SureView Systems: Timely deployment is key

TAMPA, Fla.—Rapid deployment of systems is a must to keep corporate customers happy, according to Graham Johnson, CEO of SureView Systems, a provider of command center and central station software.

“Even if the product is good, if it takes two years to put in, the customer will have forgotten why they bought it before the installation is finished,” Johnson told Security Systems News.

Among SureView's big wins in the past year was the installation of its command center software for a corporate customer that Johnson described as a “large company in the entertainment business on the West Coast.” The installer was “able to deploy the entire PSIM [physical security information management system] soup-to-nuts in 120 days,” Johnson said. “We built the product with the idea of rapid deployment,” he added.

While other PSIM providers cater to “airports or ports that have big budgets and plenty of time,” Johnson said that SureView's target customer is a corporation that “has less money [to spend on the system], and what they really have is less time to get the system up and running.”

SureView Systems, which is based in Swansea, Wales and has its U.S. headquarters here, is known for its Immix software. In business since 2003, it opened its U.S. business in 2006.

Originally Sureview designed its Immix software for central stations. In 2010 it began building two versions on the product, one for central stations and one for command centers. It launched the command center product in 2012. In early 2014, SureView “made a series of investments, split the business into two divisions and put in new business leaders [Chris Brown, director of central stations and Rob Hile, director of enterprise command centers.]”

Both businesses have thrived in the past year, Johnson said. Personnel and technology investments such as the “decision four years ago to go to a Web-based and cloud-based architecture … has given us an edge,” Johnson said.

To serve major customers that “run their access and security systems globally, you've got to be able to map onto that architecture,” he said.

In addition to the entertainment business, Sureview's larger customers include biotech giant Genzyme and the City of Santa Ana, Calif. A major central station client is THRIVE, which was recently acquired by Universal Protection Security Systems.

Johnson said that SureView invests “15 percent of turnover in product development” annually. In 2015, SureView intends to “deliver two major releases which include a significant chunk of new functionality,” Johnson said. It also plans to add to its “integration library,” which the company says totals more than 450 integrations with 70 manufacturers.