As media, we always get asked the same question at these trade shows: ‘what’s new on the show floor?’ And to be quite honest—there has not been one particular topic that has received much more address over another that I’ve witnessed here at ASIS. Don’t get me wrong. Over two years into the industry and I am still learning and consider myself to be a somewhat of a ‘newbie,’ or as I referred to myself during my first ASIS tradeshow a few years ago, ‘fresh bait.’ And apparently, so are many others in the industry, evident of a packed room during yesterday’s ‘Innovation or Confusion 2010?’ educational session, which featured a panel of experts covering such current technology market drivers as: IP; high resolution; intelligent edge devices; cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS); and hosted video. Sure, everyone’s talking about the benefits of wireless technology and we’ve heard some discussions on the topic of HDCCTV but what it really comes down to is focusing on a vertical market, addressing the challenges that end-users in a particular sector face and honing in on offering the exact customized solution tailored specifically to their needs.
It’s almost safe to say that it is dangerous ground for an uneducated end-user to be subject to all the marketing in the industry, as Jim Henry, chief executive officer, Henry Brother’s Electronics (HBE), Fair Lawn, N.J., mentioned to me when we sat down to talk about the recent acquisition of HBE by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, San Diego, a national security solutions provider for the homeland security market. “It comes down to asking the question, ‘what are your needs?’” Henry continued. “As an end-user, you should have a roadmap of where you are and where you want to get to.”
The agreement Kratos entered to acquire security systems integrator Henry Brothers Inc., for $45 million will combine the two companies businesses so that Kratos’ Public Safety & Security (PSS) business will become merged with the HBE brand. The merger combines the strength of two leaders in the homeland defense security solutions and systems integration market and offers HBE more scalability to target those larger projects that they were not able to pursue before, according to Henry.
“Kratos’ physical security group is just like ours,” Henry continued. ‘The integration of that is not going to be that difficult. The challenge will be to leverage our expertise into the Kratos base—to integrate our offices so we have a common culture to get more pull-through and business from key partners.”
The transaction is to be finalized by the end of this year.
