New PERS player in town

PACHECO, Calif.--Bay Alarm co-president Matt Westphal on March 20 announced the launch of Bay Alarm Medical, a subsidiary of the large, family-owned, West Coast alarm company. BAM is Bay Alarm's first foray into the personal emergency response system market.

According to BAM CEO Warren Heffelfinger, BAM is positioned to take advantage of growing needs and advancing technology. “This is clearly an industry that, on the one hand, has been around for 25 or 30 years, but on the other hand, I think over the next 10 years, will be going through some very radical transformation,” Heffelfinger said. “We've got a tremendous population boom into this PERS age group. PERS and this whole area of senior independent living have only just scratched the surface in terms of taking advantage of technological advancements.”

Heffelfinger also said BAM is looking to grow the industry and be more than just a PERS company. “When you look at the big picture, there are two ways to grow: Either the pie is getting bigger, or you're slicing yourself a bigger chunk of the pie,” Heffelfinger said. “Over the next 20 years, I think we have an opportunity to make this a much larger pie than it is right now … I would not call us a PERS company, though that's what we sell right now. I think of us more as a company that is going to provide a suite of services that allow more independent living.”

“It was a natural move for us,” said Westphal, in a press release. “It allows us to establish a new business based on our core skills and to eventually begin to serve a growing national market.”

Heffelfinger was asked to lead the new venture because of his experience in running similar recurring revenue businesses, his knowledge of Bay Alarm, and his reputation as a successful entrepreneur.