ASIS 2016: Securitas Electronic Security Hosts Successful Branding Bash
President Tony Byerly says the industry welcomed the former Diebold Security with open arms and talks about the company’s transition.
Securitas Electronic Security Director of Marketing Terrie Ipson poses in front of her rebranding handiwork and the integrators' impressive awards case with SSI Editor-in-Chief Scott Goldfine.
ORLANDO, Fla. – The trade show served as a coming out party for Securitas Electronic Security, as the former Diebold Security business introduced its new branding on the world stage. Since the announcement in October 2015 that the company would join the Securitas family of businesses as Securitas ES, plans have been underway to implement a strategic brand transition that would leverage the strong global brand recognition and reputation of Securitas while integrating the seven-decade legacy and expertise of Diebold Security.
The industry certainly took notice in Orlando as the prominent Securitas ES booth was jam-packed throughout the event and the excitement among the firm’s associates was palpable. SSI Editor-in-Chief Scott Goldfine met with Securitas ES President Tony Byerly, a longtime colleague who sits on the publication’s Editorial Advisory Board, to get details on how the transition and rebranding is progressing, as well as what the industry can expect moving forward from this commercial installation and monitoring powerhouse.
So how are things going?
Tony Byerly: Things are going extremely well. We’re in the midst of all the deployment for our field rebranding, so that includes the uniforms, all the new truck rebranding, all the photo badge updating of all the IDs. Started in late August, and it’ll run through the first part of October, as we complete across both the United States and Canada, from coast to coast. The show was all about the new Securitas Electronic Security, all the new branding and hopefully we made a pretty bold statement.
Did you get many inquiries about what’s different now that the name has changed?
Byerly: That’s the great part of the story. Although we have a new logo and a new brand, and we’re part of Securitas, it’s really all the same individuals, the same great company, the same leadership team. All 1,200 associates transitioned. Securitas has been very true to their word around that this is not about cost synergies. It’s all about commercial growth synergies. We’ve not had any synergies from a cost standpoint. We’re only looking on how we leverage the Securitas six protective services, of which we are one of them, the Electronic Security Group, and how we continue to grow and build out the business to bring a great portfolio of services and solutions to our customers.
Have you been able to identify any advantages that maybe you can capitalize on now that you’re part of this group, as opposed to where you were before?
Byerly: It’s in several forms, actually. It was amazing how many conversations we had before and during the show, and I’m sure subsequent to the show, around bringing the broader portfolio to customers. They are sincerely interested in how we can bring more solutions to them, and it all stems from these six protective services. Utilizing one provider like Securitas for their multiple needs allows the security director to deal with one source to really get a lot of different elements of their security program met.
The other pieces that are maybe more back-office for us are around Securitas making the investments that previously we weren’t able to make, but were needed. In Ohio, we’re going to be building out a new headquarters, combined with a totally redone monitoring center. We’ll also be opening a new Toronto office, and just making investments across our portfolio around all of our back-office IT platform and systems, building those out to support us in a way that will bring value to our customers. A new billing system is an example.
The last piece of that I’ll mention is that Diebold is obviously a great company, great brand, an iconic brand in the security space. But at the end of the day the core business is the ATMs, the financial self-services part of their business. Now with their integration and acquisition of Wincor Nixdorf out of Germany, which will make them a stronger financial services company, this allows us to truly be aligned with a pure-play security provider whose sole focus is around security, in particular, physical security, which is a great fit for an electronic security company. We couldn’t have found a better buyer that’s willing to make the investments, and really looking to grow their business.
The community in that Akron, Ohio, area must be relieved you’re keeping the business there.
Byerly: Yes, but it’s the community, it’s our associates, it’s our customers and even our prospective customers. We aren’t trying to trade out a bunch of expertise for lower-cost labor somewhere. We value the expertise and experience our employees have. We want to leverage that, so keeping the headquarters, keeping the monitoring center here, building out other elements of our business here, leveraging that expertise and experience, the longevity of the associates, that’s real tangible value for our customers and the company.
As you look at the market out there, do you see any particular verticals maybe you might be able to go deeper into based on the new pure-play support of Securitas?
Byerly: I think there’s going to be a lot of opportunities for us. Right now it’s probably too early to talk about specific vertical market strategy. But I can tell you that in general our strategies have always been around regional, national and global companies. Pure play focused on business customers, and in particular, customers with multiple sites or large systems integration projects. Our partnership now and our part of being part of the Securitas family only bolsters our position in the regional, national and global business space in our industry, as well as the integration space. I think it also will provide us an opportunity to start considering other commercial security strategies.
I would expect this would also help expansion outside of America.
Byerly: Yes, and there’s obviously a lot of interest in what we can now provide and do for our existing customers who happen to have global businesses in other parts of the world. There will be other opportunities for us to continue to look at leveraging the Securitas platform and the prior investments they made in other security companies, especially electronic security companies in other parts of the globe.
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About the Author
Scott Goldfine
Scott Goldfine is the marketing director for Elite Interactive Solutions. He is the former editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He can be reached at [email protected].
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