PSA focuses with 1nService

FOXBORO, Mass.--Here at Gillette Stadium, home of the three-time world champion New England Patriots, integrators from physical security and IT/networking backgrounds gathered Feb. 11 to network and learn more about the nuts and bolts of partnering to deliver IP-based security systems.

Co-organized by non-profit industry associations PSA Security Network (physical security) and 1nService (IT/networking), the Focus event included presentations by PSA president and CEO Bill Bozeman, 1nService CEO Paul Cronin, industry consultants Adam Thermos and Dan Dunkel, manager of access systems for Logan Airport Bill Hall, Henry Bros. Electronics CEO Jim Henry, and a number of others. As part of a formal partnership between PSA and 1nService, there will be a number of similar events in other regions of the country.

Further, the partnership includes reduced and simplified cost structures to encourage cross enrollment, open invitations to attend annual events for each organization, participation in the PSA National Accounts Program for 1nService members, and joint marketing initiatives. In addition, the organizations will create a unified industry advisory board.

“The partnership wasn't that easy,” said Bozeman at the event. “It was an 18-month romance that we were finally able to close.”

Why the partnership? “I was really, really wrong about my initial reaction to, understanding of, and comments about the whole convergence deal,” Bozeman admitted. “Maybe it was pride, or my competitive nature, but it started out in my mind as 'us versus them.' Who was going to own the customer?

“But that just isn't going to work, guys,” Bozeman told the 75 or so assembled integrators, about 70 percent of whom came from the physical security side. “It will be all about partnering.”

Cronin agreed, saying it would be necessary for IT/networking integrators to work with physical security integrators in order to enter a physical security marketplace many of them don't have the time to really investigate.