CSG rebrands to Alert 360

TULSA, Okla.—Alert 360 is the new name for Central Security Group and Guardian Security Systems, a move that Richard Ginsburg, company CEO, said better represents what the company has to offer.

“We've been operating under two different brands for the past 10 years,” Ginsburg told Security Systems News. “We operated as Guardian Security in Oklahoma, and then we operated as Central Security Group outside of Oklahoma. It was really confusing to customers. Most importantly, those prior two brands we operated under … really positioned us more as a security-only [business], like a burglar alarm company. That's really far from what the company has evolved into today.”

He continued, “We were finding that many of our customers, existing and new, just didn't know that we've really made a pretty dramatic transformation over the past three or four years.”

Alert 360 is the brand name for some of the company's smart home offerings, IoT devices and video cameras, he noted. “About half our customer base is already using those. So, it was a pretty natural progression,” Ginsburg said. “We ultimately knew we'd rebrand the company Alert 360, we just didn't want to do it like others, where you wake up one morning and the company has a new name. This has been in front of our customers for … years, so it's not a shock to them.”

The new brand better conveys the variety of Alert 360's offerings to its dealers and customers, according Ginsburg. “We really emphasize that we sell 360 degree offerings, whether that's a security system, or home automation system, or a business system,” he said.

The company started its rebranding efforts about three years ago and finished in mid-September.

The rebrand included new signage on buildings, vehicles and the company's website, refreshing marketing materials and customer messaging, among many other items, Ginsburg noted. “Items from as simple as an on hold message, to as involved as an entire new website,” he said.

Alert 360 has about 200 dealers. “They love [the rebrand]; I think it's reinvigorated them as well as all of our internal folks,” said Ginsburg.

Selling more advanced features is critical, Ginsburg said, and the new brand can give dealers more confidence to talk about the breadth of Alert 360's offerings. “If you're not evolving with the times as a company, I think it's really difficult to prosper.”

Alert 360 has more than 220,000 customers and around $9 million in recurring monthly revenue. The company grows organically and by acquisition, completing about 14 acquisitions in the past three to four years, and it is on the look out for more acquisition opportunities, Ginsburg said.

Eighty percent of the company's business is residential, with 20 percent commercial. “Commercial has been steadily growing every year. The company was about 95 percent residential about four years ago. That's gone up quite nicely,” Ginsburg said.

In addition to the rebrand, Alert 360 also announced in September that it has achieved TMA's Five Diamond designation for its monitoring center.