Working Retirement
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Sep 01, 2015
Most people, when they retire from
a lifetime of hard work, pursue
several adventures they have
been dreaming about for years.
One of those dreams may be getting out on the
open road with your Harley whenever you want.
For some, however, it doesn’t always work out
that way.
Phil Lake, president of Knight Security, had
ridden his Harley about as much as he wanted,
when some old colleagues called and ask him to
join them in Austin, Texas, to develop and grow a
security integration business. As he puts it, “I put
in some money and went back to work.”
Knight Security is Texas based, and Texas
proud. They have offices in Houston, Dallas, and
the corporate office in Austin. Most, but not all,
of their work is in Texas.
“Our company goal is to stay in the forefront
of technology,” Lake said. “Our focus is technology,
delivery and execution. Our mandate is the
best service possible to our customers.”
Knowing the Network
Lake has been a part of the overall security network,
having worked at Honeywell, Chubb and
Siemens. In his travels, the family lived in Austin
during one phase of their lives, and so when
retirement happened, Austin seemed to be the
right place to go. Of course, it didn’t hurt that
Lake’s wife had already bought a house in Austin.
Neither are native Texans, but they loved it there
enough to move back.
What was a Dallas integration team soon
added Austin and a corporate headquarters. It
also turns out the Chris Hugman, former owner
of Safe Sight, sold his business to the Knight Security
team, and they were off and running.
“The partnership had identical goals,” Lake
said. “We’re really in a service business. Long
term relationships are part of our core values,
including honor, integrity and service. Sticking
to what we do best in offering the customer complete
service has allowed us to grow at a 40 percent
rate over the last five years.”
“Our best advertisement has been our reputation
by word of mouth. It has been a terrific
reference for us. We also insist on great partnerships
with the manufacturers; all of us respecting
a high service level.”
A Brand to Recognize
In 2006, Knight Security was purchased and
then merged with Safe Sight. A company of 75
employees faced the economic firestorm of 2008
with heads held high. Knight has more than 4,000
installations in the United States. Their projects
have ranged from $1,000 to more than $12.5 million.
Three apparent things about Knight Security
come to the top quickly. They are dedicated
to service and are very ambitious. They also have
tapped into the residential security market.
Their installs in the Dallas Metro area includes
a laundry list of Who’s Who, not just in Texas but
captains of industry who choose to live here. One
of the most recent security installs happened in
the Texas Panhandle, in Amarillo. The district
devoted $3.8 million to a video surveillance system,
provided by Knight Security. Installers will
place 2,300 cameras across all district campuses.
The new system will improve night visibility over
the current system.
The board also approved spending about $2.7
million to replace about 600 HVAC units and
about $2.1 million to install them. Both projects are part of a $99.45 million bond issue
approved by voters in 2013 that
primarily addressed security and
enrollment growth.
Assistant superintendent Les
Hoyt said, “We’re going leap years
ahead of where we are with our current
technology.”
Knight Security has had some
stellar installs over the past few
years, and maybe, it’s due to the
company’s business plan. For instance,
the sales staff are essentially
relationship managers, who listens
to client’s concerns. The sales staff
does not participate in the design,
and that is when Knight Security
brings on the design engineers to
meet the clients. The company also
has a dedicated service team, with a
service manager in each office.
The service team does not do
installs because they focus only on
service and responding to the customers’
needs following an install.
Everyone in the Knight Security
system is part of an ongoing training
program.
“We spend a small fortune to
make sure our team is trained and
certified,” Lake said. “We also meet
with representatives of the IT side;
we get early involvement because
we don’t want to be at odds with IT.”
Knight Security’s certified staff
is comprised of professional engineers,
technical professionals and
IT network security specialists.
Forming Key
Partnerships
Knight Security has some pretty
impressive installs and manufacturing
partners on their resume.
For instance, they work closely
with the Texas Department of
Health and Human Services. They
also have an ongoing service agreement
to monitor the health of the
system. At first glance this might
seem like a small opportunity,
but there are 11 regions in Texas,
meaning there are more than 600
locations. Knight Security connects
to every facility to ensure that the
security platform is alive and well,
and manages access control locally.
This project was completed eight
months ahead of schedule.
A couple other shining stars for
the company were a 4,400 camera
install in 2014 and they are
the first company to install an S2
access control system in a north
Austin hospital. A managementowned
company, Knight Security
did not wade out into unknown
waters, and also knew the industry
was truly interested in service that
works. Management developed the
SecurePlan, which is a service level
agreement that includes a same-day
service guarantee. Knight Security
also has an industry leading SecurePlanHealth,
which is a health
monitoring system that will detect
and remediate system issues proactively.
Lake said these guarantees
indicate the company commitment
to service.
With Knight Security so involved
with its clients’ security applications
and solutions, they will
be monitoring on the clients network,
and 60 percent of the time
they have already dispatched services
before the client even knows
there is a problem.
Knight Security also represents many of the manufacturers of leading edge solutions that every in the
industry knows very well, including
Axis, Sony, Milestone, Genetec,
Video Insight, S2 and many others.
The company also takes the time to
train clients and manufacturers.
3-Prong Approach
Lake and his team have set up the
Knight Security system in three different
and distinct areas. First is the
design of a project. This includes
an assessment and product selection.
It also includes gathering all
necessary permits. Next you have
to build the system. This includes
installation, configuration of products
and training the client. Service
finishes off the approach, including
use of SecurePlan, post-install work
and ongoing health monitoring of
the system.
The outcome of this threepronged
approach helps design and
builds intrusion alarm systems, access
control, video surveillance, fire
& life safety and encrypted wireless.
Lake said there are certain critical
success factors, such as being participative
and objective-based in the
design process.
“During our pre-engineering
phase we strive to facilitate consistency
and accuracy,” Lake said.
“Part of our success as an integrator
is adherence to standards and getting
involved with IT early on. We
propose flexibility and scalability by
design, and then do what we say we
will do. Much of our work is word
of mouth. We also believe in using
best of breed products.”
Though the company depends
on certifications and upgraded solutions,
they have had their share
of awards. Just to name one, Knight
Security was chosen as the 2014 National
End User Installation of the
Year. The award was given based
on project complexity, use of contemporary
technology, installation
quality, design solution and customer
satisfaction.
The project was the installation
at Sabine-Neches Waterway, which
runs 55 miles through Jefferson
County, Texas, to the Gulf of Mexico.
This area includes the numberone
commercial and military outload
port in the United States and
is the fourth largest port in terms
of processed tonnage. The goal of
the project was to ensure the safety
of those working and traveling
through the port, and to keep traffic
flowing for the commerce that relies
on clear passage.
Knight Security Systems deployed
a vast traffic-monitoring
network to ensure that all vessels—
civilian, military and commercial—
can safely navigate the waters with
minimal interference such as collisions
or other stoppage. The new
surveillance system also monitors
the many petroleum refineries that
line the channel. Backed by a Verizon
Wireless 4G connections,
the cameras along the waterway
are networked through Milestone
XProtect Enterprise VMS for managing
high-definition video of live
vessel movements and incident reporting
from the archived footage.
Knight Security is all about
teamwork. The real secret sauce to
their success, however, is service.
This article originally appeared in the September 2015 issue of Security Today.