Westward ho! For Security Networks, Vision Security

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—When a private equity firm acquired super-regional Security Networks last fall, president and CEO Rich Perry said the transaction would allow Security Networks to expand east of the Mississippi.

Now, this spring, Security Networks, which is based here, announced it has renewed its long-term affiliate agreement with Vision Security, the largest affiliate in Security Networks' affiliate program, and said the renewal is a part of the company's plans for westward expansion.

“Since the transaction with Oak Hill (Capital Partners) in November, we have started to expand westward. We're now in several markets in the west and Vision is in some of those markets with us,” Perry told Security Systems News. “As Security Networks grows its business over the next several years, Vision will be growing right along with us in new markets.”

He said the major markets that the company has expanded into include Phoenix, Ariz. and southern California.

Security Networks, one of the nation's fastest-growing home security services providers, and Vision Security, an Orem, Utah-based national provider of residential home security products and installation services, on March 22 announced the renewal of their affiliate agreement.  Under the agreement, Vision will continue to represent Security Networks in the sale and installation of residential security systems across the country, the company said.

Vision has been an affiliate of Security Networks since 2008 and serves approximately 20,000 homes as part of the network, according to a press release.

“We are pleased to extend our partnership with Security Networks through this new long-term agreement,” Rob Harris, president and CEO of Vision, said in the release. “Our two companies have worked together for more than three years, and we share Security Networks' commitment to quality and customer service.”

Perry described Vision as “our largest affiliate in the network and a highly valued partner.” He said Security Networks was already in Texas and Illinois prior to the acquisition by Oak Hill but the bulk of its business was in the East. Although Vision is based in Utah, he said, “the markets they were working with us were all east of the Mississippi.”

Now, he said, both companies are expanding westward since Security Network's acquisition by Oak Hill, an $8 billion company with offices in New York and California that first entered the security space with the Nov. 8 purchase.

Security Networks has a national network of more than 150 affiliate partners who provide sales and installation to customers.

Perry described the affiliate program as similar to a dealer program, “but better.”

He said the affiliates market, sell and install security systems on Security Networks' behalf. “We supply the monitoring, and all the field service after the sell, and we establish a relationship with the customer at the point of sale and so it's our yard signs that go in the yard of the customer,” Perry said.

He said Security Networks has had a compounded annual growth rate in the past four years in the mid-30-percent range. The company has more than 70,000 residential and commercial subscribers, and Perry said its RMR is now approaching $3.5 million.

According to the press release, Vision in 2010 began to build its own customer base and plans to continue to do so alongside its relationship with Security Networks. Vision has protected more than 25,000 homes in the past four years, the release said.