A number of you ask me all the time; how do you get in my gossip column?
Or you whinge that you’ve never been in my gossip! Apart from the doing the obvious; that is, give me some gossip about you, there is no way, unless I make something up! and I can’t do that of course. However I have come up with a plan thanks mainly to last month’s picture which is me wearing a Flir bodyworn camera which I omitted to mention, sorry guys. And yes, I know you might now be looking for last months mag to check that out. But it all made me think and come up with an idea. For some years now Jake Britten at DVS has been attending our ST events. He wanted a selfie with me to post on social media, in fact here is the very first one he took some years ago, when was Jake looking somewhat like a young Johnny Depp. You can’t see that? ok, it’s just me then. Anyway my plan is that if you want to be in the gossip, grab me for a selfie and send it to me. I will include it in the next issue like the one above which is me with Dave Davies the newly promoted CTO at DVS. If I get too many might I have to create a new ‘selfie with Roy’ page!
Acquisition
Let’s start with the news about Pro-Vision, the Shropshire-based distributors of CCTV and access control. EET Europarts has acquired the company, an authorised distributor for over 60 brands. As Simon Smith, MD at EET in the UK says, Pro-Vision has such manufacturers as Bosch, Pelco, Panasonic, IDIS and Hanwha (Samsung). Simon said: “This acquisition brings a very strong sales and support team, giving the customers the specialist knowledge and support needed to supply them the correct solution. Pro-Vision customers will also now have a much broader range of products in both CCTV and security and in all our other product categories.” Pro-Vision has 20 employees. Peter Ford, Pro-Vision MD said: “Since 2005 when Brian Munday and I started the company we have endeavoured to grow the business in a professional manner with a level of service that complemented the world class manufacturers we represent.” He promises the same partnership relationships with suppliers. Peter and Brian have earned the reputation as being true gentleman in the industry. That is not just me saying that, as everyone describes them like this, and I mean everyone. Peter told me that as he is now 70! Yep, I couldn’t believe it either. It might be time for him to hang up his hat, can I see him doing that? Not really, but we will see. He also mentioned that it is the new company’s intention is to grow the business. The two guys are staying on as consultants for the next three months then that’s it, so if you want to buy them a drink before they go, you had better hurry.
Women’s night
It’s time for us to launch this year’s Women in Security awards. WiS 2018 will be held on Thursday, September 13 on board the famous Dixie Queen. We are delighted that it will be hosted by the FSA/ECA this year as a dinner dance till midnight while slowly cruising up the Thames. I understand they will even need to raise Tower Bridge to allow us through, not that you need worry about that. You just sit back and enjoy the evening! Your nominations need to be in by August 10; which you can do by going to our website and following the instructions, We have four categories. All those short-listed will be invited to join us on the boat with who nominated them. If you fancy a night out please email Liz Lloyd on [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you there. Mind you before that we have our Security TWENTY exhibitions, ST18 Scotland in Glasgow, ST North Harrogate, and Dublin earlier in September.
Customer service
IDIS, the South Korean surveillance manufacturer, has added to its UK customer service operation with the appointment of Chris Morss as support technician. He’s based out of the company’s European headquarters in Brentford, west London. He will report to Billy Hopkins who this year was promoted to Senior Technical Manager. Chris joins from events website specialist ASP Ltd; he will be contributing to special surveillance development projects, tender specifications and technical demos for commercial and public sector projects. And at Assa Abloy, Alan Kent and Tony Wedgwood have joined as access control managers. Hikvision have another new office, outside Glasgow, where they’re giving installer training, as at Stockley Park and Manchester.
Innovise acquires
Innovise Limited has acquired the Ministry of Ideas (MOI) businesses in the UK, North America and Poland to form a new division, in risk and loss prevention software. Mike Taylor, CEO of Innovise, says: “MOI reminds me of Innovise Software in its earliest days, with its vertical market focus and dedicated team of professionals.” He sees ‘great scope to help the business scale’. And Jason Trigg, Founder of MOI, says: “Since we founded the business it has been focused on the needs of professionals in the risk and loss prevention market, especially retailers. However, as we have grown the need for scale and technology expertise has increased and this will change further with the arrival of GDPR in May. We decided the time was right to find a long-term home for MOI – one that would allow it to access investment resources and specialist knowledge while continuing its rapid growth in the risk and loss prevention space.”
