Invision Technologies acquires Safe Security

ALBANY, Ga.—Invision Technologies, a regional integrator providing telephone, IT networking and security services, has acquired Safe Security Inc., a mostly residential company that has been in business since 2000. Both companies are based here.

Safe Security had retained Steve Rubin and Ron Davis of Davis Mergers & Acquisitions Group to assist in the transaction, which was completed on Feb. 28 at Invision's office here.

Andrew Robinson, partner, CEO, Invision Technologies, said he was excited to work with Safe Security Inc. president, Jill P. Oliver, who he has known and respected for years, to make this deal happen. Invision acquired more than 700 accounts, and will be taking on all of Safe Security's employees, including Oliver who will stay on in a consulting role.

“One of Jill's biggest concerns was that her customers were taken care of, and she was very clear that she didn't want to sell to a company that was just looking to buy paper,” Robinson told Security Systems News. “She wanted to make sure that these relationships that she's built for the last 17 years were continued, so the number one focus for us is to make sure that her customers continue to get that same quality of service they have come to expect.”

Robinson is also excited to work with Oliver as Invision looks to grow and expand its presence in Georgia. 

“We are looking to help people that have developed a trust in Jill to help them meet some of their other needs, especially on the commercial business side,” he said. “This is the third acquisition and we have been successful because we have been able to come in and consolidate a lot of the things on the technology side. So, for example, many times we found that customers had someone who did their phone, someone who did their computer, someone who did security, so we were able to come in and consolidate and manage all of that for them. And with commercial clients, we also have to deal with data security, which is just as important today as physical security.”

Robinson said that this “is probably the first of a few acquisitions for us as we look to add accounts.” In 2015, Invision acquired Alarm Detection Technologies, a company specializing in commercial and residential alarm systems, access control and camera surveillance systems.

Overall, Invision had a “very good year in 2016,” according to Robinson. “We had about a 15 percent growth across the board, and we really were well balanced. We also completed one of our biggest projects to date last year, a hallmark project at a local hospital where we overhauled everything for them—security, servers, computers, laptops, etc.”

Robinson is “pretty optimistic about the business environment in 2017, and it seems that people are investing in infrastructure,” he said. “In our area, we are seeing a lot of construction and we do a lot of the pre-wires on the residential side and then we do full infrastructure on the commercial side, so we have a lot of work on the construction side right now.”

Robinson said he is also seeing a lot of growth on the IT and networking side of the business. “The one thing that makes us different is that at the very core of our business—and if you look at the DNA of our business—we are a networking company,” he said. “We speak the language of IP and that is a huge advantage for us.” The company also has its own private cloud as well as a data center, and co-locates with another data center for redundancy.

Founded in 2007, Invision is led by a management team that in addition to Robinson includes partners Jay Pollock and Jay Carpenter.