Two Houston integrators merge

HOUSTON—Modern System Concepts Inc. and Gulf Coast Security, both based around Houston, in early July merged to create a company better suited for growth.

Modern has about $4 million in annual revenue and Gulf Coast did about $1 million annually; the combined company will have about $5 million in revenue and operate as Modern System Concepts.

“Modern has strived to look at full solutions, looking at what's best for the customer not [just] now, but into the future. I think bringing [in] the Gulf Coast customer base allows us to just continue with that philosophy and I look forward to resolving issues and problems for these customers and setting them up for the next 10 years,” Mark Popkowski, president and CEO of Modern System Concepts, told Security Systems News.

“We feel like we are more poised for growth, as a combined company,” Scott Gahn, formerly the president of Gulf Coast Security and now the executive chairman at Modern System Concepts, told SSN. “There are so many opportunities out there. Coming together, getting a little bigger, expanding the staff of each company is going to allow us to accept a lot of the business we wouldn't have been able to take before.”

The first big step after the merger was finalized on July 1 was to notify the companies' vendors, employees and key customers, Gahn said. “We have been working feverishly since, integrating our operations and our service queue, and now our billing. We expected to be integrated—fully—on billing by September 1^st, we're already integrated on the service level,” Gahn said.

The company's goal is to entirely complete the merger by the end of the year, Gahn noted.

The integration of two different CRMs was one challenge in the merger, Popkowski said, and has been a priority. “The more information you have about that customer, the better you can service them, the better you can keep up with the service records,” he said.

“For the last year, we've been working pretty closely with each other,” Gahn said. “We thought as two partners, with two small companies … that [the merger] would better situate us to succeed in what's a pretty competitive space.”

Modern System Concepts was founded in 1998 and specializes in fire, security and A/V. Before the merge, Gulf Coast focused on security, fire, video and access control. The combined company has 28 employees.

“We're looking at this merger to grow us into a … much larger company,” Popkowski said, possibly reaching into other cities in Texas.

Gahn added: “I think there's plenty of opportunity to grow in the Houston area, there's more business that we can get to. But, in addition to that, it is a longer term strategy to cover the balance of Texas, at least the metropolitan areas, ultimately getting to San Antonio, Austin, as well as Dallas.”