New Kolossal direction

MONTREAL--Securite Kolossal, a 3,200-employee security services firm founded here in 1980, has spun off Kolossal Technologies, a division that will focus on security consulting, integration and advanced monitoring solutions. As part of the spin-off, Kolossal Technologies has signed an agreement with Cieffe, an Italian digital management and analytics firm. Following the ASIS show this fall, BW Solutions, a San Digo-based integrator, will begin offering the KT solutions and services in the United States, and by the end of October Kolossal's brand-new data center and monitoring facility will be fully operational. Dean Theriault, director of sales for the new firm, said the company expects to have 15 data center operators by the end of 2007 and to open a second monitoring center with BW in the United States, on the West Coast, by the third quarter of 2008. "Kolossal always did some installation," Theriault said, "but never had a dedicated division for security integration. Now they've hired the right people and have packaged it into a separate division." Leading the new division are brothers Claude and Robert Fisette, vice presidents of technology and strategic development, respectively. Theriault said, in addition to consulting work related to the C-TPAT and ISPS programs, to look for focuses on video monitoring, emergency and crisis planning, building management, GPS services, and the offering of redundant security operations for airports, municipalities and other government entities, along with property managers in general. "The video monitoring, a lot of people have tried to do it, but not many have succeeded," said Theriault. KT will use Cieffe's video analytic capabilities to trigger alarms that call up video for operators who are trained security guards or former law-enforcement officers. "The video comes up automatically," Theriault said, "with a layout of the location, and the operator will send an audio warning to the perpetrator, and from there we'll treat it as an incident, and then report it, and then it's stored in the server for the customer for future reference." In the case of building controls, a certified engineer will monitor and maintain HVAC and lighting systems, for example. With GPS, "companies are sending people to a Web site and telling them to manage their fleet. But the owner of the company doesn't feel like doing that," he said. "We manage the fleet and if there are any exceptions, we report them to the proper people."