Find news and information for the executive corporate security director, CSO, facility manager and assets protection manager on issues of policy, products, incidents, risk management, threat assessments and preparedness.
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INTEGRATOR CONNECTION of the technology. Don't just jump from project to project." Waterton notes that consultants like to blame integrators, and integrators like to blame technology vendors or clients for industry problems. "It's not that," he says. "If you do not focus on the business and the alignment of the security organization with the business, you have not done your job properly. At the end of the day, we are in the value business." Here is another area where ASG differs from runof-the-mill security firms — every human element in their chain has a professional discipline. That means that service technicians are service techs, not installers. Designers design. Project managers are not simply lead technicians on a project but people with schooling and certification in project management. ASG expects similar professionalism from its technology partners and benchmarks them. "Much to the Down the Road chagrin of some partners when we tell them their techThe company has added more than 100 people in the nology is not good for everyone," Waterton says. "Our past decade. Waterton says: "We have The ASG Way goal is to align what our partners are good at with what that are statements that are foundational to our culture. we are good at." "We benchmark technology partners to ensure they meet or exceed the specificaA CLOSER LOOK tions needed to address our strategic markets," Aronson adds. "Then we work with Company name: Aronson Security Group them to find the means to make their prodWebsite: www.aronsonsecurity.com ucts better while fitting into the common HQ location: Renton, Wash. operating picture. We call this a go-to-marPrincipals: Phil Aronson, CEO; Paul ket strategy." Aronson, vice president; Nigel Waterton, It is not all a bed of roses, especially when vice president of corporate strategy and it comes to standards. Waterton says the development; Robert Flynn, vice president of operations industry is embroiled in its own version of the VHS-Betamax wars of years past. He is Year founded: 1963 especially concerned about VMS and access Number of employees: 145 control interfaces. "The industry needs a set Residential/Commercial split: 1 percent residential, 99+ percent of standards," he says. "IT was stabilized commercial by standards. VMS and access control is a Top technology brands deployed: ASSA ABLOY, Lenel, Exacq complex problem and we need to have an Technologies, Genetec, HID Global, Milestone Systems, Pivot3, authority that everyone agrees on that will SoftwareHouse, Stentofon, Verint set standards. "I love competition," Waterton continues. "But when it is detrimental to the business One is 'We embrace change'. Another is 'We are selfas a whole, it is bad. And I don't see a light at the end correcting'. These kind of values have helped us navigate of the tunnel," Waterton worries. change and growth." Down the road, he does see ASG continuing its focus Waterton wonders where things will be in another on specific vertical markets. "Our goal is to maintain our decade and notes that the idea of a Gigabit backbone just internal continuity," Waterton says. a few years ago was a million-dollar proposition — now That will require ASG's special sauce that is based, it is commonplace. That said, he expects to see more Aronson says, on the firm's people, processes and vision. virtual technology deployed to help support clients in "The vision comes from the hard work of research, havthe cloud. KPIs will constantly be measured in quarterly ing great conversations with every member of the marreviews with each client. "We definitely will see more ket and finding new and innovative ways to drive value," virtualization," Waterton says. he concludes. ❚ He sees trained application engineers in their Business Optimization Center as the first level of triage, rather Curt Harler is a technology writer and regular contributor to SD&I; than just dispatching technicians in a truck. "A certified magazine. Reach him at curt@curtharler.com. applications technician will look for the root causes of a problem and take steps to mitigate it," he says. 56 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com | SD&I; | January 2014