UPDATED - Protection 1, Romeoville, Ill., acquired Newark, Del.-based Integration Logistics, adding new integrated systems capabilities to its commercial and national account security offerings.

Integration Logistics is known for its highly integrated solutions that include services beyond traditional access, video and fire, Protection 1 said. The company is certified in information technology and voice/telephony services. Integration Logistics co-founders Ken Schafenberg and John Smolinski will lead the new Integrated Systems Division at Protection 1, bringing all 40 of their employees with them.

Schafenberg will take on the role of vice president of Integrated Systems with Protection 1. Jamie Haenggi, chief marketing officer for Protection 1, explained how the new division fits into the company’s operations. “The Integrated Systems division is significantly more technical than traditional security systems integration,” Haengi said. “They do a lot of designing, installation and maintaining actual networks. They have a laundry list of IT certifications, so they do much more sophisticated integrations.” Haenggi added that the company provides security, integration and network for all of the data centers of the one of the largest banks in the country.

“Now — having a full enterprise integrated system serving the largest of the large — when we come to those opportunities, we already have a group now that understands how to do them, understands how to do the project management,” said Tim Whall, CEO of Protection 1, in an interview with SDM. “What we bring to them, of course, is now we have a larger footprint to service. They have no problem doing project management and going out and doing an installation on one of these [projects]. But after the fact, they don’t have an easy way to service it. So now we combine our branch footprint with them and they’re not limited anymore on where they can go. We have more things to offer to the growing base that they had. We expect we’ll probably get a 30 to 50 percent lift in sales in the first year. Meanwhile, we’re increasing the capabilities of what Protection 1 can do.”

In March, Protection 1 also acquired Camtronic Security Integration, giving Protection 1 a specialized focus in high-end video solutions geared towards national account clients.

“The additions of Camtronic and Integration Logistics allow us to give our customers a more robust customer experience in terms of products and services, while growing our employee base with subject matter experts in each of our offerings,” stated Whall. “Integrated and highly complex network-based solutions seemed to come up more and more with our client base,” Whall added. “We wanted to make sure that we were addressing these needs by having the expertise within the company. Ken, John and their entire employee base have very broad and deep IT experience, coupled with a like-minded approach to treating the customer.” 

“This deal came together quickly,” Whall noted. “These guys seemed like a great fit right out of the gate. … Most of their employees are spread out. It’s a decentralized model they follow for themselves. And it adds one more piece of commercial capabilities for us, as opposed to trying to teach 68 branches how to become good integrators.” Whall added that Integration Logistics, as well as Camtronic, have very strong relationships with their respective customer bases and a service philosophy that closely matches Protection 1’s own.

Whall continued, commenting that the company strives to be the largest full service security company in the country. Protection 1 completed six acquisitions so far this year, with a seventh coming up. Whall said they want to make sure they can bring the “three-door-one-motion resis” at one end of the spectrum together with the high end, complex network integration business and everything in between.