With its non-compete clause expiring at the end of September, both ADT and Tyco Integrated Security rolled out new services that were announced at the recent ASIS show.
ADT announced it will expand its footprint in commercial security and is rebranding its Small Business division to simply “ADT Business.” Specifically, the company will be expanding its service offerings to mid-sized businesses with commercial solutions in the top U.S. commercial security markets, including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, the New York metro area, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Seattle/Tacoma, as well as the states of California, Florida, New Jersey and Texas.
Tyco IS, meanwhile, announced it is expanding commercial security services to small businesses in Dallas, Chicago, South Florida and two cities in Southern California. "We are focused about our approach," said TycoIS president Mark VanDover at a press conference at ASIS. "It will be five markets to start, and once we understand all the local requirements and gain a foothold, we will move into another 5 markets, and so on.”
As a part of the separation agreement between ADT and Tyco, ADT was limited to offering commercial security services to businesses that were 7,500 square feet or less in size — a segment that TycoIS could not tap. Additionally, ADT was prohibited from offering any type of fire installation services as part of that agreement.
“In effect, ADT will now be able to target any business that we would like and we are also free to expand our services to include fire,” Luis Orbegoso, president of ADT Business told SecurityInfoWatch. “The ADT Business unit will have a small business sales organization, which is what we have had in place for a while, and we will also have a commercial sales organization as well."
Said VanDover: "We will compete with ADT, but we will also be competing with all the regional players. It is a big marketplace, and there is room to compete in an open and fair way."
Orbegoso said ADT has identified “key markets” where they are going to begin targeting their newly expanded set of service offerings, including retail, office buildings and food and beverage establishments. He added that ADT already has about 500,000 customers in the small business market, and that the expiration of this non-compete clause will only give them something to build upon moving forward.
“We are excited about our ability to target mid-sized commercial customers — those that are looking for solution sets that are a little bit more expanded, such as expanded intrusion, access control, video and fire monitoring,” Orbegoso explained. “These are all things that mid-sized commercial customers are looking for.”
For TycoIS, VanDover said he anticipates the roll-out in the first five markets to take about a year. "This is definitely a growth opportunity," he added. "This is an attractive, and growing market."
Tying into the announcement, TycoIS released a new video value line on Sept. 18 with the introduction of Holis, a low-cost line of commercial-grade IP video surveillance solutions designed specifically for the small business market they are now targeting. "While there are low-cost cameras available in local retail stores, they don’t provide essential capabilities available in commercial-grade solutions that are needed to optimize security,” Mark Bomber, Director of Commercial Marketing for TycoIS, said in a statement.
To read more about ADT's new offering, please visit www.securityinfowatch.com/11703818; To read more about the new TycoIS offering, please visit www.securityinfowatch.com/11707390.
