CALIDAD SERVICES

Remote Guarding Services

Background: Calidad Services was formed in 2018 by a father and son tandem, Dennis and Blake Smallie, as a security guard and executive protection company in Stockton, CA.  As the company grew its clientele and service portfolio, they began to realize that technology was going to have to play a major role in their success.  “We realized that it was paramount to the future of the company that we adapt and not get left behind,” said Calidad CEO Blake Smallie.

The Challenge: The question then became, “What sort of security technology service offerings were a fit for Calidad?”

Company leadership had worked with several clients where they utilized Calidad security officers to watch surveillance cameras and even implemented a small private security operations center (SOC) for one of their VIP clients with success.  This led them to the idea of standing up their own SOC so they could bring these remote guarding and SOC services in-house and allow customers to outsource those services.  This would be a new recurring monthly revenue (RMR) strategy for Calidad, which would allow for better margins, but would come with a learning curve.

Calidad approached an existing customer, a large automotive conglomerate, that had a large guard spend and proposed the idea of cutting their costs by 50% through a remote video monitoring solution.  The client accepted the proposal on a proof-of-concept (POC) basis.  They found immediate success with their initial POC client and had thus found a new business model.

Once operational, the biggest challenge the company faced was managing all the different video systems that their clients had in place.  At one point the company was monitoring six (6) different VMS across several customers via the native client interface of each individual product.  This quickly became an untenable solution to maintain; thus, they began the search for an automation software platform that could integrate the different VMS into a single pane of glass.

“Business was good, and we were growing but we knew that the way we were providing these services was not sustainable long term and that we needed to find a reliable and proven solution with an experienced partner,” stated Smallie.

The Solution: Enter Immix, the industry-leading provider of software automation for managed video and remote guarding/SOC services.

After a comprehensive search of various solutions, as the company continued to struggle with managing alarm traffic from disparate systems and adhering to customer SLAs, Calidad finally decided to engage with Immix on a POC.  Immix configured a test instance of the platform for Calidad and dedicated a team of resources to help train them on all facets of the system.  Calidad was extremely diligent throughout the POC process and was adamant about testing all the small concepts and details that they knew would make a big difference with the end result for customers.

“The Immix team was simply amazing to work with.  They gave us all the time and attention we needed to learn the system and build the confidence we needed to know that it was the right move for us.  We honestly found no other solution on the market that compared.  We spoke to other Immix users who were extremely happy with the company and the product, and we just knew we had to use it,” stated Smallie.

“The integration library covered all the systems we were currently monitoring and many more that we knew we wanted to eventually sell.  That, coupled with the AI Link technology embedded directly into the platform was an absolute game changer for us,” continued Smallie. “We still haven’t even scratched the surface in terms of using the platform to its fullest potential for our business, but we definitely plan to.”

Results: The most tangible result from Calidad’s partnership with Immix has been the enormous growth of the company’s business.  The company grew revenue by 100% in 2022 and has grown an additional 60% in 2023, and along the way has become one of the largest remote guarding service providers in Northern California.

“Implementing Immix has allowed Calidad to touch a much broader market.  The fact that we can now build more organized SOPs and response protocols has opened several new verticals for us, allowing us to protect more environments and stop crime,” said Smallie.

Immix was able to dramatically simplify things for Calidad.  In addition to realizing tremendous revenue growth, the partnership has also resulted in enhanced operational efficiency and job satisfaction for its employees.

“Immix has made their jobs 100% easier and more efficient,” said Smallie. “Before Immix we were receiving far too many false alarms on motion, there were too many cameras for too few operators to watch.  Since we started using the platform, we believe those employees have enjoyed far better job satisfaction and have been able to perform much better.  It certainly shows in the feedback we get from customers and the word of mouth that has helped our growth so much.”

As for Calidad’s future plans, the company plans continued expansion in their region as they continue to become quite well known and continue to embrace and adapt to new technologies and services that allow them to attack a more sophisticated client base.

Says Smallie in closing, “We enjoy Immix as a product and a company.  It is the lifeblood of our technology business at Calidad.  The people at Immix, from the CEO all the way down to the global support desk have been great to work with and truly epitomize the term ‘partner’.”

You can visit the Calidad Services website here.

“Implementing Immix has allowed Calidad to touch a much broader market.  The fact that we can now build more organized SOPs and response protocols has opened several new verticals for us, allowing us to protect more environments and stop crime.”  – Blake Smallie, CEO for Calidad Services