Firm Makes Its Case To Be Your Partner

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“I had decided I was going to be a consultant forever, but after working with Dennis for a few months I didn’t want the project to end,” Giacalone says. “It was the right place for me to go.”

Raefield saw fit to give Giacalone, who is SSI‘s “Monitoring Matters” columnist, a dual role and charged him with developing Mace’s forthcoming authorized commercial dealer program.

Soon following Giacalone into the Mace CSSS stable was Morgan Hertel to serve as its director of operations. Hertel, too, arrived with more than 30 years of field and management experience in the monitoring industry. He is considered among the nation’s top central station managers and has a keen understanding of next-generation managed services, Raefield says. (Rounding out a busy May for hires, Don Taylor, formerly of Dedicated Micros, was appointed vice president of marketing and investor relations for Mace Security Int’l.)

Mace CSSS is a UL-Listed central station that monitors about 30,000 end-user accounts on behalf of 300 dealer clients. The acquisition was a perfect fit for Mace; the central was already doing a sizeable amount of video monitoring and had just embarked on replacing its B32 legacy Monitored Automation Systems (MAS) platform to a state-of-the-art system.

In July, Mace CSSS announced it had successfully converted to the advanced monitoring platform stages by Secure Global Solutions, which offers a browser-based dealer application allowing security dealers the ability to maintain full control of their clients and database. The central will also upgrade its existing video monitoring and management platform SureView to offer its dealers a Web services interface. Plus, Mace CSSS will soon begin offering backStage, a network monitoring system that provides continuous data collection and knowledge to manage network risks.

“In a very short period of time from basically an alarm intrusion-type monitoring center, now we have evolved into a monitoring center that can provide so many other services that our dealers don’t even know about yet,” says Michael Kallio, a project manager who has served with the central for more than 20 years. “I think it will be so advantageous to the dealers. They are going to be amazed at what services we will be able to offer them and help build their business as well.”

Building RMR, Managed Services

At the heart of Mace’s strategy going forward is a white-hot emphasis on teaching dealers the art of recurring revenue.
“The hardest part about all these businesses is not manufacturing, it’s not central stations; it is being the dealer,” Raefield says. “It is the riskiest, toughest business of all. They have very little recurring revenue and that is what they want more of.”

Plainly, Mace is proceeding to marry technology with services, says Raefi eld. “It is really saying, ‘How do we maximize the technology with the services and what services can we do that you currently don’t get?’” Nobody at Mace underestimates the challenges the company faces in training a traditional dealer base. In support of its new access control solution and accompanying services, Mace will offer a robust online, certified training program.

It is no small notion for a dealer to redirect his/her current business model and suddenly take on new technologies and services, Hertel says. “Some of these guys have been doing this for 30 or more years. Now all of a sudden we are going to turn the ship a little bit and say you have a good business, don’t give it up, but you need to also look at these as new opportunities.”

While the MaceTrac access control solution can control up to 500 doors, Mace is setting its sights on far smaller installations for its dealers. “I like to play in the small to middle market,” says O’Leary. “At this point in time I think that is where the best margins are to start with. It is an easier sell for the dealers.”

Smaller businesses and organizations provide a wealth of opportunity for dealers nowadays because heretofore access control systems were simply impractical, Raefi eld says. “It’s because somebody has to manage it. The problem I always had in going to market and sell access control as an integrator was the customer would say, ‘Who is going to run this thing?’”

Now dealers can conveniently handle adding and deleting cards, running reports and other support services themselves. Or, if they so chose, they can have end-user calls sent to the central station where monitors will answer in the dealer’s company name.

“We’ll do it wholesale and the dealer can charge it retail,” Raefield says.

Commercial Program Launch

Next to be implemented in Raefield’s development strategy is the rollout of the Mace authorized commercial dealer program, which is expected to be formally introduced sometime in the fall.

“We really feel the industry has not done enough for the commercial guys. They have the toughest time competing with the large regional and national companies,” Giacalone says. “We hope to gain some residential business from our dealers as well, but we are very focused on commercial because our products and our name play really well in that environment.”

Installing security contractors that are licensed and carry all of the appropriate insurance need only apply. Beyond those strictures, the criteria to be accepted into the program isn’t too involved.

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About the Author

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Although Bosch’s name is quite familiar to those in the security industry, his previous experience has been in daily newspaper journalism. Prior to joining SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION in 2006, he spent 15 years with the Los Angeles Times, where he performed a wide assortment of editorial responsibilities, including feature and metro department assignments as well as content producing for latimes.com. Bosch is a graduate of California State University, Fresno with a degree in Mass Communication & Journalism. In 2007, he successfully completed the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association’s National Training School coursework to become a Certified Level I Alarm Technician.

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