 Welcome to another episode of Security Matters hosted by C.R.I.S. We'd like to start off by thanking Andrew Lanning for loaning us the microphone again today. I'm Tommy Zarna and I'll be your host. Today we're joined with industry experts to discuss innovation in the security industry and the future of the security industry. With us today we have Anne Arwin from Open Path, Chris Fazzoli from Securitas, Daniel Forst from iForce, Devin Love from Allegiant. Once again, guys, thank you all for being on the show today. All right, we have a full show today, so let's go ahead and jump in. Anne, I want to start with you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how Open Path has adapted to the evolving needs of the security industry. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. We've definitely had to innovate faster since the needs are changing faster than ever before during this pandemic. So because we're a cloud-based system, we're able to make over-the-year updates. When we went into lockdown, previously we had touch to unlock at a time when we went into lockdown then no one wanted to touch anything. So that weekend we were able to write new firmware updates and then roll out those new firmware updates over the air and had a huge success and launching our wave to unlock technology. So that's been a huge success and because of those over-the-year updates that we're able to do, we've been able to adapt and quickly roll out other innovative features as the needs have changed, such as wealth wellness and safety checks, occupancy management, of course, remote management, and of course, you know, flexible office installations as well. So as they have always changed, you can do hybrid or installations or a straight rip and replace. But the biggest announcement we had recently was our new video reader too, where you're able to see both the access and the video as the access event is happening and you can do that right from your home. Chris, what are you seeing out there? Well, I appreciate it. Again, thanks, Tommy, for having us. I think we're, you know, to echo what you said we're looking at kind of unprecedented times. So looking at solutions like Open Path, which gives you the ability to have some touchless entry in some of the feature sets that are available there. I think, you know, from our perspective, we're trying to stay as connected to our customers as possible right now. And I think that's it. It's a different landscape, right? Because a lot of it's done remotely and I think understanding and evaluating their needs, you know, working with our vendors to understand what the new and latest and greatest stuff is available and giving, providing our feedback to these guys and ensuring that we can either develop a solution or work around some of those constraints. And we're noticing too, with the improvement with technology, we've got some primary needs that we're always focused on trying to solve first, but as technology improves, you know, we're at least actually trying to solve some of those secondary needs as well, which has really been great, especially with some feature sets that you just mentioned. But yeah, I'll pass it over to Daniel. Yeah, so I mean, the very definition of our business is remote guarding. So we were kind of ready set for what's happening in our industry, which people are trying to get, you know, less exposure, people on site. And so we're able to replace guards and utilize these technologies that people like Open Path and others are coming out with where we can basically do what physical guards were doing on site remotely, which at the same time saves a lot of people money if they're going through hard times with certain things. And so it's kind of been a good spot to be in from our sector in the remote guarding world. All right, thanks Daniel. Devin, let's finish this question up with you. How is a Legion adapted over the last 18 months? Yeah, Legion and you know, particularly my part of portfolio commercial electronics within Schlaglock, the focus really has come down to how do we make this simple for our customers, but we make it flexible for our partners. And we recognize that both customers and partners had to move very quickly. And so sometimes simplicity and flexibility can be at odds, but I think we found a way to really thread that needle and make sure that we're able to provide that flexibility to customers and to our partners and make sure that it's simple where it needs to be simple. So really helps offer something that can be unique, which with every single niche that a different customer might provide through the door locks that let's be honest, right? It takes time to put those locks out there. So we really want to make the most of what's already in the market. Yeah, I think we're seeing from, you know, all the companies represent on this call today. We're seeing the flexible offerings, integrating multiple technologies into one and really making life simpler and being more connected to our clients. So that's definitely something that we've all seen over the last two years, 18 months or so. Daniel, I'll pass this question over to you. You mentioned remote services, remote guarding specifically. You know, we are seeing a rise in product offering from companies who historically are moving to the, maybe a SaaS model or offering different options to their clients. What is iForce doing around remote services specifically? What are you seeing in the industry? Yes, so a lot of what's going on right now is trying to replace people at gates and doors. So you see distribution centers and you see things where you can put in a remote call box and have access control with that call box. And we're really able to offer a service that allows for basically replacing that human at a gate and facilitating flow through people's businesses. I think that's the biggest thing that we're seeing with what's going on. And Devin, over to you, what are you seeing on your side? Yeah, so when we look at SaaS offerings, particularly, so we build our solutions with SaaS in mind, right? So be able to always update and build on that relationship that exists. I think that's core to the model is you can't just fire and forget. You have to make sure that you're continually improving that product. But where we find it to be most helpful is to, again, take that partnership point of view, recognize how they're innovating, how they're changing their offering and make sure that we're giving enough depth to our integration services to allow for something really special to take place. I'll actually point out OpenPath as a great example, integrating to our Bluetooth locks. It's not enough just to make it functional. You really have to take that next step and wrap it unlock. I think you can go to the Allegiant integration page on OpenPath site, phenomenal use of an integration surface there. And again, making sure that taking that SaaS approach that it's not good enough just to have it out first. You have to continue to hone that focus, make it something that truly the customer is going to enjoy. And I think that's a great example of doing exactly that, making sure that by providing those differences and going deep, you're able to have a solution that stands kind of head and shoulders above just getting it done for a functionality sake. Perfect. Chris, same question to you. You have some experience on the remote guarding side as well. How are you seeing that the products offerings change and differ based on the current climate we're in? Well, I mean, definitely cost and labor is something that's going to be very impactful. It's going to make the industry change, the environment change. And we want to make sure that we kind of combine the feasibility of the technology with a good service for customer experience. So we've definitely taken note of a lot of new technologies out there, really considering the end user, the interfaces that the end user has the control over what they have. Noticing a lot of the older technologies, it's very enterprise oriented, engineer oriented. Now you can see that a lot of the things that are available are definitely more user friendly. And we've definitely looked at adopting a lot of different technologies where you've got the software as a service, security as a service, obviously remote guarding is our big push, right? But technologies made us, are giving us the capability to provide more in depth, better service than we ever had before at a reasonable cost. And it comes with the connectivity, the feature sets that allow us to be like we're virtually on site versus what we have in the past where we don't really have those eyes and ears. So it's definitely made that possible. So we're always exploring new, better technologies. But I definitely look at an open path and pass it over to Ann and see if she can comment on that. Yeah. Hey, thanks, Chris. So an open path, we've always designed our solution to reduce friction and dependency on being on site or on premise. And that's since the very beginning. So we had remote unlock and guest passes even prior to COVID. And then in more recent years, we've launched further integrations to enhance the experience with some of our technology partners like Cisco Maraki and other VMS providers to marry that video and access control to allow you to drop in and see exactly what's happening on the ground with remote management capabilities and the dashboard to take the appropriate steps as required. Yeah, perfect. No, we are seeing a lot of clients that are really driving our own innovation. So I see the industry changing slightly from more of an outside in approach where your clients are asking for a lot of things and companies are having to quickly adapt to the needs of our clients. And I think we've all said this that all of our products, all of our offerings have really been with the client's needs first, where that hasn't always been the case in the industry. So you'll continue on the last question. We've seen a dramatic rise in SAS part offerings over the past several years, really. And Devin, you touched on this a little bit with Allegiant and the slaged locks. What are y'all seeing as far as SAS, where is SAS going in the future? Yeah, I think it's an exciting time, certainly in the last couple of years now, right? Everything has been drastically accelerated. And I think that's a good thing. There's a big silver lining to some pretty tough years here, in particular with our products and the rise of both remote operation and SAS offerings. We see that what was sort of reserved for just the perimeter is now making its way deeper and deeper into the building. And we really see our products as really the arms and the ability to reach out and touch the world and interact with it that, again, is instigated by these pieces of software that can do some pretty remarkable things. And so, again, that drives us to always want to look towards those partnerships and drive our products to more and more doors because they're seeing that it's not enough to have it just on the perimeter. They really want to see a comprehensive solution across their buildings so that they can have these new, different, better experiences. And then it all boils down to trust, really. You know, I think working more remote, working across additional doors on multiple sites at one time, I think, you know, I look back to what this looks like in the smart home maybe 10 years ago, right? You may not trust to open or close your garage door when you're not away from home. Yeah, I think ultimately, if you expect to be able to work these devices remotely, operate your buildings remote and through SAS Solutions, you have to focus on that quality and trust of the integrations of the products themselves. And so we've really been doubling down on that and focusing on getting each individual integration, each individual product right. And from the open pass side, you guys have always built your products on this model. What's next? Yeah, so let me just reiterate some of the features that we built from the beginning just to make sure everyone's aware. But one of the important ones was a remote hardware dashboard that you're able to monitor the health and wellness of all of your client system with full remote capabilities to say, recycle power, monitor temperatures of readers. Maybe it's on an exterior door and you're concerned about that. We're seeing more and more adoption and demand for unlocks and guest passes, which we built from the beginning, of course. And as more people move out of state where their office changes to remote work space, remote workforce and hybrid office models, we're seeing lots of adoption for cloud based systems such as open path. And then of course to just reiterate our video reader, because it has the ability to tie into any video partner out there and build an integration moving forward, having the verification of the access event available right at your phone is really powerful. So that's what we're excited about. What about you guys, Chris? I think from our perspective, we're always kicking a dead horse, but we're always looking at the latest and greatest and we're going to look at what's the best product for the application. And so I think that's really listening to our customers. I think it's also having an open line of communication. I think Devin mentioned one of the things that they're always taking feedback from use cases and understanding what the customer's experiences are, what their desires are. And really we do a lot of working sessions with our vendor partners to understand what the customer is looking for, what kind of new challenges, and especially with the COVID environment, I think as needs evolve and the environment's evolved and the customer evolves with their growth and scaling, we look at solutions that can also do that with us and with the customer so it can stay with them for a longer period of time and hopefully they value our partnership. So I think from our perspective, we're looking at a lot of new SaaS type technology where we have that ability to grow and scale. So I think it's an excellent point along the lines of creating that customer environment experience, but also scalability. You can do that with a lot of the slang lines, we use a lot of slang and force open paths. So those are on our radar slash we're using them. I'll throw it over to Daniel. I think White over there. Yeah, so I mean, so from our angle in the remote guarding sector, this security as a service model is really, like Devin mentioned earlier, it's been the perimeter and that perimeter is extending because technologies are becoming available and they've been available, but they just haven't been real cost effective. And so as these technologies are getting better and better and better, the parameters are extending, whether that's using radar or the drone technology. A lot of stuff that was military grade that's now coming down the consumer level, cost prohibitive stuff that we can now get our hands on and get these into the customer's hands and get these perimeters widen out. But then like Devin also mentioned, it's coming in. So we're replacing a lot of these traditional old school alarm systems that are now going away and video is now covering inside and outside. And so we're just able to, we're able to encompass the whole thing from a security as a service model in this remote guarding sector. I've certainly enjoyed the guest passes when I go to Chris's house now. He just sends me a code on my phone. I get to walk into the house whenever I want. Unfortunately, he has 20 cameras hanging up so they catch my every move. Last question here that I have gives us a little more personal. It's going to allow the audience to know you a little better. Chris, I'm going to start this question with you. We were talking a few weeks ago and you were telling me about how you personally have had to change and innovate yourself over your career in this industry. So, you know, with that, tell us how you've had to innovate in terms of your product knowledge, your skill sets to keep up with this industry. Well, I mean, as you know, I've been in the industry for many, many, many years. But no, I think when I first started, you know, there was more an emphasis on analog technologies and having a strong knowledge base when it came to electrical components and infrastructure and building material, all that kind of stuff. Now it seems like the focus is more so on having a working knowledge of IT networking, Internet of Things, IoT, even some, you know, most basic sensors nowadays will have some sort of smart feature or edge computing, right? And so when we talk about, you know, the conversations above, we look at a lot of the sensors and solutions and those all, it comes down to connectivity and power. And then the feature sets are all programmed in the software and things like that. So I think, you know, I personally had the change by trying to teach myself and actually learn from a lot of the subject matter experts. Very fortunate at Securitas. We have some brilliant people, multifaceted that I can learn from them and have had to really focus and learn on the IT networking side and kind of reach the gap from the analog into the new era. So I guess that's a little personal story. Daniel, how about you? You've been around a while in this industry. How have you evolved personally? Yeah, I think similar to Chris, you know, coming from the video world and things being analog and doing remote guarding or really just remote video monitoring over ISD and phone lines before internet was really, even widely available and just adapting to technology, especially the software side, which I can kind of move back and forth with the way videos go in, but the software side where all the AI analytics and a lot of things that are pretty much way above my head that are kind of taking over our remote guarding industry from that kind of Silicon Valley software side of things that our industry has just never really been a part of. And it's exciting to see us go in that direction. And so I do like the future. And it's just a exciting time for remote guarding and what we're doing. Awesome. Ann, same question over to you. Hey, thanks. So I'm going to go way back. So in college, I started off in the school of engineering, did that for a couple of years, and then later decided to get my degree in international relations. And looking back, I'm really thankful that I had both experiences because while they are very, you know, the different and contrast greatly, it's been really helpful later in life. So, you know, right out of college, I got a role actually in a pricing role where I was focused on numbers and profits and margin and had to interact with a lot of finance and analysts teams. And then I had to shift over into a sales role where I had to focus on my presentation skills to convey technical details about different products. And then even more recent here at OpenPath, when I came on board and we were just launching a brand new channel program, you know, I had to dive in and research different, all the different software programs that would help make all of our channel partners experience seamless in their business relationship with us. So for me, learning is what keeps us young and curious and excited to explore all that could be in the future. And it's really exciting and inspiring. So, Kevin, what about you? What's your story? Sure, sure. Yeah. So prior to the Legion, been in the Legion for about eight years now, hard to believe, but prior to that was that Raytheon. So defense industry. And I'd say that and be interested to see if our audience agrees. But I think this is actually a much kinder industry to take part in and to be a part of really been blessed to be able to work with so many different partnerships throughout my career at Legion and ultimately recognize that the skill sets, not so much product related, but more the skill set of leadership and have had the, you know, lucky to work for some very good leaders in my past and learning from them, just the genuineness that it takes to really care about your people. I think in the last two years, right, that's been emphasized that at everyone's companies even more so. But you've got to be genuine, right? You've got to be genuine and really care about the people that you're working with, how to lead through that, you know, more carrot, less stick, coming from defense to, to Legion. And that's been a huge positive. It's been a lot of fun. And I think, you know, hopefully others would agree here that the best part of, you know, a nice partnership call is when everyone's aligned to a goal, they recognize, you know, what it is we're trying to achieve. And that there's, you know, mutual success here. And I think that, you know, our industry bleeds that left and right, right? It's really that mutual success that we can all drive together. And so that's been, you know, a lot of fun to continue to learn and hone that skill set. Yeah, it's definitely fun learning something new every day, keeping up with the needs of the industry and really the needs of our clients. So I think we actually have time for a bonus question here. So again, let's keep this one fairly quick. So one thing, a piece, but Devin, you're going to lead this one off looking at the future of the industry. You know, what is a change or something that the industry is driving to that you see over the next five years? Yeah, I am. I'm very optimistic. I think we are at a turning point where, you know, it used to be that there is an infinite number of standards and things weren't working well together. I think we're at this pivotal moment that we're going to see standards emerge and we're going to see, you know, as the industry learn how to work together and how to drive towards interoperability. And I'm big on that and certainly optimistic that the next five years are going to bring some pretty rapid change in that department. And what do you see? Yeah, you know, a lot remains unclear about the future of the office space and what that will look like in 2022 and beyond. But, you know, one thing that kind of stands out in my mind is the need for flexibility and being able to adapt to the ever-changing needs as they change in the upcoming years. So whether it's, you know, cloud-based or touchless that are growing in popularity, regardless the landscape of security is going to look a lot different than it did in 2019 in solutions that allow you to monitor your building and secure your operations, keep your people safe and leverage advanced technologies such as video analytics and AI will continue to prevail. All right, Chris. I hate to say, but I see Devin and Anne have pretty much covered it for me. I think you're looking at a lot more advanced edge computing and AI analytics, those things are going to continue to grow and develop a lot of the smart sensors. I think there's going to be, I think Devin, you touched on it, really great. There's going to be a convergence with the interoperability between systems. You know, whether or not that's building management and some other things, I think that, you know, I think that's going to continue to be something. And then, you know, also just the security industry in general, we looked at it from kind of being the guard's gates gun model. And now it's sort of, you know, it's a different sort of industry where you have a lot of different professionals in influencing it. So I think you also see that dynamic change as well. Continue to change. Daniel, we'll bring this last question home with you. Yeah, I think that the biggest change, which I mean, we're already seeing it, but it's the video is everywhere. Like I was mentioning earlier, indoors, outdoors. I think that in the security industry, video is going to be the top dog from monitoring to just everything that someone's trying to protect their site home, all of the above. Video is going to be everywhere. Perfect. So, you know, what I heard from Ann that I want to close this with is the security landscape is looking for flexibility and adaptability. And I think we all touched on that and part of our answers, you know, for me, our outlook is promising and it's very exciting time to be a part of the industry. I want to thank our team of panelists today. Again, Ann, Chris, Daniel, Devin, thank you all for your time today. Thank you to our viewers for tuning in and we'll see you next time on Security Matters.