Securas Fords Rapid Growth With New HQ

By Eric Smith
– The Daily News –

Some boxes need to be unpacked, some furniture needs to be rearranged and some décor needs to be hung on the walls, but Securas Consulting Group LLC’s new Collierville headquarters soon will feel like home.

Employees have spent the past few weeks transitioning from their old office at White Station Tower to their sparkling 12,000-square-foot space at Schilling Farms, where the company officially opened its doors Tuesday morning.

The move comes on the heels of explosive growth since Ira Morris formed Securas in May 2006 with Dennis Jones, former chief information officer at FedEx. The company has surged from four employees to 40 in the past 16 months thanks to an expanding list of clients in need of Securas’ broad offering of information technology (IT) services.

"We provide small- and medium-sized business the level of service and protection that a Fortune 500 company receives, but at a small- and medium-sized business price," said Ryan Watt, the company’s director of marketing.

Securas has spent the better part of 2007 trying to find the right locale. The company moved within its previous home at White Station Tower four times, outgrowing the new space each time.

"We thought that some options on bordering space would be enough for us for a while, but we quickly learned that it wasn’t," Watt said. "We had so many people crammed into offices as we increased our staff to handle our growth."

Plus, because of the company’s extensive data systems and servers – and its need for multiple, daily shipment pickups and deliveries – life in a cramped high-rise office didn’t make sense.

"Being on the 16th floor of a building became difficult for deliveries," Watt said.

Fortunately, the company discovered Schilling Farms, a sprawling mixed-use development near Byhalia and Winchester roads, not far from Tenn. 385. It offered the perfect combination of space, location and amenities.

Company executives sought "safety and security for employees, a productive and cost-effective environment, potential for expansion and a high quality of life," said Jones, Securas’ CEO. "Collierville satisfies all our needs."

Also, the site will be convenient for Securas’ many employees who live in the area because the company operates a 24/7 operations center, added chief technology officer Craig Pfeifer.

Securas provides a wide array of IT services, from e-mail hosting to Web design and maintenance, from telecommunication consulting to audio-visual installation.

Watt said the company emphasizes the need to address technology issues long before they swell into big problems.

"We proactively monitor our clients’ IT networks," Watt said. "As opposed to only fixing it when it’s broken, we put in a maintenance plan to diagnose problems before they cause downtime."

That means peering into the future of a business’ operation instead of concentrating on its present operating structure.

"We don’t just fix their computer issues – we consult for today, the next six months, the next year, the next five years," Watt said. "We’re looking at their business needs, not just how their server is going to work. Everything we do relates back to the business needs for technology on the horizon."

Securas has built a healthy client list in the area across the spectrum of industry, but its bread and butter includes health care companies, financial institutions, private schools, attorneys and retail shops.

Another strength is data backup for any type of business, something Securas enhanced when it acquired Metro Backup Systems LLC last summer. Watt had started Metro Backup with Alan Pennington in 2002 to provide data backup solutions for small businesses.

More than that, Securas also focuses on security, one of the hottest topics today in technology. Points of emphasis include intrusion-prevention, anti-virus protection, firewall construction and spam filtering.

A new home isn’t the company’s only change. Securas formerly was known as Securitas Consulting Group, but executives wanted to rebrand the company to avoid confusion with other similarly named organizations.

The new name also meant an easier Web site, www.securas.com. Rebranding now fit perfectly with this month’s move to Collierville.

Moving forward, Securas is scaling up its operations center, allowing for even more remote capabilities 24 hours a day. That means a smaller number of employees – from anywhere – will be able to monitor a larger number of data systems.

"Technology is becoming less geographic-oriented," Watt said.

Securas has already proven that, garnering clients throughout the surrounding area, such as Little Rock, Jackson, Tenn., Nashville and North Mississippi.

The new office and new name will allow Securas to expand into farther-reaching markets.

"There are no defined, specific plans yet," Watt said, "but we’re certainly on the path to grow into other areas."