support the franchise model,” Frye says. “For instance, quick service restaurants want to serve a product the same way everywhere all the time. When you provide a common set of rules for store operations and security policies that is exactly what you are helping them to do. They are enforcing the franchise model.”
Both companies are privately held. Imperial Capital, LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to Westec.
Rodney Bosch is managing editor for SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION. He can be reached at (310) 533-2426.