Northland Controls opens new HQ office

MILPITAS, Calif.—Northland Controls, a rapidly growing global security systems integrator and managed services provider, opened a new headquarters space here on March 24.

Although the company is keeping its existing Fremont, Calif. location, which houses its global security operations center and managed services programs, CEO Pierre Trapanese said that there was a need for additional space to meet the demand.

“Finding another office in Silicon Valley was part of the company's long-term strategy,” Trapanese told Security Systems News. “So we found an architect that many Silicon Valley companies have used to create a high-tech and more open feel that allows for increased interaction and collaboration among employees.”

The new space has a design studio for consultants, designers and drafting teams, as well as breakout spaces, numerous conference rooms, and a very large cafeteria/break area.

“It really turned out fantastic—at the grand opening there were a lot of opened jaws and smiles from our employees, and clients as well,” said Trapanese. “The design studio feels light, open and airy and we have our application engineers, technicians and program and project managers all in a relatively open space where they can interact and talk to each other and with upper management.”

Trapanese said the expansion to Milpitas also allows the company to increase the capabilities of its global security operations center or GSOC at its existing Fremont location.

“Our GSOC is starting to gain traction, and we are at—or very close to—the tipping point, as people are now reaching out to us whereas before there was a huge educational component on the benefits of GSOC as a managed service,” said Trapanese, who noted he is seeing increased interest from clients for 'physical security as a service' as well.  “We have some clients with 15 buildings with seven different systems who just want us to take care of and manage all of it, so we are going to do a lot more with the GSOC facility moving forward.”

One of the things Northland is doing at the Fremont location is developing a Northland Lab. “We have people doing custom solutions, special applications, so with the lab we can work with our managed services clients to test things out in a sort of controlled environment to see what works and what doesn't work, and then roll that out to our other managed service clients,” Trapanese explained.

The company is also launching a consulting team this year. “We have always advised our clients, but now we will have people who are dedicated full time to supporting our clients' needs.”

In the past decade, Northland has grown from $1 million in revenue to almost $70 million in revenue and has grown from 10 employees in 2005 to more than 200 today. In addition to the company's two offices in Silicon Valley, it has offices in London, Shanghai, Singapore, and Washington, DC.

“While the rapid growth brings its own set of business challenges, the new headquarters positions us well to handle our anticipated future growth without compromising the do-whatever-it-takes style of customer care we're known for,” COO and president Paul Thomas said in the announcement.