NO. 1 2010 - Securitas

elements from software to infrastructure to equipment;
develops custom communication business
plans to help employees deal more efficiently with
multiple communications streams such as email,
instant messaging and telephones; and evaluates
and implements global communication strategies. In
addition, Avaya also runs the world’s leading contact
center, which provides quick, competent and reliable
customer service to support clients’ products and
services. Currently, Avaya employs 21,000 people
worldwide, including 3,400 research and development
professionals.
The company, like its industry, changes quickly. In
the three years since signing the national contract
with Securitas USA, Avaya has expanded through
mergers and acquisitions, but has also consolidated
its office space. Through an effective use of technology,
the company has increased the reach and
efficiency of the contract security force.
Today, Securitas USA officers are on site at six U.S.
Avaya locations, including a 284,000 square-foot
headquarters in Basking Ridge, NJ, where they
perform core duties including access control and
roving patrols. Officers monitor additional domestic
and overseas Avaya sites remotely via two state-ofthe-art
Command Centers located in Westminster,
CO and the Basking Ridge headquarters. “Our
Command Center has a remote system that can pull
up any camera which is programmed for our facilities,”
says Bill Lynch, Securitas USA’s Basking Ridge site
manager. “We can look at different buildings at national
locations as well as various places internationally and
see who is right there.” Officers can also review the
stored footage on each camera to research any
incidents and make decisions accordingly.
“Since coming over to Securitas, we’ve centralized
our alarm monitoring and that’s added a lot of value,”
notes Parkin. Previously, Command Center operators
would call local law enforcement if anything looked
suspicious. “Now we have trained officers who look
at the video and then can make a determination.
This saves us a ton of money in false alarms.”
In addition, the Command Center technology
enables Securitas USA to cover multiple locations
without Avaya increasing its security budget, which
makes for a truly efficient security operation. “Here at
Basking Ridge, we can look after Basking Ridge,
but as other pieces of business come on board,
we can take care of them because we can monitor
from afar,” says Securitas USA Area Vice President
Mike Kochan.
“My past experience with guard vendors is that when
you ask for their opinion, the answer would be to
throw more manpower at the problem.” That’s not
the case here, he says. “Securitas is not looking for a
short term relationship; this is a partnership.”
[Left to right] Bill Lynch
Securitas USA site supervisor;
Mike Kochan Securitas USA
area vice president; Bill Parkin,
CPP, Avaya director of
Corporate Security & Business
Continuity; and Chris Kelemen,
Securitas USA branch manager
WWW.securitasinc.coM 19