A joint sales and marketing arrangement has been reached between Protection One, Lawrence, Kan., and BellSouth Community Technologies, Atlanta, to market security services for planned multiunit developments.

“We’ve done some of these in the past, but this is a more focused effort to address specific opportunities within that segment on both sides,” explained John Pumpelly, senior vice president of alliance relationships at Protection One. “We’ll actually go to a developer and, using the same timeline as BellSouth has for their proposal with that developer, we’ll include a security proposal as well.”

He said he was not at liberty to discuss the economic arrangements between the two companies.

“We’re doing this to address each other’s needs,” he added. “Leads go both ways on this. Where we have a relationship [with a customer], we’ll share that relationship and make contact with BellSouth. It’s really a win for both sides.”

BellSouth Community Technologies was formed specifically to create and maintain alliances with developers and owners of planned communities, apartments, and condominiums, and develop technology deployment plans for them.

“What they found was that security was a very important part of that conversation,” Pumpelly declared. “We were a logical choice to help them deliver that product to these specific customers.”

Protection One, which ranked third on the 2006 SDM 100, considers itself a specialist in providing security to the multifamily housing market through its Network Multifamily division.

The arrangement to market BellSouth Security Systems from Protection One to residents and business owners has been ongoing since 2001 and has been available in 18 cities in the nine southeastern states BellSouth serves. “With this agreement with BellSouth Community Technologies, we will attempt to service outside of those cities where it’s possible and economical,” Pumpelly noted.

Included in their marketing efforts are intrusion, heat, smoke and carbon monoxide detection equipment and related services, but home control and audio/video/computer networking is done more on the local level.

“We did a development in Georgia that was marketed as a high-end technology development of sorts,” Pumpelly related. “They did a lot of unique things around security and entertainment and that sort of stuff, and we helped them in that capability, but our core business is security.”

With the popularity of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone service, Protection One’s relationship with BellSouth may prove helpful in upcoming years.

“There will definitely be synergies in the future over VoIP and how we communicate in the home or business,” Pumpelly asserted. “Business is certainly leading the way on VoIP, and it’s becoming a required business in residential as well. Our ability to address that is a key factor in development.”