G4S Wackenhut pursues a bold new business strategy

G4S Wackenhut's Secure Trax

The company once known as The Wackenhut Corp., which is now known as G4S Wackenhut, is undertaking a major shift in strategy that it hopes will transform it from a firm primarily offering armed and unarmed security guards to a firm offering 'integrated security solutions' that can augment its traditional security guards with state-of-the-art technology.

Since Wackenhut was acquired by G4S (itself the merger of Group 4 Falck, of Denmark, and Securicor plc, of the UK), more than 99 percent of Wackenut's annual revenues in its North American operations have been derived from its security guard business, according to Brian McCabe, the chief technology officer for G4S North America. Under its new business strategy, G4S wants to alter that ratio during the next five years, so that 80 percent of its revenues will come from guard services and the remaining 20 percent will be derived from selling security technology solutions to its corporate and government customers.

'It's a challenge,' said McCabe, 'but it's achievable.'

The company once known as The Wackenhut Corp., which is now known as G4S Wackenhut, is undertaking a major shift in strategy that it hopes will transform it from a firm primarily offering armed and unarmed security guards to a firm offering 'integrated security solutions' that can augment its traditional security guards with state-of-the-art technology.

Since Wackenhut was acquired by G4S (itself the merger of Group 4 Falck, of Denmark, and Securicor plc, of the UK), more than 99 percent of Wackenut's annual revenues in its North American operations have been derived from its security guard business, according to Brian McCabe, the chief technology officer for G4S North America. Under its new business strategy, G4S wants to alter that ratio during the next five years, so that 80 percent of its revenues will come from guard services and the remaining 20 percent will be derived from selling security technology solutions to its corporate and government customers.

'It's a challenge,' said McCabe, 'but it's achievable.'

Wackenhut and its corporate parent have concluded that the security guard business has become a very competitive, fragmented and low-profit business. It has decided not to remain solely in the manned guarding niche, where it is hard to differentiate itself from its rivals, but to expand into the technology arena, as well.

McCabe said his company was eager to separate itself from some of its major competitors, which he characterized as being exclusively manned guarding companies. 'We're unique in our ability to offer manned guarding and technology,' he said.

McCabe emphasized that Wackenhut is not walking away from its core security guard business. He outlined a business strategy that will consist of acquiring complementary technology companies, internally developing new technology products and services, and partnering with symbiotic firms, where appropriate.

G4S has already completed a handful of corporate acquisitions that support this overall strategy, said McCabe. These include the purchase of AMAG Technology, based in Torrance, CA, which offers access control, visitor management, smart card and other applications on its Symmetry Security Management System; Touchcom Inc., of Burlington, MA, which develops software that manages visitors arriving at a facility, keeps track of work orders, manages elevators and provides a facility's concierge services; Adesta, of Omaha, NE, a nationwide integrator that designs and installs sophisticated video surveillance, perimeter protection and other security systems; and Nuclear Security Services Corp. (NSSC), of Willowbrook, IL, which offers risk management, design and engineering services for intrusion detection, access control and CCTV systems, particularly at high-risk nuclear power plants.

The company's acquisition of Adesta will advance its business strategy by enabling it to pursue large opportunities at U.S. petrochemical facilities, seaports and border facilities, which are widely seen as growth sectors, McCabe explained. 'We wanted the ability to go in and do design work from start to finish.'

Similarly, its purchase of NSSC, which closed December 31, 2009, will give G4S the ability to help individual nuclear plants meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's unique and stringent security requirements, as well as similar security requirements at nuclear plants in such Middle Eastern nations as Saudi Arabia, said McCabe.

As for internally developed technologies, McCabe points proudly to G4S Wackenhut's recently opened, state-of-the-art remote video monitoring center in Burlington, MA, about 17 miles northwest of Boston. This new 5,000-square-foot facility is not a central alarm monitoring center (that might compete against ADT or Brinks) or a huge bank of video monitors that will be watched continuously by a cadre of security personnel, explained McCabe, but a center that will rely primarily on video analytic software to notify its personnel an event may have occurred that justifies the assignment of an on-site human guard to check out the situation. It has partnered with VideoIQ, Inc., of Bedford, MA, which supplies the video analytic software.