Archive: September 2009

Because the comments to the stories can only run 500 words, I've moved a series of comments from John Honovich and I from the comments section of the Johnson Controls story here: John Honovich: Is this organic growth or based on acquisition? Who is the source of this statistic? Sam: The numbers are coming from Johnson Controls internally. I have no way of verifying them, so that's why I used phrases like "the company is reporting" and "saying it's moved from two percent to five percent." They say...

I couldn't resist the turgid headline. As you may (or may not) recall from my first blog post, I'm fond of TLAs (or four- and five- letter acronyms, too, as the case may be). I just received a release from Mace Security International declaring its recently acquired monitoring center Mace CSSS had earned ETL Listing. Intertek/ETL, you'll recall from my cohort, Martha's, recent story is gaining in acceptance as an alternative to the other two main Nationally Recognized Training Labs, Underwriters...

Signalink Technologies, a developer of fire alarm systems that can be networked using a building's existing electrical wiring, sent out a press release yesterday introducing its UL-listed Fire-Link product to the U.S. market. Fire-Link II is a power line-based solution that allows existing fire alarm systems to be extended into the suites of apartment buildings that do not have in-suite alarms. The company says a complete installation can be achieved in a matter of hours, both cost effectively and...

I just posted a story about Johnson Controls' reported success in growing market share, in which they attribute some of that success to their energy awareness and understanding of LEED certification. So, since LEED is still something of a new concept, I thought I'd supply some resources if you'd like to learn more about it. Here's the skinny on it from the US Green Building Council, which administers the program. Or, get your information on certification from the Green Building Certification Institute. Here's...

I picked this up from the PEHub email, but there's nothing I can find to link to, as it was just a blurb in the body of the email, but: Firetide Inc., a Los Gatos, Calif.-based provider of wireless mesh networking solutions, has raised around $8.59 million in fifth-round VC funding, according to a regulatory filing. It had previously raised $46 million since 2003, from firms like Coral Capital Management and Menlo Ventures. I've got an email in to see if I can learn more from Firetide.

PHILADELPHIA—Day & Zimmermann Security Services, a provider of managed security services, on Sept. 23 announced that Chris Trevisan has joined the company as Vice President of national sales. In this role, Trevisan will be responsible for driving the strategic sales growth for Day & Zimmermann's Security Services division across the U.S., with an emphasis on building business within the current geographical footprint. Trevisan comes to Day & Zimmermann with extensive industry experience, including...

TAMPA, Fla.—SureView Systems has been busy lately with partnerships and integrations. The video-intensive security software developer on Sept. 10 announced Kansas City, Mo.-based Alarm Central had chosen SureView's video monitoring automation platform Immix for its central station automation platform. In addition, on Sept. 17 SureView announced the integration into Immix of ioimage's intelligent video analytics appliances. Immix delivers a single software platform for the management of video...

ANAHEIM, Calif.—The news at last year's ASIS International for Johnson Controls was one of a new strategy: “We decided,” Johnson VP of global security and strategy Lisa Roy said at the time, “that we were going to more than triple our market share in the security integration space.” Now, one year later, the company is reporting that it's most of the way there, saying it's moved from two percent to five percent of the global security integration market in the past 12...

I caught up with Jack Turley, VP of sales and marketing for Gallagher’s Cardax brand in the Americas, and asked him about his thoughts on the decision to take out the ad in the Wall Street Journal. It was a long discussion that went all over the place, but here are the relevant bits: Sam: What was the impact of the ad, in your opinion? Jack: There’s a lot of ways to measure that impact. The most analytical way would be the web hits, I guess. We got five times the traffic that we normally get,...

BRICK, N.J.—While North American Video CEO Jason Oakley said the company can't yet get into specifics, he said to look for NAV to announce major wins in the top-tier university, professional sports and transportation markets in the very near future, providing validation for the new vision he and investor Halifax Group outlined for the company some 18 months ago. While NAV isn't ready to give up its market share in gaming, and “our gaming business has been remarkably robust,” Oakley...