It is often said that you can't know where you're going until you know where you've been. Perhaps no more accurate words have been spoken in the security industry then when referencing the journey taken by Pelco over the last 15-plus years. The history of this storied security franchise is one written in relentless product development, unparalleled customer service standards that revolutionized the concept, and an internal employee environment that was the envy of the entire industry.
The company grew to become the world’s the largest video security vendor the two decades following its acquisition by former CEO and investor Dave McDonald, boasting more than one million installations across the globe. Pelco’s executive team turned the sleepy California town of Clovis into a showcase of how a true community/corporate partnership can work, with the company’s innovative 80,000 square foot facility proving to be the centerpiece of what was quickly becoming an empire.
Big changes, however, were looming on the horizon as McDonald was entertaining offers for his dynamic enterprise. Finally, after 20 years of operating as one of the security industry’s most successful independents, Pelco received an offer it couldn’t refuse. After recording sales of $506 million in 2006 of its camera domes, IP video systems, and DVRs, McDonald felt the time was right to sell and in 2007, Schneider Electric closed its deal for Pelco.
I made several trips to Clovis over the years in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, being chaperoned by my old friend Joe Olmstead, who handled the marketing duties at Pelco for years. Joe would bring around the golf cart so he could act as my tour guide, pointing out a new building and beaming with pride as the campus grew with each visit. Must-see stops were the tech labs, customer service centers, the expansive gourmet employees’ cafeteria, the on-site employees and business travel agency and of course the famous 911 museum housed in the headquarters building.
Inevitably, the challenges of a Fortune 500 giant assimilating an entrepreneurial-minded company, with a rich employee subculture like Pelco, led to some technology stagnation and turnover the subsequent years – not unlike similar fates suffered by UTC and Tyco following high-profile independent brand acquisitions. Pelco, once a name synonymous with state-of-the-art video surveillance and the pick of almost every top systems integrator in the country, saw its star dim.
From a Pelco perspective, this was not an acceptable course for the future. A strong commitment to its core of legacy customers and the tradition of industry leadership mandated major internal resets.
And after sitting down for a meeting with Diane Feliciano, Pelco’s Vice President of Global Marketing at the recent ISC West show in Las Vegas, there seems to be a revitalization of that entrepreneurial spirit. The reemergence of Pelco began in 2015 when Sharad Shekhar joined the company directing its global video business and reconnecting the brand with the system integrators with which it had lost favor. Now it’s CEO, Shekhar and his team have dedicated their efforts to increased product innovation and improving their world-class customer service support.
“We are reemerging, just not as the Pelco people once knew us as. It is a new Pelco. Obviously, when we were purchased by Schneider Electric we underwent some changes, so we had to take the time to reassess who we wanted the new Pelco to be and in what direction we wanted to head in the future. But at the same time as we looked to redefine ourselves, we didn’t want to lose our history. There were special things that defined Pelco like great customer service – we were always connected to the customer – that was the underpinning of our company,” says Feliciano. “So we have been kind of quiet for the last 12 to 18 months as we have worked very diligently internally to define who that new Pelco is. There are a lot of changes taking place in terms of the way we are organized internally, but also where we are headed in the future in terms of strategy. We did have a great array of cameras and did move into the IP arena, but we have definitely increased our offering of cameras and at the same time extended the technology into video management. It’s just not about collecting information off video but what are you’re doing with it and making it of value to the customer.”
Feliciano pointed to the development of Pelco’s VideoXpert video management system that was designed to be intuitive and easy-to-navigate, as well as eliminating single points of failure and ensuring reliability through fault-tolerant software, distributed architecture, and multiple levels of redundancy.
“Our VMS is offered at a number of different levels and we made sure that it is not only extremely well integrated among ourselves organically, but we have also moved forward and developed some significant technology partnerships with other companies like IBM, Dell and others, who offer solutions that can be used with VideoXpert’s open platform. Combining our partners’ solutions with ours really expands our footprint and provides the client an idea of what is a true end-to-end solution,” adds Feliciano. “We’ve focused on integration, concentrating and developing what in its purest and simplest form becomes true integration that can take place at several different levels. There is integration with other cameras that can feed into our system and talk peer to peer, and have our information flow into other systems like access control and building management.”
According to Feliciano, Pelco is looking to propel video to a higher level taking what has been traditionally viewed as simple video surveillance, incorporating high-end analytics and migrating it to the point of a situational awareness tool. “And then figuring out what other solutions can be attached to that ecosystem,” she says. “That is certainly the case in a Smart City environment. It’s not just about the police department anymore when it comes to comprehensive public safety. Do you have to involve the fire department? Did you need to have emergency services on the scene?”
Taking Pelco in the direction of the emerging public safety and Smart Cities sector is a goal for Pelco’s Director of Global Sales and Marketing Dave deLisser. He sees the Safe and Smart Cities market expanding for Pelco and cities the new integration partnerships with other companies who are investing heavily in this space.
“If you see the demonstration of the IBM video analytics technology you see that we’ve tied together the interface of our VMS platform with the video analytic capabilities of IBM. The user experience becomes very simple and you can leverage IBM’s ability to find people based on hair color, skin tone, colors of their outfits, their specific vehicle types across hundreds of cameras either in real time or forensically,” explains deLisser. “We are tightening our relationship with those types of solutions providers that are already focused on safe cities and doing things differently to protect these communities. What we are finding is that the end result is pretty powerful. The goal for us is to leverage what we can do with what our partners can do so that we are all providing a comprehensive solution. So definitely, this is a vertical we are putting a lot of effort into and at the same time learning a lot about this space from our customers”
The prospects of new markets, dynamic partners, and a renewed company vision have executives like Feliciano and deLisser optimistic for Pelco’s future.
“We have a large install base of cameras and other video platforms, so the new messaging of ‘moving ahead by your side’ fits what Pelco and its partners want. Customers have been with us for generations of product and we have helped them migrate into our current technology platforms. So now with the added depth of technology partners like IBM and others, all this just fits well with what we are doing as a company and how we are evolving along with our resellers and end users as the industry changes and people continue to push the limits of video,” concludes deLisser.
About the Author: Steve Lasky is the Editorial Director of SouthComm Security Media, which includes print publications Security Technology Executive, Security Dealer & Integrator, Locksmith Ledger Int’l and the world’s top security web portal SecurityInfoWatch.com. He is a 30-year veteran of the security industry and a 26-year member of ASIS.
