Compsat travels from IT to security

DETROIT--Compsat Security was founded because "We decided we needed to protect our flank," said chief executive officer Dan Glitsky. He was in the middle of working with a casino with 700 terrabytes of security data that his first company, Compsat Technology, was in the business of backing up and protecting when he decided he better "go in and architect the front end of the security solution" before a security company decided to do the back end. Five years later, with a recently completed Business Process Integration Center, Glitsky looks back and sees it's been "a very challenging proposition to build the security company, but, as we look at where we're sitting today, the industry has gone so high-tech that our technology bent has put us at the pinnacle of this convergence in security." "Our feeling," said Glitsky, "is that at the enterprise level, it's going to be very hard for traditional security companies to compete. We pull cable, hang cameras, etc., but it's the partnership aspect we excel at," getting the chief information officer and the physical security director working to talk about how IT and physical security can be combined to install "strategic value into their business." Further, Compsat brings IT sales models into physical security, leasing security equipment, for instance. "For a client who bought a security solution three or four years ago," said Glitsky, "if they would have leased it, they would have an opportunity to get a far superior solution today for the same dollar outflow. It's going to take some time, but we have to get our clients to think differently, to look differently at their security operations as not just an expense but an opportunity to drive business value, as well as knowing that there's going to be a tremendous amount of changes that they'll want to take advantage of. Just like somebody who bought a computer three or four years ago, there are some really compelling reasons why you want to get a new one today." This also, he said, makes his revenue stream steadier, with recurring revenue coming in the place of one-time hits. "Not all clients will want to lease right away," he admitted, "but with the rate of technology changes it's going to become more attractive; that's not going back, that's speeding up." Recently, the company's success led BDO Seidman, the Detroit Regional Chamber, LaSalle Bank and WWJ Newsradio 950 to name Compsat Security to its Future 50 of Greater Detroit list, which honors rapid growth in area employment, investments and community involvement. The company will be recognized at a reception and ceremony in late October.