A Legacy Model Showing Its Age: How Protos Security Is Rewiring an Industry Stuck in the Past

Note: Protos Security will celebrate its 20th anniversary at ISC West 2026 (March 23–27, Las Vegas) by exhibiting at Booth #24131 and launching a new, AI-powered operational intelligence tool.

Mark Hjelle, the CEO of Protos Security, has been challenging the traditional legacy models of guarding and monitoring industries for years. He asserts that traditional contract guarding lacks transparency, consistency, and responsiveness. After extensive time in the field, he says the gaps are not theoretical; that “guard companies are a dime a dozen,” leading to market saturation and systematic inefficiencies.

For decades, contract guarding has operated on a fundamentally local, labor-centric model, one that many enterprise security leaders now view as increasingly misaligned with modern risk realities.

“I visited over 70 enterprise clients over the last couple of years, and I’m a big believer in being out listening to the voice of the customers that matter in the industry,” Hjelle explains. “I can validate that many of the fundamental structural issues in the traditional contract guarding model still exist.”

At the core, he points to three persistent failures: inconsistency, lack of transparency, and poor responsiveness.

“There is really a lack of consistency,” he says. “A lot of our enterprise clients, whether it’s working with a large traditional contract or managing multiple vendors, get a very inconsistent experience across branches.”

Equally problematic is the opacity surrounding performance and billing.

“I also think there is a lack of transparency around both billing and the attendance of officers at locations. It’s still very limited in many cases.”

And in an environment where threats evolve daily, speed matters, but legacy providers often struggle to keep pace.

“Security is a very dynamic, changing environment every day, and really the inability of a lot of these traditional companies to scale coverage across enterprise client footprints is still a big challenge.”

The reason, Hjelle argues, is structural inertia.

“They’re stuck in a model that has existed for decades now, a local staffing model, and they struggle to modernize. They’re still living on that old model,” he says. “And why wouldn’t they change? It’s gravity. Their strategy, organizational structure, incentives, culture, and investors are all tied to defending and optimizing that traditional model instead of reinventing it.”

Reimagining Guarding as a Platform

As enterprise security demands become more dynamic and data-driven, the traditional guard model, rooted in decentralized staffing and legacy economics, is increasingly misaligned with client expectations. Protos is betting that the future lies not in scaling labor, but in orchestrating it through a technology-enabled managed services platform that emphasizes transparency, responsiveness, and predictive insight.

That inertia is precisely what Protos Security set out to challenge. As the CEO of Protos since 2022, he oversees the company’s technology-driven managed security services strategy, with an emphasis on North American expansion, AI and IoT integration, and long-term growth initiatives. Hjelle brings nearly 25 years of experience leading national private-equity-backed organizations in business and facility services.

The shift reflects a deliberate departure from the traditional guarding paradigm.

“Traditional guard companies operate like staffing businesses, are built around filling posts and billing hours,” Hjelle says. “Our model is about delivering outcomes.”

Instead of relying on a monolithic workforce, Protos leverages a distributed supplier network, enabling scalability and geographic flexibility.

“It allows us to tap into a massive supplier network instead of relying on a monolithic workforce,” he adds. “That gives clients the ability to flex and scale quickly as threats change and access the best local and regional providers.”

For enterprise clients, the value proposition is simplification at scale: “We give them a single platform and a single point of contact across their entire footprint.”

Proof in Performance and Transparency

The shift from labor model to platform model ultimately hinges on execution and measurable outcomes. He stresses that, at the highest level, it’s a combination of high-tech and high-touch, with a strong operational infrastructure.

That infrastructure integrates multiple operational layers into a unified environment.

“Our platform integrates supplier availability, dispatch systems, communication tools, and billing validation all in one environment.”

The result, he notes, is not just operational efficiency but verifiable accuracy, particularly in an area that has historically been a friction point: billing.

“Just a week ago, we had a large client in the Midwest with their third-party auditors in the room,” Hjelle recounts. “They told us they couldn’t believe how accurate the billing was, down to the minute, and said it was unparalleled compared to any other vendors they work with.”

Responsiveness also improves when supply and demand are orchestrated through structured processes and real-time visibility.

“That’s what allows us to respond quickly to coverage requests through our supplier network and structured processes.”

For enterprise organizations managing complex, multi-site operations, data transparency becomes a force multiplier.

“On the data side, enterprise clients have multiple stakeholders: finance, procurement, security, operations, and they all need visibility,” he explains.

Protos delivers visibility through continuous data streams on key performance indicators, providing real-time data on attendance, fulfillment rates, response times, incident reporting, and cost transparency.

That shift, from fragmented reporting to integrated intelligence, enables a more proactive posture.

“That allows clients to move from a reactive stance to a proactive one—empowering them to manage risk across multiple locations with confidence.”

Differentiation Through Network, Technology, and Culture

While many providers are investing in technology, Hjelle is quick to draw a distinction between augmentation and transformation.

“Layering tech onto a legacy model won’t get you where we are,” he says.

Differentiation at Protos begins with the network itself, particularly its off-duty law enforcement ecosystem, which the company believes is the largest in the U.S.

“One of the things we’re most proud of is our off-duty law enforcement network. We believe it’s the largest in the United States.” And that network is not simply transactional; it is actively cultivated.

“We invest heavily in that community. We listen to officers, reduce friction in assignments, provide transparency into pay, and support them through initiatives like our Back the Blue foundation and partnerships like the National Police Federal Credit Union.”

The payoff for Hjelle and his teams has been consistent operational alignment.

“When you treat that community well, they help you succeed in client engagements.”

On the technology side, the emphasis is on real-time connectivity across all stakeholders.

“We’ve built a platform that connects officers, suppliers, and clients in real time,” Hjelle says. “That connectivity is what allows programs to be managed proactively at scale.”

For Protos, it is important that it frames technology as an amplifier, not a replacement, for human resources.

“Technology isn’t replacing people—it’s amplifying them,” he notes. “We see a hybrid model where remote monitoring, AI, and digital platforms extend coverage and improve threat detection.”

By underpinning both the network and technology as cultural features, the company instills a client-first mindset across the organization, being responsive and executing consistently. 

Hjelle says: “That’s what drives customer service, and customer service wins in this industry.”

The Next Phase: Data Convergence and Predictive Security

As he projects what lies beyond the horizon, Hjelle expects the guarding sector to rapidly converge with broader security and intelligence ecosystems, pushing organizations to integrate physical security, data analytics, and cyber intelligence into a unified, actionable operating model.

“Looking ahead, we’re seeing convergence across data analytics, remote monitoring, and cyber intelligence,” he says.

This convergence is being driven by the integration of previously siloed systems, with all these data sources, from video analytics, access control, and incident data, being integrated into unified command environments.

But integration is only the first step. The real transformation lies in how that data is used.

“The real shift is toward predictive insights using data and intelligence to anticipate risk and determine where to deploy resources before incidents occur.”

In that sense, guarding is evolving from a reactive service to a predictive capability, one that aligns more closely with enterprise risk management strategies.

“The companies that will win are the ones that can integrate these data sources and deliver proactive, predictive value for clients,” Hjelle says.

But he also insists that ultimately, the objective remains straightforward, even as the tools become more sophisticated.

“It comes back to creating more value for the client; helping them protect what matters most in a more intelligent, data-driven way.”