Integrators '20 under 40' 2016—Austin Robinson

Austin Robinson, 35

Operations manager, Altec Systems

Marietta, Ga.

As operations manager for a systems integration company that is primarily focused on commercial and industrial physical security, Robinson oversees all of the design, ordering, installation and service—“anything that is not billing related,” said Robinson, who first got into the industry in 1999.

“An acquaintance of mine, the owner of Advanced Security back then, asked me to come join the company, and we built that up until 2006 when he sold it, which is when I came to Altec where I have been for 9 years,” he explained.

Robinson said that what he likes most about the industry is how it changes from day to day, month to month. “You learn one side of the business and then something else comes in so you have to be able to adapt and start fresh with a newer technology, for example,” he pointed out.

He also likes new technology, and said that Altec has really made a push into the managed hosted access space and remote guarding with video analytics—“those are the hottest items as far as what we see from our side,” he said. “I think what everyone is talking about and looking into is what cybersecurity means for our industry and is that really a good fit with the security industry or IT? I think both of those tend to merge when you start talking cybersecurity.”

Robinson is also excited about what is going on in robotics. “I have been at a couple of product demonstrations for the security robotics and really like what Knightscope and Sharp are doing with some of their autonomous robots,” he said.

The merging of security and IT, Robinson said, is one of the ways to attract young talent today. “It really is a technology driven industry,” he said.