CenterPoint expands office with new hires, new accounts

ST. LOUIS—Third party central station CenterPoint Technologies and its vice president of operations and business development MJ Vance have had a very busy summer with a rash of new hires, new services and new recognitions.

“I was having a heck of a time keeping up with my business development and running the central station at the same time.” Vance said. “Since 2007 I've been running the central station and doing business development, so I knew I was going to have to bring in someone qualified to run the central so I could focus on other endeavors.”

Those other endeavors include forays into new services, signing up new dealers comprising an additional 2,000 monitored accounts, and the hiring of additional, seasoned central station operators.

Vance said CenterPoint took its time finding new central station operations manager Tom Legens. “It was probably a five- or six-month process,” she said. “I wanted to be sure I had someone here who could run the central the way it needed to be run if I were out for two or three days.”

Legens was hired in April from another local alarm company, American Burglar and Fire, where he filled many roles. “Technically, I was purchasing manger accounts receivable manager, IT manager, I also did fleet services, and the website,” Legens said. “It's definitely more a focused thing here. I have the day-to-day operation. Trying to build the dealer relations and get new services ready.”

What kinds of new services are in the wings?

“We'll be ready to roll out video monitoring services in the next 30 days,” Legens said. “We'll be working with SureView and the Immix platform.” Legens said they wanted to be sure “they weren't playing catch up,” and that all the wrinkles were ironed out before offering the service to dealers. He's also exploring managed access control and autoattendant services.

“We're dealer based, to the extent that we keep the dealers intentions top of mind at all times,” said CenterPoint president Chris Burnes. “We're committed to providing the highest levels of technology and customer service. We continue to encourage our dealers to bring their clients through on tours to see how we make the difference.”

Additionally, Vance will be presented the Fire Marshal's Association of Missouri's Presidential Award on Oct. 13 for her work raising $10,000 in sponsorships