Securitas Systems moves headquarters

WOBURN, Mass.--The Securitas Systems National Retail Solutions Group has expanded their headquarters in a move from Boston to Woburn, Mass., that occurred in the first part of '07. The new 12,000-square-foot facility includes all of the Securitas Systems USA division's executive offices as well as the central station formerly based at 1 Harborside Drive in Boston. "We built the new facility from the ground up," said Scott Hucksoll, director of national accounts. He added that the new central station housed there is "ten times larger than our Boston central" and that the second phase of the project includes building "a retail mock-up and 'store of the future,'" to be completed by year's end. The whole unit is dedicated to national accounts, specifically retail accounts, with some of Securitas Systems' customers being TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Sprint and Finish Line. Hucksoll, who runs the retail and monitoring divisions of Securitas Systems USA, said the move was precipitated by organic growth. "We weren't able to invest in all the technology that we wanted to [in Boston] because we didn't have the room. We could have stayed there for a reasonable amount of time before we outgrew it from a functionality standpoint, but servers and technology take up space." In addition, in an undisclosed investment that the company made in its infrastructure, "we had to add operators, IP personnel to support these new enabling technologies," which served to "help us speed up our decision." In order to work through its admitted "identity problem," Securitas Systems, which was spun off from Securitas AB last year (see www.securitysystemsnews.com, "Securitas splits into four"), is banking on a strategy to carve out a niche as both an integrator and central monitoring station able to specialize in different verticals. "Securitas starts at Securitas AB, the largest worldwide provider of security. We were a one billion dollar piece of a nine billion dollar company known essentially for guarding, and now Securitas Systems is perceived as a global security company. In the U.S. we have three specialized business units: retail, banking (in Pasadena, Calif.) and standard commercial integrated systems (based in Atlanta, along with the spin-off's U.S. headquarters). We organize our business by vertical market, not only for sales but through production, with specialized project managers, technicians and support personnel for each segment," said Hucksoll. (See interview with Securitas Sytems' global chief executive Juan Vallejo on page 1.) The investment that the National Retail Solutions Group made in some of the technology "is meant to provide a different level of service where you create customer-centric solutions," he said. Customers would have operators assigned to them who were completely dedicated to their business and who would be able to do interactive monitoring through video and access control systems, "taking it a step beyond standard burglar intrusion alarm monitoring," he added. Said Hucksoll: "It has become increasingly difficult to differentiate yourself by installing a system or providing a product. We are trying to increase the value of the services provided after the installation is complete, enabling the customer to capture the appropriate return on investment. Our mission is leveraging technology to create innovative solutions which add value to our customers' business."