SSI’s 2020 Quotes to Note: Security Execs Dish on Industry Disruptors & More

SSI rounds up notable quotes from security industry execs discussing COVID-19, new business models, cybersecurity and much more.

January 01, 2021 SSI Staff Jump to Comments

Throughout each year, Security Sales & Integration publishes content in various formats that act as an outlet for the security industry’s best to speak their minds and share what has brought them and their companies’ success.

Below you will find some notable quotes from Hot Seat Q&A’s, roundtables and feature articles published in 2020.

security quotes We finally implemented an employment agreement. If we are going to make a monetary investment in you for training — whether it’s programming access control or layering in a gateway and tying a bunch of wireless devices to it — whatever cost we have, you have to work for us for 24 months. If you don’t fulfill that agreement, then you’re going to pay us back X amount. — Christian Hess, Managing Partner, Guardian Systems

security quotes We commission service tax. We found that to be a very efficient way to improve customer service. When we were incentivizing service technicians and paying a commission on their completed and build service, what we found is something as simple as replacing a battery that may commonly take five minutes cost $100. No one likes paying $100 for a guy to walk in a customer’s door and ask where the closet is to swap a battery.
— Wes Usie, CEO, Guardian Alarm Systems

security quotes Connecting young professionals with one another has the potential to make a meaningful impact on the industry by improving collaboration and brainstorming ideas that could improve the industry practices overall. — Hanna Farah, CTO, Feenics

security quotes The days of cybersecurity protection simply consisting of antivirus on computers and a firewall at the network perimeter are over. Cybersecurity requires a comprehensive approach that includes conducting regular assessments and testing that can identify holes, weaknesses and vulnerabilities, having policies and response plans in place, conducting employee training and implementing numerous technology controls.
— Rob Simopoulos, Co-Founder, Defendify

security quotes What we are working really hard at is to ensure that our people have projects, whether those are installations or service calls or preventive maintenance calls. That has fallen squarely on the shoulders of our project managers and our service coordinator. They are working doubly hard during this pandemic because it’s not easy when 70% of our customers have asked us not to come to their facilities. — John Krumme, CEO, Cam-Dex

security quotes COVID-19 is a lot of things and it’s also the mother of all business lessons. Taking a proactive position to change your model will be critical for survival and future relevance. It’s one thing to change your business model for your best interest and it certainly helps when that model is now being embraced worldwide. The subscription consumption model has gained favor over the past few years. All customers in some form have procured this way, so there is familiarity whether it’s Microsoft or Apple. You name it, ownership is dying. The critical point for all integrators is twofold; their financial well-being and having a relevant offering to respond to the new needs of customers. — Paul Metzheiser, Managing Partner, TAMCO

security quotes Each potential new employee receives a copy of our core values in advance of the interview process, as several questions relate specifically to them and we give a great amount of consideration to how they answer those. It is extremely important to us to hire people who are not only qualified but align with our core values.
— Dawn Rainey, HR Manager, Custom Alarm

security quotes We believe that Moore’s Law is far from dead — especially in our industry. Equipment will continue to become more capable and less expensive to manufacture. This means we must be prepared to provide monitoring services for larger numbers and more varieties of sensors and equipment. The promise of 5G and ubiquitous, inexpensive wireless means that very soon, we may find ourselves monitoring motion detectors, door alarms and AI-enhanced analytic cameras, all without an alarm panel to tie them together.
— Mike Zydor, Managing Director, Affiliated Monitoring

security quotes In the healthcare industry, one of the things they are exploring that may bring a lot of revenue to our industry is changing the password of every single device on a quarterly basis. There are hospitals with more than a thousand devices. That’s going to be a hefty recurring bill every quarter.
— Kekin Shah, President, Shanix Technology

security quotes For a monitoring center, it’s very important to have professional agents be able to best use technology and aggregated data in a very consumable and concise form to make better, faster decisions that help police respond quickly and be well prepared for what awaits them.
— Joey Rao-Russell, President & CEO, Kimberlite (Sonitrol)

security quotes We did put a program together to offer assistance to customers that were having financial trouble. Of those that requested assistance, 85% to 90% of them took a month or two off and then got back on track and have begun paying again. — Robert Moe, CFO, AMP Security

security quotes Google is in the business of collecting data. We, in our industry today, have not gotten beyond a remote control. Because that is what a mobile app is. It is a remote control. What this industry needs to watch out for is if Google gets its hands on this penetration of devices in the home. If you get 100 devices in the home reporting data back to that analytical engine, one can only imagine the way they could change this industry.
— Brett Price, Founder, Clare Controls