Boon Edam builds on momentum

LILLINGTON, N.C.—Boon Edam Inc., a global company that specializes in security entrances and architectural revolving doors, continues to experience double-digit growth year over year, building on momentum created in April at ISC West 2018 where the company highlighted the expansion of its Enterprise Customer Group, a range of new integrations and advances in its entrance technology.

Mark Borto, president and CEO for Boon Edam Inc., told Security Systems News that the growing adoption of anti-tailgating and piggybacking entrance technology by Fortune 50 companies is helping the company in advancing its position as a market leader in the Americas in security entrance solutions.

“While we have held the lion's share of the Americas market for security entrances since 2012, according to IHS Markit reports, we are moving ahead now on a number of business fronts,” Borto said. “Enterprise sales have become a major market for us as a result of our expanded focus on global standardization and deployment. At the same time, we are integrating the most advanced technologies with the combination of biometrics and anti-piggybacking solutions, addressing some of the most pressing challenges for risk mitigation.”

One of the ways the company has been able to sustain double-digit growth for almost a decade, Borto said, is by serving American corporations in their global locations. “So as the standards that have been set by companies here in the Americas have been taken overseas, we've gone along as the preferred vendor and we are supporting those products overseas. That has been a real shift that we have seen from large corporations in the last five or six years, as many times the risk and liability concerns are similar no matter where you go.”

Borto pointed out that entrances are often overlooked in terms of potential for a breach.

“What we are really starting to experience in the last five years is a recognition that that entrance does have the potential to be breached in a way that is not necessarily noticed, as oftentimes tailgating is an act of kindness or politeness as the person is assumed to be an employee,” said Borto. “So with the convergence of physical security and cybersecurity, we are now seeing attention coming back to the fact that the simple tailgating through a secured entryway has the same level of risk and attached liability as if you got into the company through some cyber breach.”

And with connected technology built into the companies two primary security entrance products, “customers can access the operating data and in some cases even make some adjustments to the operating parameters remotely into those products,” Borto explained. “And if desired they can provide that access to us so we can help with troubleshooting any operational problems or issues or service requirements. And we have now expanded that platform to enable dozens or hundreds of units that a customer has deployed across the country or world to be accessed from one site or portal and they can choose which entrances they want to look at.”

The company is in the process of adding that connected platform to its other product lines. “And from there we will continue to monitor what it is that brings value to our customers with this info and I think with the whole idea of IoT and big data, managers and executives are being presented with reams of info, so from a management perspective it becomes: How do you sift through that and pull out the info that can be actionable in a useful way?”

With this increased connectivity and recognition of risks and liabilities, it has also driven the need for users to focus on both data security and on hardening entrances and perimeters.

“In terms of compliance, we took the step last year of bringing in an industry expert, a security consultant who has been involved in that heavily for the last decade and has been in the industry for close to 30 years,” Borto pointed out. “So we are deploying him specifically to meet with customers and talk about compliance and regulatory requirements, which includes education on the cybersecurity piece, as we want to be a thought leader in the industry to help grow the market.”

Borto noted that the key to Boon's success overall is its unwavering focus on its customers.

“One of our advantages of being privately held is it has allowed us to put resources toward serving those customers in ways that perhaps a publicly traded, quarterly earnings-driven company can't do, and that distinction has been very important for us,” he said.