SW24 gears up for intrusion market

NEW YORK—Preparing to expand its footprint to handle alarm monitoring across the United States, SecureWatch24 has named a manager for its new central station in New Jersey and has added intrusion-monitoring capability at its Manhattan headquarters.

SW24 specializes in property surveillance and facilities management. Its main business is video monitoring, with more than 22,000 cameras installed at more than 2,000 buildings in the New York City area. The company has a network operations center and its own proprietary software.

SW24 began to expand its business model last year, signing an agreement with the cable company Mediacom to install cameras in about 200 offices in 20 states. It also signaled its intention to get into intrusion monitoring with the Fusion Centre, a 25,000-square-foot central station under construction in Moonachie, N.J. It is scheduled to open in late July.

“It really is the key to our future,” Jay Stuck, VP of sales and chief marketing officer for SW24, told Security Systems News. “One of the objectives for 2012 … is for us to expand not only to a national footprint, but also to get into residential and commercial intrusion monitoring and more—virtual services, video verification and a host of other state-of-the-art services we're going to be able to offer our customers.”

SW24 didn't have to look far to find a manager for the Fusion Centre, announcing on Jan. 11 that it had named Neil Budhram to fill the position. Budhram managed the DGA Security Systems central station in New York for 15 years before joining SW24. He also served as head trainer for DGA.

“Neil's experience in managing this type of large-scale monitoring operation (and the personnel to staff it) is second to none,” Desmond Smyth, president of SW24, said in a prepared statement. “His first job will be overseeing the infrastructure requirements necessary for obtaining Underwriter Laboratories approval, as well as other anticipated certifications from leading security industry groups.”

Stuck said SW24 is in the process of finalizing agreements and pricing for a dealer program for its video management services, and that the Fusion Centre “will be the jewel in the crown for this program.”

To bridge the gap between now and when the Fusion Centre opens, the company is adding intrusion-monitoring capability at its 1 Penn Plaza headquarters.

“Working with MAS, we are only a few weeks away from staffing this beta site, which will serve as a backup to the Fusion Centre when that facility comes online,” Stuck said. “In the interim, we will be able to begin intrusion monitoring and offer other types of central station services in keeping with the planned rollout of advertising this quarter.”