Enterprise Fire & Security relocates due to rapid growth

WAUKESHA, Wis.—After 12 years in a small office in Delafield, Wis., commercial integrator Enterprise Fire & Security has relocated to 3,500 square feet of office space at the Westbrook Business Center, based here, to accommodate the company's rapid growth.

“It is a bigger location, more centrally located closer to the metropolitan Milwaukie area, and more convenient all around for access to customers and for employees to get to,” Christen Austad, company president, told Security Systems News.

Austad said that a larger space was needed, especially after partnering with Michael Martin of Martin Systems of Green Bay, Wis., in 2015. Enterprise has grown from eight employees in 2014 to 14 today, and is currently hiring.

"We have been expanding at a steady rate over the last two years and we expect to accelerate that growth going forward," said Austad. "A robust construction market, and our customer service focus has put our products and services in demand. Overall, we saw a 10 percent growth from 2015 to 2016, and we expect to at least continue that growth and possibly by 2018 we may be looking at acquisitions depending on what the market looks like.”

Since the partnership with Martin Systems, Enterprise has focused on structuring their business for growth in the Wisconsin fire alarm and security market.

“One of the keys to the growth is that the new partnership,” said Austad. “Martin Systems is about twice our size and they have processes in place that we had not yet been using, so having the resources from them is allowing us to take on more business and take on more accounts while being able to deal with that a little more efficiently. Plus, the economy has improved and construction growth in the Wisconsin market has been very strong.”

In step with the partnership, growth and move, the company has undergone a rebranding, which consisted of new colors, updated logo and new graphics on its fleet of service vehicles. Internally, Enterprise personnel have adopted new accounting and operations software preparing them to expand in the market.

One of the areas the company has expanded is with its use of cloud. “For the last year and a half we have been using cloud-based systems, especially in the access control area,” said Austad. “We are finding that customers are not wanting to maintain servers and PCs and keep software up to date if they can avoid it, and the case that we have seen where we are selling cloud-based access control systems, it takes that maintenance responsibility out of the customer's hands and puts it into our hands. It is something that has been very positive.”

Enterprise Fire & Security services and installs fire alarm, access control, video surveillance and a variety of life-safety systems. In addition, the company offers monitoring and inspection services for fire alarm, fire extinguisher, emergency lighting and sprinkler systems.