In a new series of member interviews, the British Security Industry Association’s (BSIA) Membership Development Director, Tom Ford, catches up with Carl Meason from Fenix Monitoring. Opportunities for ARCs, benefits of BSIA membership and engagement opportunities were all on the agenda.
Tom Ford and Carl Meason
BSIA: What recent success have you had and could you tell us a little more about it?
Fenix Monitoring has experienced significant growth in an organic way with multiple major wins throughout this year. Our development of new technologies and attitude towards emerging business has helped unlock numerous opportunities. We believe this is where true success has happened recently.
Fenix has bought 131 new businesses that have never used monitoring services before into the ARC sector pool in the past 12 months. This has been achieved by removing barriers and positively developing the customer’s experience. Everything Fenix does is done with a view to the long term. This includes the development of our senior management with a new Customer Experience lead, Head of Monitoring and Monitoring Consultant.
BSIA: Over the past 12 months with lockdowns and the pandemic, have you seen any significant changes in this time?
Yes. We believe the potential of the ARC industry has been recognised. The value of remote services has reached many more, and in this reach new ideas and innovative remote services have been created. The security industry was already combining physical and electronic security and we feel that in the last 12 months this has only accelerated. We have been working with these providers, not to replace, but to offer additional options. We have also seen a large growth in Lone Worker monitoring with many employees remote working, this we believe will continue and accelerate.
BSIA: What made you want to join the BSIA, and how has membership helped you?
When we initially developed Fenix Monitoring we wanted to find ways to engage with the industry, be part of leading the conversation and strive for some influence in our sector. As a new and emerging business, we needed to carefully consider how we could do this in the most direct and effective way. The BSIA helped us in our initial stages to have this voice and be a key stakeholder. As Fenix has developed and we have engaged further, this voice, and our relationship with the BSIA has positively evolved.
BSIA: Were there any challenges that led to you joining the BSIA in terms of gaining contracts?
We would like to answer this in a slightly different way, it was not challenges that led us to the BSIA, we were looking for opportunities. We are primarily B2B, our customer base is also part of the BSIA and its target demographic. This network was seen as an immediate benefit. Our management team discussed these opportunities when joining the BSIA.
We have certainly used our membership in every conversation about new business. The BSIA is now part of our history and will be as we continue to make our mark and speak to new friends. The Fenix Monitoring SME of the year award is proudly presented in our offices and is always a talking point.
BSIA: Was there anything else on your mind regarding perceptions that you wanted to shift or change when you joined the BSIA?
Absolutely. The ARC industry works in the background and we want to bring it to the attention of the masses. Fenix wanted to simplify electronic monitoring and make it accessible and easy to engage with. Many of our competitors have similar issues to us but we have seen an historic and ingrained ‘us and them’ attitude. This is certainly understood when competing for the same business, but our problems are all the same, we wanted the BSIA to help us facilitate safe ground to discuss problems that affect us all. We are looking forward in the near future to have an ARC working group which will help achieve this step forward.
BSIA: If I said to you that that value is directly proportional to engagement you’d probably agree with that statement?
100%. If you work with the BSIA for the status and legitimacy it brings that is great, it will certainly help you win business. The real value comes when you engage though. We have lost count of the new connections, relationships and ideas that have been ‘sparked’ from being involved.
BSIA: Is there anything this year that stood out for you where the BSIA has supported on?
We’ve been really impressed with BSIA’s agility to react to the challenges of the past two years. It has been a solid institution that many of its members have relied upon for guidance and support. In particular, with lobbying government alongside others to achieve key worker status for our industry. We also think particular praise is needed for the great work undertaken to move the British Security Awards online in the midst of the pandemic – it was a huge effort and a real boost for us and the industry at that time.
BSIA: Do you use any of the other member benefits and are there certain events you are looking forward to in the calendar?
Fenix has recently taken advantage of several member benefits. From a personal perspective the BSIA have connected me with a personal financial planner and membership lets me have preferential rates and access to this has been very rewarding. We’ve also booked to attend a seminar which will help us understand and claim government research and development grants.
Download this report, produced in conjunction with Texecom, to discover how increasing processing power, accelerating broadband speeds, cloud-managed solutions and the internet of things and transforming the intruder alarm market, and whether firms are adopting these innovative new technologies.
