Entrance Controls buys 1Pointe, can now offer physical, logical, virtual solutions

SEATTLE--Entrance Controls announced this week the acquisition of 1Pointe, a network monitoring, security and information technology firm. This means, said David Pelkey, president of Entrance Controls, that the combined company will be able to offer "the full spectrum of security solutions," everything from access control and video surveillance to firewalls, content filtering, disaster recovery, and network access control. 1Pointe, based in Portland, Ore., where Entrance Controls also has an office, will operate as a wholly owned independent company in its current location, headed by current chief executive officer John Robb. They currently employ seven IT professionals, who'll remain based in Portland, but future IT hires will be based at Entrance Controls' Seattle and Los Angeles locations, as well, Pelkey said. "We'll all of a sudden be able to bring their network engineers and database people to support our traditional card access jobs, for example," said Pelkey. "It will just make for that much more quality of a job." Further, he said, "it's been an uphill battle for [security directors] to communicate with their IT departments. Now we can help them defend their positions and give them some leverage to get done what they want to get done, and it will give their internal IT guys the confidence to go forward and buy in." Plus, he noted, Entrance Controls can now sell "a pure IT offering. It doesn't have to be physical. We couldn't offer that before." This relationship has been in the works for more than two years, Pelkey said, as the two companies have partnered on jobs. The two saw the convergence of physical and logical security coming, and "we're excited to have bridged that converged company. It's nice to have 1Pointe on board, a respected company and an entire team that's already putting together these solutions and understands our business. I think it's going to be a pretty easy transition."