Brink's goes commercial

IRVING, Texas--In a January interview, Brink's Company vice president and chief financial officer Robert Ritter said the company intended to enter the commercial market. On May 2, Brink's Home Security officially took the leap when it announced the formation of a new division, Brink's Business Security (see the February issue of Security Systems News). "We've been staffing up for two years building and learning the market, making sure we have the proper products and equipment and trained personnel," said Doug Valenski, who has been named national accounts manager. Valenski will oversee a staff of national account representatives covering regional territories throughout the United States. He did not divulge the number of representatives, but said that they will focus on companies that have multiple locations, offering them a central point of contact with services such as web-based billing, contact management and review of alarm history. Brink's is targeting companies whose individual sites are under 15,000 square feet, Valenski said. In addition, there are now, in all Brink's Home Security branch offices, business-account representatives, who will focus on single-location, small- and medium-sized businesses. How will Valenski spread the word that Brink's, well known for home security, now does commercial security as well? "It's no secret," he said, "we need to get out and cold call customers." Fortunately, he said, since Brink's Home Security has one million customers, many of the business customers they call on have Brink's systems in their homes. "We know what we do well. We're execution-oriented; we do it right over and over and over. That's our strength," Valenski said. Recently, Brink's has been installing about 1,000 commercial systems nationwide per month.