Exclusive: Protecting what matters most

International Security Journal sits down with Scott Elliott, Vice President for the Americas at Gallagher.

It’s fair to say that when it comes to cloud-based security solutions, the true benefits offered by this technology are still yet to be fully understood by users. There has been some uncertainty regarding the cybersecurity of these solutions and a misconception that they are only applicable to large, multi-national enterprises with a number of widespread locations.

However, once you dig a little deeper into what cloud technology can offer, it becomes clear that organisations of all sizes can benefit from it. The ease of use and convenience it provides, the remote access it enables which is so important in these COVID times, plus a lower total cost of ownership than traditional on-premises solutions, all of which have meant that cloud-based solutions are rapidly increasing in popularity.

There are now a wide range of solutions available but not all of them cater for the SMB market. This is where Gallagher has stepped in, recently launching its Gallagher security for SMB solution for the US market.

International Security Journal caught up with Scott Elliott, Vice President for the Americas and Steve Bell, Chief Technology Officer to find out why the company is targeting the SMB market and what makes its solution so unique.

Continuous innovation

Gallagher is a trusted security solutions provider, protecting sites in over 130 countries with more than 13,000 customers. The company is headquartered in New Zealand and has been enjoying significant growth in the Americas region in recent times. For the last six years, this has been led by Scott Elliott, who is responsible for the business in the USA, South and Central America, the Caribbean and Canada.

Elliott revealed that he likes to keep things simple when it comes to his leadership style: “It is important to surround yourself with an incredibly talented team of creative and ambitious people. You need to have a growth mindset and include diversity of all types, which leads to diversity of thought and innovation. We want people to feel safe in expressing their thoughts and opinions and to hold each other accountable to enable success.”

This approach has certainly paid dividends with Gallagher going from strength to strength in the Americas region. Elliott explained why the region is so important to Gallagher: “As you can imagine, being an 83-year-old New Zealand-based technology provider, we enjoy a significant share of the market in that particular part of the world.

“In the Americas however, many of our competitors are North American-based and have, up until now, held a pretty strong position. We consider this to be an emerging market for us which is incredibly exciting. While we’re experiencing fantastic growth in all areas of the business, the Americas will be one of the most important areas for the company. The growth we will experience here will fuel the continuous innovation that Gallagher is known for and in turn, provide a safe and assured future for our customers, our partners and our employees and their families, helping them protect what matters most and leaving the world safer and more secure than we found it.”

Offering control and convenience

The innovation that Elliott highlights has led Gallagher to develop one of the leading cloud-based solutions in the market today, Gallagher security for SMB, which was recently made available to US businesses.

Designed to simplify security operations, Gallagher security for SMB provides small and medium business owners with the freedom to manage their security from anywhere, with an easy-to-use mobile app. Its intelligent functionality enables users to arm and disarm their site, lock and unlock doors and manage incidents across multiple sites, all from their smartphone.

As a mobile-first solution, Gallagher security for SMB removes the complexity and expense of managing business keys or pin codes. Instead, access to a site can be granted by presenting the SMB app at a reader. The app makes it simple for business owners to add, edit and remove an unlimited number of users and manage exactly which parts of the building they can control. Businesses needing to satisfy varying access requirements also have the choice of using SMB Key Tags as an alternative physical access credential.

Gallagher’s Chief Technology Officer, Steve Bell described what makes the solution so suitable for SMBs: “Many businesses of this size are not necessarily going to have a dedicated security manager, they may pay a channel partner or installer to look after it and take care of the administration themselves. Therefore, we put extra focus on ensuring that Gallagher security for SMB can be fully operated by the business itself.

“We really focused on simplicity and giving full control to the system owner. For example, they have a choice of whether to manage site monitoring themselves via the SMB app or engage a traditional monitoring company to act on incident notifications generated by the system. In addition, the solution’s mobile-first technology gives the ability to arm and disarm their site through a user’s phone from anywhere. So in theory, if users choose to do so, they can remove the keypad option altogether. We are taking the technology from our existing mobile credentials for enterprises and making it available for the SMB market.”

The simplicity of the product has also made life much easier for installers and integrators. Bell continued: “Our SMB solution was designed from the ground up to make life easier for the installer. It’s cloud-based so obviously there is no server on site, once the hardware is installed and screwed to the wall, the battery is put in and then it can be connected to the network through the integrator web app and the controller is brought online by scanning a QR code. The whole process is really straightforward and simple.

“Once the solution is installed and operational, if there are ever any issues, the business owner can call up the installer and because it is cloud-based, the installer can just connect via their phone or laptop and check out the system remotely. The remote support capability is invaluable because it saves both the customer and the installer a huge amount of time.”

For more information, visit: security.gallagher.com

This article was originally published in the March 2022 edition of International Security Journal. Pick up your FREE digital edition here.