NEW ORLEANS – Major announcements from GE Interlogix, the marking of a milestone by Bosch Security Systems and the unveiling of several new products were among the highlights of the 49th Annual ASIS Int’l Seminar and Exhibits, held Sept. 15-18 in New Orleans. The event, which consumed 500,000 square feet of the vast Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, afforded 17,264 security professionals rich learning and networking opportunities.

GE Interlogix announced a new working partnership with IBM and a loyalty program for integrators. By combining their resources, GE Interlogix and IBM plan to provide comprehensive security service for businesses’ computer systems, buildings and personnel. GE’s security software will integrate with IBM’s enterprise management and application server software and both companies will collaborate on marketing them.

GE Interlogix Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Strategic Alliance Juan Cabezas says both companies will have the ability to serve their customers better. “We see a convergence between physical security and logical security. We’re giving a holistic approach to security,” says Cabezas. “The end user is looking for one entity, or partnership, that can deliver a comprehensive solution.”

GE Interlogix also revealed that it is launching a businesses development and loyalty program for integrators in the first quarter of 2004. Incentives will be laid out for loyalty, sales growth and full product line selling. Cabeza says the program has been developed from integrator feedback the past nine months and the company’s goal is to continue to improve it right from inception.

Bosch celebrated a company-customer relationship of its own at ASIS. The company marked the sale of its millionth Detection Systems request-to-exit (REX) sensor with a special award for its purchaser, Tom Polson of ADI. Bosch President and CEO Peter Ribinski presented a bronzed DS150i detector displayed on black marble as a special customer appreciation award to Polson. “Achieving such a milestone as selling one million sensors is a tremendous accomplishment,” Ribinski said in a statement. “We’re proud to acknowledge the role ADI has played in this achievement.”

Besides marking milestones, the 812 vendors in 2,106 booths in New Orleans touted their new products, including 218 appearing at ASIS for the first time. Among those companies were Dedicated Micros, which held a press conference to introduce its DV-IP network video server, which provides live video, playback monitoring and simultaneous secure transmission over Ethernet, ISDN and PSTN lines.

ASIS also featured 135 educational sessions, 40 of which were devoted to homeland security. A panel discussion on improving security and IT collaborations was timely. Among the speakers was Edward Appel, COO for the Joint Council on Information Age Crime, and Marene Allison, security director at Avaya Inc. Also featured were addresses by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, author of “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” and former United Nations Chief Weapons Inspector Richard Butler.

The 2004 ASIS Seminar and Exhibits will be held at the Dallas Convention Center from Sept. 27-30, with the event arriving in Orlando in 2005.

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