Anaheim, CA, September 22, 2009 – At ASIS International’s 55th Annual Seminar & Exhibits, Mason, Israel’s Dick Israel and Bill Mason visited with Tony Byerly, recently promoted to an expanded role as President – North America of Stanley Convergent Security Solutions, Inc. (CSS), the electronic security and security systems integration unit of Stanley Works. CSS’ unique sports-themed booth served as the focal point for the company’s introduction of several advancements in integrated electronic security including: Stanley’s “Commander” Integrated Solution, its Sonitrol-brand Advanced iBase Audio Verification Technology, and its eServices Reports On-Demand and other enhancements to eServices.
With “convergence” figuring prominently in his company’s name, it was natural to ask Tony his opinion of where he felt the industry had come, and was going, in defining just what the term implies. “I’ve observed various end users (IT, HR, Security, Facilities) all have different ideas of what convergence means” notes Tony. “You can overcomplicate or oversimplify this thing…the key to convergence is the ease of use of data and that’s being driven by the modeling between IT and the actual physical devices in the field. For example, our ‘Stanley Commander’ product provides a graphical overlay of all your various security systems…we don’t just combine various hardware brands but provide the software under one unified graphical interface.” Tony further stated: “Another key deliverable going forward is to educate the end user in what these combined capabilities can do for them. We’re putting together a ‘Convergence Center of Excellence’ in Indianapolis that will write the code to tie in all the manufacturers’ products so that we get all that data flowing through on the security side.”
We asked Tony how he viewed his expanded leadership role driving CSS forward: “My issues evolve as my position changes…making sure I bring along my senior leadership team. I need to spend additional time looking for new opportunities across North America. For example, there are customers that are dying for a major player to come in with cost reducing models.” Tony indicated his wide travels have confirmed the significant opportunities for growth in the space, and the need for “visionary time” to develop appropriate strategies to go after such opportunities. But he also noted: “We believe, down through the organization, that we are ‘Doers’. We want to make technological change a reality for our customers and therefore we have to instill it in our own organization from the top down.” Further, Tony pointed out: “We sell technology products because we are a technology company. But, all the technology comes together through service! We have to make sure that when people think of our industry they think of us as ‘high performance’ and ‘high quality’. People create and are the real touch points with customers. Sometimes we move too far forward just presenting technology and don’t link it to the people part of our industry. When people talk about ‘convergence’ the huge people element can get lost in the shuffle.” Tony says his efforts to prevent potential disconnects include championing total transparency in dealings with global and national customers to show them exactly how CSS manages their account relationships.
Recognizing that talented people are an essential ingredient to the evolution of any industry, Tony observed “We have a lot of bright talent; we need to get our engineers out of Purdue or wherever, get them into our engineering and product groups so they learn from the ground up and can lead in transforming the industry from within.” And Tony observed that many factors have combined in recent years to make the security industry a more exciting space, thereby attracting significant external talent. “Security, safety and loss prevention have definitely come together with IT, and we need people who have the ability to look at that combination differently than before. If we ignore that we will be the dinosaurs.”
In concluding our discussion, Tony pointed out: “When I graduated I never intended to be in security, might have pursued a career in insurance…but now at the end of the day what I like most is the opportunity to talk with so many leaders in so many spaces…we touch all industries…we can be specialists in some and generalists in others. This is not true for any other industry.”