SAFE Security shifts

SAN RAMON, Calif.—Establishing branch offices, bundling services with telecoms/cablecos, and expanded DIY offerings are three initiatives SAFE Security has in its playbook, and it has hired Gary Franklyn, formerly with Security Networks, to spearhead those efforts.

“It's a shift in emphasis and a deepening of some commitments we've already made, [for example to] DIY,” Paul Sargenti, SAFE president and CEO told Security Systems News. “We want to innovate, to be out in front a bit [on DIY and bundling services] and we have some interesting ideas on how to do that.”

Based here, SAFE Security ended 2013 with approximately $37.5 million in revenue, $4.1 million in RMR and about 117,000 mostly residential accounts, Franklyn confirmed. Franklyn said that in the past SAFE has grown through acquisition. “I was hired to help growth internally,” he said.

The initiatives he's investigating are designed to create more RMR and lower attrition. “We will look at the possibility of working with phone companies, Internet Service Providers, cable companies,” Franklyn said. Cablecos and phone companies have started to take market share from security by bundling services, he said. “We're looking into a model where security will be able to do the same thing.”

Bundled services will be available to existing and future customers and “may include low- or no-cost services such as identity theft protection,” Franklyn said.

SAFE started a small DIY program six months ago and Franklyn plans to “kick it up to another gear” by partnering with SEO services such as Angie's List. Franklyn believes this program can “grow significantly in the next 12 months.”

Franklyn will also look at ways to target renters and also ways to provide security system installations for homeowners who have credit scores under 600.

All of these programs are in the development phase right now. Franklyn expect to launch new programs in the next few months.

“We don't want to be reactive, we want to be proactive, to set the mark, the standard for the security industry,” he said.

Sargenti last year announced SAFE's plan to double the company's RMR, then at about $3 million, within three to five years, through a variety of new initiatives.