Industry vets target DIY market

BALTIMORE--As the integrator and installer channel concerns itself with new competition from the traditional IT integration market, there is also new competition from the do-it-yourself (or DIY) market. One new company looking to capitalize on the latter is iN Control Security, which was spawned from the publicly held Medical Institutional Services Holding in August of 2008.

“Buying [security systems] direct and installing them yourself or with a little help from a friend you save on average about 50 percent of what it would cost for a security firm to supply and install the project,” runs the pitch of the online seller. “And you never expose your security, you put it in and only you know how it is set up.”

Lest you think the company is another fly-by-night operation, however, this firm is run by veterans of the security industry. Chief executive officer Jeff Wiebell, who did not return calls for comment, has worked for Johnson Controls, Pinkerton and Sensormatic, and was the owner of Secure-View Systems, an alarm company based in Hawaii. He was also CEO of SenTech, an RF electronic asset surveillance systems manufacturer.

Heath Scott, director of operations, is a principal at the Saber Group, a law enforcement and private security consultancy, and was a vice president at DefenderTech International and a federal systems installation manager at ADT.

In September, the company “signed a partnership agreement with AT&T Remote Monitoring powered by Xanboo technology” to sell its home and business security program.

In December, the company signed a letter of intent to acquire Cal-Bay Controls, a sales and distribution company providing environmental, process-control and analytical instrumentation to utility, industrial, governmental and educational clients in California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii. Cal-Bay was owned most recently by Atlantis Holding.

According to a release, “Going forward, iN Control plans to assist in building the business of Cal-Bay Controls. This will, in turn, help iN Control to grow into a larger and more profitable entity.” Terms of the deal were not released.

Though it is a public company, traded under INCL.PK, iN Control doesn't appear to have reported earnings this year, and is currently being traded at one-hundredth of a cent per share.