Mac Systems steps IT up a notch, and sales grow

AVON, Mass. - In the past two years systems integrator Mac Systems has strengthened its reach in the network security arena, hiring an additional 20 employees in its engineering, IT and sales department to deliver more network-based solutions to its customers. The result for the company has been continued growth in this market and the expertise that enabled it to recently win a contract to install more than 350 digital video cameras and 25 DVRs at greyhound race track and gaming house Lincoln Park in Rhode Island. “What limited our growth in the past on the sales side was the level of networking knowledge,” said Tom Heenan of Mac Systems. “We felt it was important for us to hire the type of person that was proficient in their ability to talk to IT folks.” With the exception of one year since its inception in 1981, 53 employee company Mac Systems has grown steadily. For fiscal year 2002, which ended March 31, the company with an expertise in the access control and CCTV market saw business increase by at least 15 percent compared with the previous fiscal year. It was only a few years ago that Mac Systems installed a separate network for clients for their camera or access control system. “The equipment wasn’t there from our manufacturers and our suppliers that would allow us to hook onto existing systems,” said Bob McMenimom, president of Mac Systems and member of SecurityNet, a networking organization of 15 independent systems integrators who share ideas, training and refer business to one another. “Now that capability is there.” It’s that capability that was also woven into Lincoln Parks’ new camera and digital video recording system. When Mac Systems began work on the Lincoln Park camera project last year, Lincoln Park officials wanted to address two concerns: image quality and incident research. Under its old system, images did not appear in real time, nor could security personnel easily view archived incidents without searching through stacks of tapes. “When I came in I said we need to be able to supply this on a computer somehow,” said Jason Gittle, IT director at Lincoln Park. Mac Systems accomplished that by installing digital cameras and Intellex’s brand of DVRs to watch Lincoln Park’s 1,700 video slot machines. Now the greyhound race track and gaming house is looking to upgrade its access control system to the Sensormatic C•Cure 800 from a DOS-based system and tie the two systems together.